• AllMyVinyl #119
• Band: Krokus
• Album Title: The Blitz
• Release Date: ? Aug 1984
• Date purchased: Unknown
• Location purchased: Unknown
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

A bit of an admin note on this one because it’s the kind of pedantic bullshit I’m known for.  The album before this was the only other Krokus album I owned (Headhunter), and when I did that one I wondered why I hadn’t done this one (The Blitz) already as it would have fallen under “B” in my alphabetical list.  When I set this project up some weeks ago, I forgot to edit the names of some of the albums to confirm with proper alphabetical norms – this one was listed as “The Blitz”, and as such was sorted down by “T”.  There were about 6 total like that, so I renamed them all in the sheet to be what they should have been.  In this case it is now “Blitz, The”.  So that’s why I’m doing Krokus two days in a row.  With that out of the way…  :)

I of course bought this album because I bought the one before it – I was 21 when this came out, so I was in prime music purchasing time.  Given these are the only two Krokus albums I ever bought, they weren’t in “auto purchase” territory for me for sure, but I obviously liked this one enough to buy it.  The album itself had some behind the scenes upheaval.  On the prior album, there was one remaining founding member left (Chris Von Rohr).  He was ousted from what I can gather for the same reason Kevin DuBrow was fired from Quiet Riot in the 80’s – his mouth.   Storace, von Arb & Kohler from the prior album are still here, but Kohler switched to bass from rhythm guitar.  They hired a new guitarist, but he quit before they recorded, so they made the album as a four piece.  When they went out on tour, Kohler went back to guitar, and they hired a bassist for live shows.   That sounds like something out of Black Sabbath’s history of the Eternal Idol album.  :)

Anyway, this album didn’t have Allom back again, they had Bruce Fairburn producing the album (Bon Jovi’s Slippery When wet was his biggest deal), and good ol Bob Rock as one of two engineers on the album.  So this was a different style of album than Headhunter.  From what I can gather, hardcore Krokus fans tend to discount this one, but I always liked it – or at least that’s what my memory says anyway.  (Any hardcores reading this – if I’m wrong, let me know).  It’s a lighter tone overall as I recall.

My copy is one of my OG vinyl purchasers that is a survivor of my mom’s basement.  Another one I don’t have an actual memory of physically buying it, but I definitely did as it’s here. ha.

Midnite Maniac – This one starts the album with for me a statement song.  The opening riff is super catchy, and one I instantly loved right out of the gate.  Nearly 40 years later the riff still works for me as I put the needle down.  This might be my favorite overall individual Krokus track – it’s 4 mins long, nice guitar riff, vocals you want to sing along to when it plays.   Yeah, it’s a bit more commercial sounding than the stuff on the album before this, but is that a bad thing, though?  Four decades out and I’m still jamming out this song means it’s a success.  Great track.

Side note – In looking up the music video for Maniac, I discovered a band called Hatriot (US thrash/death metal band) did a cover of Midnite Maniac, you can hear that here.

Out of Control – Starts off with a nice bluesy riff, and carries into a faster riff than usual for Krokus.  Have to say I quite liked this song, although I felt the chorus was a bit weaker than the main part o the song.  Usually with songs it’s the other way around – people like the chorus and not the rest of it, but not here.  Nice guitar solo – I just wish the chorus was sung some other way, because it’s the weak point for me in what is an overall great song.  Apple Music says this about Out of Control – “a high-speed assault that echoes both AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock” and Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills.” ” I’m not so sure I agree with THAT, but I did like the song.

Boys Nite Out – Simple riff, typical mid 80’s metal lyrics (It’s a boys night out, I’m gonna scream and shout), so nothing special here.  It’s the kind of song that I’ve written about in the past being something I wouldn’t like.  However, I got into this song right now.  It might have something with me doing this album review at 6AM on a Sunday and pre coffee.  haha.  Sometimes one’s mood will change appreciation (both ways) for a song, I think that’s why I liked this now – as I recognize stuff in this song I’ve disliked in other songs before.   It’s also one of the songs I think that helps drives this album’s stereotype of being over produced.

Fun Fact about Boys Nite Out..  If you look at the writing credits, it lists Bryan Adams & Jim Vallance.  That’s because this song was written and recorded by Bryan Adams for his 1984 album “Reckless”, but it wasn’t released then – it took until around 2015 or so for that version to get released.  If you want to hear the Adams version, you can hear it here.

Our Love – This came out in 1984, and when hard rock bands did a song with a title like “Our Love” you had to brace yourself for a shlock-y sounding power ballad.  When I put it on, I heard “Hey, 1984 era drum machine!”  Then the guitar riff starts, and I did remember the song.  This listen in 2025 brought up some long forgotten memories of liking the song in the past.  It is a ballad of sorts – not a true slow song, but,.. I’m finding it hard to quantify my thoughts on this.  More on the ledger for overproduced I think and definitely doesn’t sound like the band I listened to yesterday on the Headhunter album.

