Original Album Series

This is really hard to give 3 stars to. These are the five albums that I cut my electric guitar teeth on back in high school. I've been a fan of Schenker ever since. And, had this been the original album series that I heard way back in the 80s, this would have been 5 stars all the way. Instead, I have these oddly remixed versions of my favorite guitar albums.The Good:The remix is very welcome on One Night in Bodakan. Everything about this live performance is better on this version of the CD. I have not checked the time on certain songs, but everything feels longer. I'd love to think that some extra material made into final cut.The Michael Schenker Group (1st album) is probably the closest to the version that I remember from my youth. Nothing is particularly better or worse to my ears. Just the CD that I wanted. Nothing more.The Bad:MSG (2nd album), Built to Destroy (5th album) are painful. The guitar solos are reduced to anemic levels, and some of the best bits are faded out entirely. I also noticed that every reverb started sounding the same on these discs too. Same reverb tank, same setting, same level, multiple CDs. There's no way these recordings were that consistent originally. There's other vanilla flavored effects that never change too, echo, chorus. It shouldn't be there as it only serves to hide Schenkers playing way back in the mix.The Ugly:Assault Attack. Why would anyone remix or remaster the work by Martin Birch. Birch is "the sound of evil" for his notable work with Iron Maiden and BOC. This and other Martin Birch productions are my absolute favorites. Remixed as is makes this an assault attack on my ears and my memories of what was the best sounding MSG album ever.

I never owned any Schenker discs until now, so I can't really comment on these...if they are remastered or remixed, I don't know and couldn't tell you. I do know that in my stereo system, they sound fantastic. The biggest surprise for me was the Live at Budakon disc. I'm usually not a fan of live albums because they either don't sound great or the artists butcher the songs by dragging them out forever, or have the audience sing half the songs. I couldn't skip on track on this one. The only disappointment for me was the Built to Destroy album...a bit too much keyboard and pop fluff for me (Captain Nemo is quite brilliant though). That's just my personal preference; you may enjoy that album.

The first four albums of the german guitar god Michael Schenker. Brilliant guitar work on every album, and really good musicians on each one. If only Michael could have settled on a line up and stuck with it for a while, he could have been as well known as Page, Clapton or Blackmore, he certainly influenced a whole generation of guitarist including Slash, Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield and Eddie Van Halen. All good albums, with the live One Night At Budokan thrown in as a record of their live excellence.

Been trying to update back catalogues of bands/artists I enjoy. This was the perfect collection for the intro to Schenker's solo career. Great albums in a well placed package.

Great albums..

Nice way to get all 5 albums at once

Happy

Great!

MSG is a solid outfit with great songs. Haven't been able to take it off the stereo.Awesome product with speedy delivery.

Great stuff. Had the privilege of rehearsing in Nomis rehearsal studios next door to MSG after release of first album. Met the man and more importantly met the god who was Cozy Powell. As a drummer I always thought of Cozy as a bit of a thumper and never really rated him much until I met him and heard him in rehearsal. Wow! Blew my socks off. Drumming later by the original Alex Harvey band and session guy whoe name I temporarily forget is really great. Album three being my favourite although album one with Simon Phillips is the one that everyone remembers. Great buy.

This is great value and a terrific way to obtain the albums that you wouldn't have bought in their own right. I never liked "Assault Attack" enough to pay full price for it but I do like some of it, so getting it as part of this package whilst also getting the excellent "MSG" album and the live album is a good result. It's nice to see that the running order of the tracks is the same as it was on the original vinyl releases as these albums are from the time when an album was released as a coherent body of work as a whole and not just a collection of songs to pick your favourites from.I remember back in the day, the British music press used to have a field day slagging off Gary Barden's vocals - which I always thought was unfair. Listening to this confirms my original opinion that he's actually quite good. Back then (before the internet and digital radio) the press in the UK had a false position of undeserved influence and I can't help wondering how many more people would have bought these albums if they had had more chance to hear them and judge for themselves rather than taking the word of a journalist.Of the 5 albums here, the first two studio albums and the live album are the ones which will impress most people (Michael's guitar playing was at one of its peaks in this era) with songs like "Lost Horizons" and "Attack of the Mad Axeman" showcasing both the songwriting and the playing to great effect. "Assault Attack" is a bit more patchy but when it's good it's good. "Built to Destroy" sounds like an album where the record company exerted pressure to try for a more "commercial" sound and it really doesn't suit this band - it just doesn't sound like a real Michael Schenker album and is possibly the worst album he's ever recorded but it still is not enough to detract from the value of this excellent collection.

I was a MSG fan in my younger days after I recovered from the shock of Micheal leaving the Scorpions and then UFO - it took several years! For some reason I had only ever had a few vinyl singles,no albums so this was a very cost effective way of starting off a collection. The albums are good range of their music with most of their more popular tracks included. Some of the sound quality is not the best by today's standards and the packaging is basic but overall happy with my purchase

This box set brings back memories of being a teenage rocker...loved Schenker in UFO and still think he was oe of the best guitar player of that era. First 3 albums are excellent..especially One Night at Budokan..one of the best live albums ever in my opinion..up there with Strangers in the Night, Tokyo Tapes and Live and Dangerous...Assault Attack is a decent album....but nothing like the previous 2 studio albums...Built to Destroy has to be the worst of the set..still..good value for money..consedring the quality of the first 3 cds