SHOK PARIS – Steel and Starlight (The Auburn Sessions) [original mix +5 bonus unreleased], MP3+FLAC

Yesterday we featured in exclusive The Bad reputation remastered reissue on SHOK PARIS album ”Steel and Starlight”. The album was released in 1987 but.. not as the band’s whish.

”Steel And Starlight” was originally released by I.R.S. Records, a label was more suited to working with pop acts than heavy metal bands. Thus, they may have felt the urge to make changes to SHOK PARIS’ songs. Imagine working hard on your major label debut, only to find out after the album was released that numerous changes had been made to your songs; intros were removed, guitars pushed back, etc. As it turns out, in 1987, I.R.S. took creative control of the album after SHOK PARIS delivered it to them. Unfortunately, this happened to a lot of bands.
I can only imagine the disappointment SHOK PARIS felt when I.R.S. remixed the songs, rearranged the track order and even cut tracks altogether. Auburn Records were label partners with I.R.S. for Steel And Starlight’s original release, but I.R.S. had final say.

Finally, the world has been set right decades later by the band and Bill Peters of Auburn Records. ”Steel And Starlight – The Auburn Sessions” features the original Auburn mix of the album. In fact, there is nothing here that was on the original I.R.S. release.
The guitars are a more ‘in your face’, the songs have more punch. The originally intended track order is here as well. The piano intro to “Exhibit A” has been restored as well. The track “The Minutemen” has been properly returned to the track listing as well. The song recounts the Battle of Bunker Hill at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. In 1987, the song was cut because Miles Copeland (head of I.R.S. Records) found the lyrics objectionable to his British ears!
“Fallin’ For You” was written as a replacement for “The Minutemen” on the original release. Here, it is assigned a bonus track status at the end of the album, along with original CD-only bonus track “Streets Of Pleasure”. Also included are 4 unreleased, very good bonus tracks; it is surprising that these didn’t end up on the follow-up album Concrete Killers in 1989.

 

01 – Exhibit A
02 – Steel and Starlight
03 – Tokyo Rose
04 – Rocked Outta Love
05 – Castle Walls
06 – On Your Feet
07 – Lost Queen
08 – Hot On Your Heels
09 – The Minutemen (previously unreleased)
10 – Go Down Fighting
11 – Fallin’ for You
12 – Streets of Pleasure
13 – The Best [Demo] (previously unreleased)
14 – Storm Warning (previously unreleased)
15 – Napoleon’s War (previously unreleased)
16 – Midnight Oil (previously unreleased)

Vocals – Vic Hix
Guitar, Backing Vocals – Eric Marderwald
Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals – Ken Erb
Bass, Backing Vocals – Kel Berkshire
Drums, Backing Vocals – Jan Roll

MP3 FLAC