Out to Lunch – This kind of goes with Boys Nite Out – it has that overproduced not as good sound to it. Didn’t really care for this – doesn’t do anything for me.

Ballroom Blitz – Now in contrast, this song does a LOT for me.  As I wrote about “Stayed Awake All Night” yesterday, I didn’t know this was a cover song when I first heard it.  Thought it was a catchy af song by Krokus.  And if you take out the fact it’s a cover, it definitely is a catchy song.  Loved this back then, and I love it now.  It’s a cover of a band called “Sweet”.  After listening to both this morning, I have to say the Krokus version was a fairly faithful cover, they didn’t try to “re-invent” the song, but there’s a nice bass run in the OG that isn’t in the Krokus cover.  Here’s the original if you want to check it out.  Bottom line I like both versions, but prefer Krokus a little cuz of it having more “punch” than the OG.

Wanted to take a second and talk about the video for this.  Krokus produced a video for this song which partially takes place in well, a “ballroom”.  This is up there with some of the dumbest videos produced in the 80’s.  One thing that sticks out to me are the guys in the video not knowing how to act while miming their positions.  They prance around like doofuses with guitar poses that are unrealistic – nobody plays guitar like that.  There’s also two guitarists and a bassist – when the studio track had one guitarist, but never mind.  There’s a bunch of people in the bar that we see over and over, but there’s a girl in a dress that ends up having magical powers that can summon lightning and making people “go away”.  I’m guessing she’s there because of the lyrics of the song (“the girl in the corner who can kill you with a wink of an eye”).  It’s a silly as fuck video for sure, maybe I’m being too harsh on it, but yeah, it’s corny as hell for sure.   Towards the end a fight breaks out and things are being thrown everywhere, people flying through the air in front of the band, it’s just chaos in there while Krokus continues to play on stage.  Very silly visuals (the guy kissing a snake?), and the super closeups of Marc Storace and the unnamed woman.

One thing about the video that I really did like which I have to admit is a super minor silly thing.  There’s one bit where a bartender is shaking a drink and it visually matches with a cool guitar sound being made at the time.  I always loved that.  When I listen to the song on its own I still see the bartender in my mind when that part comes up.

Bottom line – I love the cover – always have.  The video is a couple of minutes of totally silly fluff to go along with it.  I suspect people probably saw this and checked out from Krokus as they couldn’t appreciate the silly of it, and blew ’em off as stupid.  That’s OK, I still love the combo, silly as the video is.  The video is embedded below if you’r reading this on my blog.  Go revel in the silliness.

Rock the Nation – In some ways this makes me think it’s a metal version of Foreigner’s “Juke Box Hero”.  These lyrics kind of make me think of that one. “Rock ‘n’ roll hanging on your bedroom wall/Turn the lights out, dream about the show/Rock the nation!”.  I used to have band posters on my bedroom wall and in an era when I didn’t go to concerts I used to think about seeing the bands live (Pink Floyd, AC/DC mostly) – so I get it with these lyrics.  Musically it’s got a touch of the overproduced I mentioned before.  But overall, this one isn’t too bad.  It’s a straightforward, simple rock song designed to get you to a chorus I could easily seeing an audience participation thing in concert (Never saw Krokus live, no idea if they really did that tho).  It does take a turn in the middle with a time change – a slow bridge that’s ALMOST (but not quite) just the bass guitar.  It was a nice flavor change in the middle of the song.  Overall I liked this, despite it probably not being one of their best tracks overall.

Hot Stuff – Slower paced song that I think was going for a specific mood, but it doesn’t work for me.  The repeating beat that runs through it is almost TOO simple.  Has some accents that honestly didn’t do anything for me – still the same riff more or less.  It’s also tied for second longest song on the album (at 4:32), so this went on a bit too long for me.

Ready to Rock – This song is more in line with a more traditional Krokus sound.   It has less of the overproduced sound and leans more towards their sound from the previous album.  Not to say it has no production – it has some of that, but not enough to be too noticeable.  I did enjoy the faster pace here.  The way they sing the chorus “Ready to Rock – “TO ROCK” I swear I’ve heard in some song by another band elsewhere, but I can’t place it right now.  It didn’t stop me from liking the song.  It was a good way to close out the album, I thought.   Not the most imaginative song musically, but it works for me just the same.

Overall, this album is a bit of a mixed bag.  There’s a few songs on here I really like, and a few that are kind of “meh”.  I definitely can see where people checked out here if they were Krokus fans.  They definitely went for a more produced/polished sound to try and expand their audience.   What I can’t remember sitting here in Feb 2025 is where they went after that.  Two years after this, they put out another album (“Change of Address”).  I did buy that one because I remember the cover art, but I no longer have it.  It was around that time I stopped listening to them myself, because I have no memory of their album two after The Blitz – either buying it or listening to it.  But As I said in the review for Headhunter, I know they’ve kept going – still together in 2025, and they have 18 albums total, I really need to look into some of the newer stuff and see what’s going on there.  There’s enough in the Krokus catalog I do know that I liked, so there’s gotta be more I’ve not heard yet.