Disco de Nazareth: “Razamanaz [Japanese Import]”

This is undoubtly the best album by Nazareth, and probably one of the greatest records ever produced ('though I liked the production of "Woke up this Morning" better on Excercises).

The songs, well, they are all great. The overall feeling of the record is very southern. If I didn't know these guys were from Scotland, I would have guessed Texas. "Vigilante Man" starts as an almost embarrassing-to-listen-to country-like song with lots of slide guitarr, but as the song moves along the sound gets rougher and rougher until it rocks really hard. The slide guitarr intro of "Woke up this Morning" is a logical progression to that.

Sold my soul is not only a great song, but also tells with much wit and humor exactly how it is to pray. "I prayed to God and Jesus, but I guess they didn't hear... I looked to the lord in heaven, but he must have went away." Take it for what it is, very intelligent humour, which most songs and records by this group is so full of. It may look like an ordinary "Wine women and Whiskey" attitude (like that of Guns'n'Roses), but it is done with a humour that I haven't seen with many other bands.

As some of the other reviewers have already pointed out, AC/DC and Guns'n'Roses got everything they know from these guys. Enough said!

This is how hard classic rock is done. My favorite Nazareth CD. Good from start to finish.

After two unsuccessful albums, Nazareth decided that hard, ferocious rock would be their calling card from then on. The result was the mighty "Razamanaz", one of the greatest hard rock albums ever, and one that makes anything by Sabbath sound lame in comparison.

Of course, the title track is a blistering display of guts and aggression, right up there with Purple's "Highway Star" and Sabbath's "Paranoid". Turn this bad boy up real loud and be prepared for an adrenaline rush like you've never experienced before! The riff is a slightly modified version of Deep Purple's "Speed King", but this does not detract from it's greatness, believe me. Other than the first part of the riff, it actually sounds nothing like "Speed King" at all. Anyway, great, vicious vocals from Dan, and Manny gets in his usual scorching guitar licks (if you think this is wild, it's nothing compared to the first live version on BACK TO THE TRENCHES, which makes this studio version sound almost boring!). The band's take on Leon Russell's "Alcatraz" is equally ferocious, with a pounding riff and that great, sinister beat. "Vigilante Man" is fantastic, mainly because of the way it goes from a slow, bluesy tune to an all-out furious rocker. Great, great stuff. The re-make of "Woke Up This Morning" from the EXERCISES album is great fun. A nice, bluesy tune. "Night Woman" has a drum beat that sounds a lot like Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love", but the tune is glorious. One of those great sing-along types. Very catchy. "Bad Bad Boy" is one of my personal favorite Naz tunes ever. KILLER song! Spectacular riff, and you just gotta love the way Dan wails out "I'M A BAD BAD BOY, AND I'M GONNA STEAL YOUR LOVE!". It just makes me lament the fact that these guys were so damn underrated. "Broken Down Angel" was of course the big hit on the album. But, as is usually the case with radio hits, it's nowhere near the best song on here. Great chorus, though. And "Sold My Soul" isn't anything special, just an evil-sounding, Black Sabbath type of song.

All in all, though, this is one of hard rock's many masterpieces. Such a shame that it's not available in America.

If you love 70's rock that has a bluesy Southern feel, you have to pick up this disk. "Razamanaz" is Nazareth's 3rd album, and released in 1973. This disk features just one great song after another. Dan McCafferty's smokey vocals were custom made for these hard driving songs. Deep Purple's Roger Glover not only produced the disk, but lends a hand occasionally on bass. The songs featured on this disk never get repetitive, and the bluesy flavorings on tunes like "Vigilante Man" and "Sold my Soul" sound so fresh and new in today's environment of over-produced and under-performed music. These guys really knew how to craft songs, and it's a shame that the band has become a footnote, forgotten by most classic rock fans. There was so much more to this band than "Hair of the Dog".

As stated in the previous review by J. Jagella this is not the original release of Razamanaz from 1973, nor is it the rerelease with 4 bonus tracks. This is an anthology where the powers that be could not come up with a new title to distinguish it from the classic album or maybe that was their plan. This disc does, however, have 16 good to great songs on it. If you will see the review mentioned above you can see the correct track listing. There are hits you will recognize like My White Bicycle, Expect No Mercy, Morning Dew, Love Leads to Madness, This Flight Tonight and Razamanaz the only song from the original release to make this disc. There is also a fantastic orchestrated version of Love Hurts here. Many of the remaining songs are obscure or at least not on any of my 5 CDs or 18 albums. After listening, though, some of these songs have merit like When the Lights Come Down, Kentucky Fried Blues [Expect No Mercy-1979], a cover of Ruby Tuesday and Dear John [Nazareth-1972]. Other tracks include Cat's Eye, Apple Pie [Excercises-1972], Freewheeler and the Ballad of Hollis Brown [both from Loud 'N' Proud-1973]. The majority of the songs I know are from 1972-1981, but there are only 4 I am unfamiliar with.

Be advised this is not Razamanaz, except in name. It is a decent anthology, though, spanning much of their first decade of music releases. If you can find this at a fair price [<$8], it is an excellent buy. If you are looking for greatest hits then try either Classics Volume 16-1987 or Greatest Hits-1996 [Backlot series]. Both have the same songs [17] in the same order, except greatest hits has 1 extra track, which is a live version of Cocaine. Classics can usually be found rather cheaply and was a part of A&M's 25th anniversary collection. The good thinng about this Razamanaz collection is that it contains tracks from the older warner Brothers releases. I gave this a 5 because it is a great affordable selection of songs not because of the false advertising. Extremely good listening!!!