ALL THOSE STRANGERS RECKLESS “Heart Of Steel” - Unidisc M.Inc. - 1984 Mentre gli ICON lasciano la loro impronta sulla rock scene dell’epoca, dal Canada arrivano i quattro Reckless, i quali proponevano il loro class/hard sullo stile di quello realizzato dalla band di Dan Wexler. Senza raggiungere la qualità dei primi, i canadesi offrono dieci pezzi senza infamia, per trenta minuti da passare senza troppo impegno. I primi tre pezzi sono gli highlights del Cd: “Hot And Ready”, classico arena anthem, la title track e “Drivi’ You Mad”. Il resro si muove nella sufficienza un pò risicata. Se vi capita di trovarlo ad un prezzo non troppo eccessivo potete anche farci un pensierino.

Pierluigi Rossetti

Now this is the kind of review I can appreciate! Concise, and to the point. Take my word for it. You can clearly see that most of the article focusses on my immense drumming capabilities, and who can blame them? It's my favorite topic, too!
Yessir, I always liked that Italy. "Classico arena anthem" indeed!

RECKLESS - RECKLESS (1981, EMI) Jan Melanson - Vocals; Steve Madden - Guitars; Gene Stout - Bass (Lee Aaron, Michael White); Gil Roberts - Drums
Why this band didn't do better at the time still remains a mystery to me. There are some absolute pearlers on this their first album, produced by the very talented Paul Gross. I remember the buzz Reckless got in the UK media during the summer of 1981. 'The next big thing', according to the AOR scribes of the time, namely Paul Suter and Geoff 'Def' Barton. Unfortunately Reckless had to compete with some very good albums at the time, ie: REO Speedwagon's 'High Infidelity', Foreigner 4, Y&T's 'Earthshaker' and a certain unknown group called Journey and a certain unknown No 1 best seller called 'Escape' (ha ha).
However, the strength of this album lies in the solid melodic overtones permeating right throughout. 'Victims Of Time', 'Ready For Action', 'Reckless', and 'Searching For A Dream' are near classics. 12 tracks all up makes for some fairly spectacular listening, considering this dates back to 1981.
The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock And Heavy Metal described Reckless as a Poor Mans' Van Halen'. I think when those guys wrote that they were probably on something. They sound nothing of the sort! Again, if you see it in the bins, grab it. Word of warning. If you see their other album 'Heart Of Steel' ignore it altogether. It's rubbish, and doesn't feature Jan Melanson. Unfortunately it's only this latter one which has just been released on CD. Why bother with this one and not the debut??

(Reviewed by George Thatcher)

The reason why I appreciate George "Margaret" Thatchedroof's two cents worth is because he offers what's known in the industry as "constructive criticism". He makes a couple of good points about our release. "It's rubbish" can be interpreted in so many ways, all of which will help to guide us musically, should we ever decide to embark on a reunion tour. Where was he when we needed him back in the '80s? He could've produced our LP for us and offered us similar musically-relevant advice. "It's rubbish". That really sums it all up for me (as I'm wont to read between the lines I can decipher the hidden meanings) and it's a credo I'm going to start to live my life by. Thanks, George!