Wolfsbane - Tears From A Fool

ORIGINATION Live Fast, Die Fast LP
LAST LISTENED TO a few weeks back
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT confusing
RATING

After almost a week of almost nothing but funk, it came as quite a surprise this morning to wake with this in my head. Especially considering that it is the weakest of all the tunes from this, Wolfsbane's debut release. There are far better and more catchy tracks on it that i really like, why it wasn't one of those, i don't know.

Wolfsbane, for those who are unfamiliar with them, and that's much more likely to be more than less of you, where a small, hard rockin' heavy metalish crew who first hit in '89. They went on to produce three and a half albums. Their singer, Blaze Bailey, then became singer for no less than Iron Maiden during a number of years in the mid to late 90s, before Bruce Dickinson returned.

'Tears From A Fool' is the ballad from their fast, exciting and slightly scuzzy debut. As a ballad on a metal(ish) LP chances are that it'll be crap and it is, kind of. However, it has a strange appeal that is rather hard to discern. Lyrically there are more clichés than even slightly sensible writers would have considered and the old accoustic guitar strumming up to electric guitar solo is a tired formula. Tired and clichéd. Yet, and this is the puzzler, i actually quite like this song. Maybe it's just a soft spot i have for Wolfsbane. Maybe it's nostalgia, i can't tell.

What i can tell is that the song, like most of theirs, is played surprisingly well. For all that Wolfsbane played the part of a scuzzy, half-arsed, layabout metal band, they were actually really tight. Going back to their music after a number of years, i was surprised at how well played it was. There is also humour and humanity in it, traits that most metal sadly lacked. Maybe that's the appeal.

For all this track's clichés and predictability, it's pulled off convincingly and there is something quite appealing about that conviction.