Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Radakka - Malice and Tranquility - Century Media 1995 Reviewed by: Nailer

Track Listing1. Masquerade 2. Thinking Of You 3. Sacrifice 4. I'll Watch You 5. Saint's Addiction 6. Solitude 7. Rainy Daze 8. End Of The Line 9. Out Of The Dark 10. Beautiful Thing 11. In These Chains

1995 wasn't exactly a big year in American metal with Grunge dying down and Nu metal still in its infancy. Anything remotely hair metal was still shunned by most of the buying public and it could be a good reason why Chicago-based Radakka's debut "Malice and Tranquility" was import-only or only availible through direct order with Century Media.

All in all its not a bad disc. Songs are slightly heavy and Jon Dobbs has a fantastic singing voice sounding like a cross between Don Dokken and Circle II Circle/Ex-Savatage lead Zak Stevens. The melodic music is fairly similar to Dokken or even the offshoot Lynch Mob, but it fails to keep a consistency throughout.

The first four songs have a great late-80's feel, but by the 5th song, the CD switches gears into a heavier mode and falls apart like a movie with too many writers, directors and producers putting their opinions into a script. So different are the middle batch of songs, that I wonder if outsiders had a hand in the choosing and arrangement of numbers. By the last couple songs, it's back to the style of the first which were my preference .

Bottom Line: Melodic hard rock that works with one style, but not both.

Score: 7 of 10.


--Nailer 07.19.04