Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Cannon - The History - 2004 - Point Music

Track Listing1. Let's Start The Party 2. Heat of the Night 3. Welcome Back Home 4. Light In The Night Back: 5. White Heat 6. We Rock The City 7. Wasted Love 8. Cannonfire 9. Love And Pain 10. Metal Wars 11. Runnin' 12. Heat Of Emotions 13. Lies 14. Stand The Fight 15. Fireblade 16. Rockamania 17. Nuclear Light 18. Evil Shadow 19. Thunder & Lightning 20. Heaven's On Fools Side 21. Metal Forever 22. In Your Arms 23. Cat On The Hunt 24. Strangers In The Night 25. Racer 26. Sky Of Rock 27. Thunder & Lightning (Extended)

"Rockamania, does it never ever stop!"

Germany's Cannon laced up their high tops in '86, releasing their debut album in 1988 under the title of "Thunder & Lightning". It was an interesting choice of title as Cannon's material featured hard, thunderous chomps as well as the German speedy, lightning fast anthems made famous by restless and wild groups like Accept and Scorpions. The debut showed a great deal of promise and potential, and after releasing one mammoth of a good time they simply went away for a while. "Thunder & Lightning" is a fantastic release and a collector's vinyl that is sought after by many fine metal collectors. Still to this day I see bootleg versions of the vinyl transferred to disc and up until last year many folks were demanding the record to be reissued. Last year it was! Cannon's "The History" made its way to a two disc release chronicling the entire band's catalogue, even going as far as including unreleased tracks and an entire second record that never saw the light of day. Pops to Point Music for finally unleashing this awesome hard rock ride for the buying public.

Those of you who have read my reissue reviews before will understand that I won't talk much about the band's actual material. That can be found on our site under my Rusted Metal column for "Thunder & Lightning. Instead what I like to do is talk about the reissue package itself, explaining to many fans why the reissue is necessary. In this case this is absolutely mandatory for any fan's collection. For starters this material has never been available before on CD. "Thunder & Lightning" has been on vinyl for almost twenty years and now longtime fans can finally get a restored version on disc. The sound on this reissue is just extraordinary, crystal clear and cranked even louder for this special release. Along with the full "T&L" record comes six extra tracks that were recorded in or around the same time as the debut. Along with that we get an extended version of the title track.

Let's not forget that this is a 2CD set however. No, the goods don't stop with just that. Cannon and Point Music have teamed up to offer us an entire Cannon record never before released entitled "Timeriders". This album was supposed to be released after the "T&L" record but grunge pretty much killed those ambitions dead. That makes this compilation even more valuable with twelve more cuts added that we have yet to hear as fans. "Timeriders" is a worthy addition to the debut album and is jammed full of quality songs.

The whole packaging on this is just marvelous, with the album cover done to include the artwork for both releases. Along with that comes ten pages outlining the entire band's career including a brief bio, liner notes, and photos. From start to finish this is a collector's dream but beyond that this is the perfect way to pick up some quality hard rock music in a time when this type of music is no longer fashionable. It's a damn shame too!

--EC 09.01.05