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HERMAN RAREBELL & FRIENDS
What About Love
Metalville 2025

Just in case you've been wondering what's happened with former SCORPIONS drummer Herman Rarebell since he reunited with former SCORPIONS bassist Francis Buchholz as the rhythm section for Michael Schenker's TEMPLE OF ROCK album and tour, if you caught that tour you know how magical that tour and line-up was. Like with most things Schenker puts together he dismantles it and moves on to the next album and puts together another line-up. Herman Rarebell is back with a covers album, which is surprising considering that he has a history of releasing solo material via his HERMAN ZE GERMAN series. The new album is titled What About Love? It was recorded under the heading of HERMAN RAREBELL & FRIENDS, but who are the friends you ask? Well, let's take a look at the line-up. Of course you have Herman Rarebell on drums. The band includes Michael Voss on vocals/guitar, Van De Forst on vocals/acoustic guitars/keyboards, Dann Huff (GIANT) lead guitar, Howard Leese (HEART) lead guitar, Bob Daisley (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK SABBATH) on bass guitar, Neil Carter and Jim Vallance on keyboards and rounding out the band are Eva Von Der Forst and Lexus De La Foret on backing vocals.

It's been a bit since Herman has released a solo album. All original material is what one would expect, a covers album is unexpected. A covers album of 80s music is out of the box. The question I asked myself is why? The songs on What About Love? are very polished and sound too pristine. The arraignments don't deviate too much from the original cuts. To my ears they sound like they are being performed by one of those bands that you'll catch at a casino lounge cranking out familiar tunes. They are so precise, spot on but they don't make you forget the classics.

While charismatic, the energy and magic found in the original recordings is missing. Herman and his friends tackled 12 tracks ranging from HEART's "These Dreams" and "What About Love" to PAT BENATAR's "Love Is A Battlefield" to PHIL COLLINS' "In The Air" to FOREIGNER's "I Want To Know What Love Is". One of my favorites on the album is SCORPION's "Passion Rules The Game". It's got a slightly different arraignment, with acoustic guitar. What About Love? as a whole suffers the similar fate of most tribute or covers albums. If the arraignments aren't done differently, they are competing with the originals and more often than not the originals always win.

2.0 Out Of 5.0