Krokus - Screaming in the Night

I might age myself some here in the name of perception, but there’s something a bit odd about seeing a Compact Disc logo on the packaging for an album that came out in 1983. Given the format only launched the year prior (Billy Joel’s 52nd Street being the first commercially released CD, if you’ve got a pub quiz coming up), it’s not that odd to double take. But then again, it’s possibly a product of being young enough to consider vinyl records a parental generation thing before it inexplicably came back again to ruin everyone’s shelf organising methods. Furniture is more compact than ever!

Being an old young man aside, let’s talk about something timeless - Krokus are dyed in the wool hard rock heroes. The Swiss quintet-cum-sextet (steady!) have been taking names since the mid-70s, drifting away from the progressive fascination and burying deep roots into the 80s heavy metal mania that swept the United States and further afield. Those early 80s days were definitely the most successful, with three Gold and a Platinum selling album under their belts, cementing their place in the long-haired archives for as long as classic rock radio is still a thing for. 

Our Pick for this week is from that spotlight hey-day; Screaming in the Night might not sound like a sweet and easy piece of hard rock history from the title, but this is a true relic. In this case, the opposite of the usual adage is true – this is an antique there’s no need to go gentle with. Rock up, rock out, have a little rest and then rock out again. Those lower backs ain’t what they used to be, after all.