Whenever you go to another country, a great experience to have is to sample the local acts who haven’t quite made it to your own country. When I got to London in 1986, my new friends introduced me to this band called Waysted and their legendary bassist, Pete Way. Being eager to learn about and listen to new metal bands, I delved into them and I was very impressed with what I heard.
Needless to say, I could concur Pete Way lived up to the hype my new friends were giving about him and I can add that I was also blown away by the guitar work of one Paul Chapman. What I am kicking myself over was not knowing at the time that the vocals came from the most under appreciated singer ever, Danny Vaughn. I wouldn’t really get familiar with his vocals until I listened to Tyketto some six years later. Knowing this now, I love their album, “Save Your Prayers,” that much more!
Applying what I know now to what I didn’t know then, I can hear some of the magic Danny would take to Tyketto on this album. A great example is the track, “Singing to the Night.” This could have easily been a Tyketto song but Chapman rips a killer solo on it. It’s a great melodic hard rock tune. However, Waysted show they still have the heavy metal chops. The first two tracks are total indication of this fact and “Hell Comes Home” is a total rock out. My vote for the best song on the album.
Midway through the album, Waysted take things down a notch with a couple of ballads, “Heroes Die Young” and “Heaven Tonight.” Actually, “Heroes Die Young” starts out as if it’s going to be a ballad with the somber piano intro but then increases its speed by several hundred mph and just kicks ass. The fastest song on the album. “Heaven Tonight,” on the other hand, is a total power ballad and Vaughn’s vocals have always been well suited for ballads and are so suited here. The guitar solo is well suited to the song too.
An interesting track is “How The West Was Won.” Originally, I thought it might have been about the mal-treatment of Native Americans, especially when ‘torn up treaties’ is mentioned in the lyrics, but alas, it is more of an innuendo to a love song. It’s still a cool jam. Then speed increases once again on “Wild Night” and power on through with “Out of Control” and another ripping guitar solo from Chapman. Unless you have the album on CD, the album closes with the ballad, “So Long” and it’s a great way to close this dynamite album.
Track Listing:
- Walls Fall Down
- Black and Blue
- Singing in the Night
- Hell Comes Home
- Heroes Die Young
- Heaven Tonight
- How the West Was Won
- Wild Night
- Out of Control
- So Long
- Fire Under the Wheel (Bonus Track)
Danny Vaughn- vocals
Pete Way- bass
Paul Chapman- guitar
John Diteodoro- drums
I never knew if or how well Waysted were received outside the UK. I fear that if I hadn’t come to England, they might have passed me by and with this album, it would have been a damn shame.
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