by Thom Jurek

On their studio first outing in three years, Germany's seemingly eternal Scorpions keep the sound a perfect balance between nu metal guitar crunch and '80s heavy metal melodies. Humanity Hour, Vol. 1 is a worthy if not utterly successful musical follow-up to 2004's Unbreakable -- a record that saw the band coming back to its strengths after a long bout of wandering about in the creative desert. Humanity Hour, Vol. 1 is a collaboration between the band and co-producers James Michael and Desmond Child. What's more, there are a number of special guest appearances, such as Eric Bazilian playing guitar on the track "Love Will Keep Us Alive," and Billy Corgan making a vocal appearance on "The Cross." Musically, while all the Scorpions' strong points are in evidence here, some of their conceits are as well -- they were absent on Unbreakable. Not recorded live in the studio, there are some orchestral spots on some of these cuts, but at least they don't result in the aimless and pretentious experimentation that marred many of the band's records in the late '90s and early 2000s. The title track opens the set with a bombast of drums and true Euro-metal guitars in full-on riff mode. Klaus Meine's vocals are still up to snuff so he has no trouble getting inside the big riffs. The sheer power of the guitars and thudding kick drums and tom-toms is a little offputting; it feels like an outtake from Unbreakable -- this is a good thing -- and gets things off to a roaring start. ... Read More...