SCORPIONS - In Trance

Artist:  Scorpions
Album:  In Trance
Year:  1975
Genre:  Heavy Rock

Growing up as a hard rock / heavy metal kid in the very early 80s, I couldn’t help but love Scorpions.  In the youthful days of MTV, I was introduced to them through their classic video “No One Like You.”  The song was loaded with stinging solos, bullying guitar riffs and a voice that was relatively unrivaled.  Plus, the video had a beautiful woman in leather, limos, sharks, Alcatraz, death row and some crazy guy who looked like the cloth-wrapped invisible man with forks over his eyes losing his shit and smashing a guitar.  Of course, the video made zero sense for the song, but that’s all it took for 11 year old me to get hooked.  I bought the phenomenal Blackout album and anything that was released previously that I could find.  I also purchased every album they put out after that release and did so through the Savage Amusement record.  By 1988, so much of my musical tastes had changed and Scorpions new material was no longer on my radar.  Yet, my adoration for what I owned never faded.  Compared to the other bands that were considered their peers, Scorpions always stood out due to style and presentation.  They were a formidable and physical live band giving off enough energy to light a city block.  Check out their Rockpop In Concert from 1983 or their Rock In Rio performance in 1985 and tell me what band could compete with them; there weren’t many.  More importantly, their songs were just different, separating them from the rest of the rock and metal bands of that era.  They are one of those bands you’ll recognize even before that iconic voice of Klaus Meine kicks in to high gear.

Preceding their worldwide fame, Scorpions started just like any other band of that era and gained popularity album by album, tour by tour, which was the standard for building and audience when record labels had patience and belief in an artist.  Anyone else miss that formula?  That’s a rant for another day.  Scorpions had a much smaller existence with their seven studio albums before 1982 but obtained superstardom and beyond starting with Blackout, rose even higher with Love At First Sting and remained a force in the 80s and early 90s.  Their origin dates all the way back to 1965 but they didn’t begin to release albums until 1972.  Originally, the music was rock, but not necessarily hard.  Their first two albums displayed faint hints of what was to become their signature sound, but they were buried in a sea of progressive rock with psychedelic tendencies and extremely tame songwriting.  In 1975 the band shed the prog ways of their first two lumbering releases and became a fire-breathing, heavy rock monster.

I am resolute in the belief that In Trance is where the version of Scorpions we all know and adore truly began.  The trademark sound that they would continue to develop are all over this album; the throbbing bass lines, the forceful riffs, the blisteringly infectious solos.  And then there’s the voice.  Klaus Meine is a phenom.  He has the range, the tone, the charisma and the melody.  I say “has” because he’s still blasting it out at 76 years old with the rest of the band.  I remember Lita Ford saying somewhere, “He could sing me the phonebook.”  I totally get what she’s getting at.  I’ve always felt his only true competition was the great Ronnie James Dio.  If I’m able to be honest and don’t get people looking to crucify me, Klaus was the better singer and showman.  From the very first note of this record you know the Scorps upped their game as “Dark Lady” burst from the speakers showcasing the more focused and aggressive persona of the band which then leads into the remarkable title track where there’s no avoiding the delicate verse leading into the crushing chorus riffs and beautiful harmonies of Rudolph Schenker.  In Trance ebbs and flows with peaks and valley of emotion and dynamics.  Scorpions are one of the few heavy bands I trusted with a ballad.  Yes, they knew how to bulldoze with the heavy sound, but they fully understood how to display their melancholy side without sounding cheesy or contrived.

 In Trance was the beginning of a stellar run of albums.  Anything they released from 1975 through 1984, which included 7 studio records and 2 live records, was not only great, but some bordered on bulletproof.  Others will tell you their releases from 1988 and 1990 should also be included in that list.  Looking back at everything, when Scorpions were at the top of their game, they were invincible, but in the history of rock, it feels like their accomplishments fall in the shadow of other large, successful bands.  They are even often left off  “top selling” lists.  I know the 110 million (Source: BMG) people that have bought their albums disagree.

Listen to "In Trance" here.