Ufo

Michael Schenker and Phil Mogg really started to find their groove as a songwriting team with their second album together (and fourth UFO release overall), Force It. In fact, the last remaining folk and space rock tendencies that had stolen much of Phenomenon's thunder are summarily abandoned here, as the group launches itself wholeheartedly toward the hard rock direction that would make them stars. The first step is taken by Schenker, of course, who confidently establishes the aggressive, biting guitar tone that would define all the releases of the band's glory years. "Let It Roll" and "Shoot Shoot" kick off the album in rousing fashion, and while holding them under a microscope might reveal them as rather disposable slabs of hard rock, they would remain concert favorites for the band nonetheless…

This release by hard rock favorites UFO is actually a two-disc set. The first disc consists of new material while disc two is a live album. The new studio material finds many of the old UFO sounds and trademarks, but is perhaps a bit rawer, both in terms of production and performance. In many ways, the new tracks feel a lot like they might have been leftovers from the previous CD, the brilliant Walk on Water. This one should certainly please longtime fans of the band, but probably is not a good introduction to the group. The lineup this time out is veteran drummer Aynsley Dunbar, guitar hero Michael Schenker, and vocalist Phil Mogg.

High Stakes & Dangerous Men is the thirteenth album by British hard rock band UFO, released in February 1992. It is the only UFO studio album to feature guitarist Laurence Archer and drummer Clive Edwards, both former members of Wild Horses.

Much to the delight of old-school headbangers, the classic lineup of one of the great (yet usually underappreciated) bands of the '70s, UFO, regrouped in 1993. UFO's first new record since reuniting, 1995's Walk On Water, saw the quintet pick up exactly where it left off, not altering its formula much at all. The reunion (or at least the team of Phil Mogg and Michael Schenker) remained together for several albums afterwards, including 2000's Covenant and 2002's Sharks. The latter release sees bassist Pete Way return to the fold and, unsurprisingly, "the song remains the same." The boys can still lay down a hard-rocking thumper with no problem (albeit in more of an obviously Bad Company-like style), especially on such standouts as "Serenity" and "Fighting Man." But few tracks here approach the magnitude of, say, Lights Out or Obsession - something that the aforementioned Walk On Water surprisingly did.