Krokus: Adios Amigos Live @ Wacken (2021)

Some folks may have forgotten or may not know this but those fun loving Swiss dudes known as “Krokus” had a  decent run in the 80’s of scoring three consecutive Gold Albums in both Canada and the United States.

Those three albums “One Vice At A Time(82)”, “Headhunter(83)” and “The Blitz(84)” solidified some decent momentum for the band which unfortunately went sideways when “Change of Address(86)” came out and no one took notice as Krokus went wham bam shouldn’t have gone too glam and the end result was we all changed addresses on Krokus and moved on.

After giving them another shot with 88’s “Heart Attack” I was off the Krokus express. 

As the years passed into decades I have seen these guys putting out product and flying the Krokus Brand once again. 

Good on them I say..

So back in 2019 Krokus decided to call it a career and while there farewell tour is somewhat on hold like countless others they went ahead and released a final live album that they recorded in Germany at the Wacken Festival.

Since I make no bones about loving live albums I wanted to give this one a spin and I can tell you all that…

I’m surprised that these guys pulled off a pretty damn fine live album.

What! Really?

First of all Krokus is now a six piece with five of the guys being in the band at various times during the roaring 80s so for me there is lots of legitimacy in doing that.

Marc Storace of course is the vocalist but along for the ride are three guitarists that being Mark Kohler, Fernando Von Arb and Mandy Meyer. Slapping Da Bass is Chris Von Rohr and along on drums in what seems like the Spinal Tap scenario in Krokus is Flavio Mezzodi.

“Adios Amigos Live @ Wacken” track listing:

01. Headhunter
02. Long Stick Goes Boom
03. American Woman
04. Hellraiser

05. Winning Man
06. Hoodoo Woman
07. Fire
08. Bedside Radio
09. Rockin’ in The Free World (Neil Young cover)
10. Eat The Rich
11. Easy Rocker
12. Heatstrokes
13. Drumdog On The Loose
14. Quinn The Eskimo (Bob Dylan cover)

14 tracks and right out of the gate Krokus lift off with “Headhunter” and they are not fooling around as they get right down to business. Considering this is the final tour I’m surprised that more originals are not on here but instead covers and thats not a knock on the songwriting on these guys as they could have easily added a couple off” The Blitz” (which is completely ignored) but whatever the case hearing “American Woman” I’m sure makes Randy and Burton happy as they can cash their senior cheques on the royalties this song has made them over the years.

Even during “Long Stick Goes Boom” the tune veers off course for a few bars of The WHO’s “Pinball Wizard”. 

“Eat The Rich” on here is an absolute monster of a track..

Maybe the reason for the covers is these guys are just having fun. Who knows for sure but they really are heavy on this album which with three guitarists they should be plus that Flavio guy on the skins propels the Krokus Bus at full speed.

Nice to see the inclusion of “Heatstrokes” and “Bedside Radio” from the debut North American release 41 years ago (Metal Rendezvous) getting a workout. Seems like yesterday that my pal Muc picked this album up! Even “Winning Man” is played and that was from “Hardware” which is also going back. 

The performances here are solid and Storace’s vocals have held intact but of course they have aged which is expected but he nails it really and thats all you can ask for at the end of the day is that Krokus nailed it.

dEke’s Stream-A-Rater-Rating……8/10

 

                                                                                            

 

 

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