Great Metal Albums of 1987: Black N Blue- Nasty Nasty

Another example of the reverse effect of being in Britain as opposed to the US. While officially, Black N Blue’s album, “Nasty Nasty,” came out in America in 1986, it didn’t come to my attention in the UK until May 1987. Unlike Helloween, however, Black N Blue were much easier to categorize if you were into things like that. They were total glam metal. Being under the wing of Gene Simmons had a lot to do with that.

Any album which starts with someone hocking a loogey is okay with me. Saying that, it’s not just a gimmick for the title track which opens the album, the song “Nasty Nasty” is good on its own. A real good sleaze rock song before the term was officially coined in the music world. The heavy KISS influence comes with the next track, “I Want It All, I Want It Now.” As the song begins, the beat has me expecting Gene Simmons to start bellowing “Oh Oh Oh Oh Yeah!” like he does on my all time favourite KISS song, “I Love It Loud.” However, the song stands on its own very well and KISS influence or not, it’s a good fist bumping anthem. Only the second song on the album but it gets my vote for hidden gem.

According to metal history, Black N Blue went back to a more harder sound with “Nasty Nasty” after “Without Love” failed to get the commercial success it was hoped for. The first two tracks bear testimony to the harder rock edge although the third track, “Does She or Doesn’t She,” resembles the more melodic metal of the previous album. Still, it’s an okay song. They do go back on heavy metal track on “Kiss of Death.” This is a real rocker and I love Tommy Thayer’s guitar solo on it, though I am not to sure about the bit at the end where the tempo changes and fades out that way.

“Twelve O’ Clock High” goes almost to speed metal sound with it’s fast and furious guitar riffs but the jury is still out on Jamie St James’s vocals on it. He’s a good singer but it sounds like his voice isn’t made for high falsetto parts. It’s much better on the next track, “Do What You Wanna Do” where he keeps his vocals to the normal level and the song is much better for it. It’s just as ferocious as the previous track but Tommy rips a blinder of a guitar solo on it, his best on the album. Repeating myself from when I posted about their last album, it is no wonder KISS eventually scooped him up.

Next we come to the power ballad “I’ll Be There For You,” which was originally intended to be called, “Promise the Moon.” The record company forced the title change as they needed a single from the album. Well, everything about “I’ll Be There For You” has all the components of a great radio-MTV song but it didn’t get anywhere. Damn shame as it’s not a bad song and I do like the keyboard intro. The album closes out with two more straight rockers. “Rules” is a cool song, it would have been the hidden gem if it hadn’t been for “I Want It All, I Want It Now.” “Best in the West” is recorded live, which seems to be the thing back then but it is a cool rocker to end things with.

Track Listing:

1. Nasty Nasty
2. I Want It All, I Want It Now
3. Does She or Doesn’t She
4. Kiss of Death
5. Twelve O’ Clock High
6. Do What You Wanna Do
7. I’ll Be There For You
8. Rules
9. Best in the West

Black’n Blue

Jamie St. James- lead and backing vocals

Tommy Thayer- lead guitar, backing vocals

Jeff Warner- rhythm guitar

Patrick Young- bass

Pete Holmes- drums

Additional Musicians

John Purdell- keyboards

Peter Criss and Ron Keel- backing vocals on “Best of the West”

Mark Ferrari- guitar on “Best of the West”

Black n Blue went harder for their album “Nasty Nasty” and they got a good hard rocking album. It’s still a shame that they didn’t go further.

Next post: Exodus- Pleasure of the Flesh

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