Maybe Spear of Destiny had already said everything they needed to. Or maybe they'd simply lost sight of their dreams. But more than their record label was changed (from Epic to Ten) in the run up to their fourth album. The wholesale departure of the original band, to be replaced by a new, Marco Pirroni-led combo, also took its toll. And a lot of Kirk Brandon's old mad perfection went for a burton as well. It did not have to be like this. The demos for Outland, released a decade later as the Psalm 2 archive collection, capture the best of the album firing on all cylinders: "Never Take Me Alive," "Strangers in Our Town," "Miami Vice." Somewhere between conception and delivery, however, the late-'80s disease of over-production slipped through the band's customary balance of bombast and beat to give Outland a sheen that may have sounded impressive in the studio but which only hastened to highlight the shortcomings of the songs. Time and again you sit through the record, awaiting that one brittle thrill that will render it a joy, and time and again you reach the end and wonder what all the fuss was about. Because, with that special brand of irony that fate reserves only for the greatest bands of all, Spear of Destiny's worst album yet was destined to become their biggest seller. How sad.
© Dave Thompson /TiVo