SCORPIONS — Rock Believer (review)

Album · 2022 · Hard Rock

4/5 · 2023-02-21
voila_la_scorie

This album was a pleasant surprise. Ever since my disappointment with Savage Amusement (which was also partly due to my changing musical preferences in the late eighties), I never bought a new Scorpions album. It was only after listening to a review of Rock Believer and a review of the Scorpions post eighties output on YouTube that I thought I should just get this one and hear if it's as good as the reviewer said it was.

And it is!

For this album, I think the Scorpions did what a lot of the old bands have been doing recently, and that is go back to their classic period and try to recreate what the were doing back then. Rock Believer is like listening to Love Drive, Animal Magnetism, and Blackout recorded in 2022. The album is exactly as though the band never missed a beat after Love at First Sting. I haven't heard anything after Crazy World, which my friend had, but reviews online of the nineties albums especially have not been particularly favourable. But here is an album worthy of the Scorpions name!

In fact, whether it's meant to be a deliberate nod to the old albums or simply a wink, there are lyrical references to the classic years. The album title and title track harken back to 1977's Taken by Force album and the song Steamrock Fever. The chorus of that old song goes, "Steamrock fever / Screaming rock believer", while Rock Believer's chorus goes, "Scream for me screamer / I'm a rock believer / Just like you". You'll also notice in the opening track, "Gas in the Tank" the line, "Black me in and black me out," which seems to direct our attention quite intentionally to 1982's Blackout album.

While there are surely more Easter eggs in the lyrics, at least two of the songs also derive from those older albums. Shining of Your Soul has a reggae-like riff that sounds like Is There Anybody There? from Lovedrive. And the slow, ominous bass and drum pounding of Seventh Sun sound like China White.

Thankfully, the entire album isn't totally a walk down memory lane. Some of these new songs have a driving energy and heaviness that wouldn't have been found back in the 1979-1984 period. There are also a couple of tracks that remind me of Van Halen, at least for the guitar sound and riffs.

Basically, fans of the classic, Matthias Jabs era Scorpions should really dig this album. This is also a great album for anyone who likes energetic hard rock. Are there are ballads? Actually, not really. When You Know (Where You Come From) is the closest, but it's no Still Loving You or Holiday. If you get the acoustic version as a bonus track, it's a little closer. However, I think the Scorpions were just really ready to rock it out for this album.

My version includes six bonus tracks, so the album does feel rather long. Had this been released in the early eighties, we'd likely have gotten the best eight or nine tracks. It could be fun to make a playlist trimming the running time down to 38 minutes or so for that album feel.

Highly recommended if you enjoy that classic Scorpions sound!