Michael Schenker has found his niche. He’s spent many years chasing down collaborations with numerous players, hedging germs of ideas but rarely pushing it to their potential. His most recent project functioning under the auspices of Temple of Rock is different because it has a solid foundation and a pronounced purpose of providing an elevated level of musicianship and heaviness to bring out the best in Schenker’s guitar and singer Doogie White’s vocals. For Spirit On A Mission, the third Temple of Rock album and second with the same lineup of Schenker, White, guitarist and keyboardist Wayne Findlay, and the legendary Scorpions rhythm section of bassist Francis Buchholz and drummer Herman Rarebell. It would seem as if everything Schenker has worked toward has come to fruition on this album.
Spirit On A Mission blasts off with a defining opener in “Live And Let Live,” which more or less sets the pace for the rest of the record. Findlay’s seven-string guitar adds extra muscle to an already rigid set of tunes – nothing you can exactly pin down, almost like explaining how an amp can go to 11, but more of a feeling it brings to the music. Doogie White weaves in a sharp, in-the-pocket vocals that propels the jagged riff and Rarebell’s double-bass drum attack, only to be twisted around by Schenker’s whimsical solo. This song would have been huge in 1985. As it is, it’s the album’s second single, following the first single “Vigilante Man,” another meaty, somewhat shadier rocker with deadly hooks. The occasional Ronnie James Dio-like nuances are pleasantly palpable on White’s part because he sang with Rainbow in the 90s.
He certainly comes more into his own on songs like “Rock City,” “Bulletproof” and “Good Times.” On the epic “Savior Machine,” White’s dramatic read falls in line with the intricate and chunky riff before the song slips into a lengthy interlude that pushes Schenker to the brink. It gets even crazier on “All Our Yesterdays,” as a dizzying array of chords cascade over Rarebell and Buchholz’s locomotive rhythm – blossoming into a sort of a UFO / Scorpions hybrid if you need a compass for reference. If all the razzle dazzle makes your heads spin, “Let The Devil Scream” and “Wicked” amply whet the metal appetites in every Schenker fan. Stand back and you’ll see that Spirit On A Mission is a wide, effervescent canvas that gives Temple of Rock space and time to tap into infectious melodies and incalculable riffery. At the heart of it all is Michael Schenker, on a roll and in his prime with more to come. Prepare for liftoff.
~ Shawn Perry
