Search - Wild Horses :: Stand Your Ground

'Stand Your Ground' stands the test of time well!

TheManWhoKnewTooMuch | Rockville, USA | 03/28/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"WILD HORSES - 'Stand Your Ground' is one of the unsung gems from the NWOBHM era. Always really loved this disc for some reason. The problem for Wild Horses was that they didn't sound like your prototpyical, leather clad, balls-to-the-wall NWOBHM band which were all the rage in the early 80's (Maiden, Saxon, Angel Witch, etc.) but operated on an altogether more sophisticated and refined level.



'Stand Your Ground' is a big step up from the Horses' solid but ultimately unspectacular Trevor Rabin (later of Yes fame) produced 'The First Album.' Gone are most of the Beatles connotations as well as keyboardist/guitarist Neil Carter (joined UFO and later Gary Moore) whose replacement John Lockton shines alongside fellow axeman Brian Robertson. There are still a few Lizzy-isms ("You can take the boy out of Thin Lizzy, but you can't take Lizzy out of the boy.....") to be found but overall the Horses have clearly found a style of their own on 'Stand Your Ground' and deliver 10 tracks of top shelf heavy rock.



Highlights include the seriously revved up opener 'I'll Give You Love', powered along by an infectious Jimmy Bain (also the lead vocalist and doing a very nice job!) bass motif (think Ted Nugent's 'Stranglehold' on speed!), the equally hard charging title cut, 'The Axe' (gotta love that great, funky opening riff!), the masterful, introspective 'In The City' (nice twin axe lead work by Sirs Lockton & Robertson), the anthemic, care-free 'Back in the U.S.A', and 'Miami Justice' (possibly inspired by Florida's then newly reinstated death penalty). The band even manage to venture into jazzy territory on 'Precious' without embarrassing themselves. The album closes out in rockin' fashion with 'Stake Out.'



It is rather a shame that WILD HORSES split up after this album just as seemed to have found their step but the lack of commercial success probably sealed the deal, with both Robertson (Motorhead) and Bain (Dio) moving on to higher profile gigs. But, 'Stand Your Ground' has aged really well and still sounds fresh which is definitely a testimony to just how cool of a band the Horses were. Thin Lizzy fans and connoisseurs of quality late 70's style hard rock in general should definitely pick this up if the CD pops up for a decent price (I own the 'Legendary Remasters' Japanese re-issue from 1995 which is probably impossible to get at this point, and even the recent Zoom Club version seems to be rare at this point. Here is hoping for another re-issue - albums like this should always be in print!)



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