The Big ... H

Hellanbach was facing an uphill battle when it finally released its much-delayed sophomore album The Big H in late 1984. For all its positive attributes, the first album Now Hear This' undisguised debt to all things Van Halen had made the Tyneside quartet a love/hate proposition among critics and fans, who, if they didn't immediately dismiss the band as some kind of karaoke act, inevitably grew tired of the novelty value involved once a second record came along. To be fair, Hellanbach's every attempt to expand the boundaries of its sound beyond the pre-established VH parameters had met with relatively mediocre results, and, as the well of inspiration dried up, the group became ever more susceptible to the mean-spirited "Halen-bach" nickname. Now taken to task as hopeless wannabes instead of well-intentioned disciples, the group's creative axis of guitarist Dave Patton and singer Jimmy Brash was clearly floundering as they led the band through lukewarm new tracks like "The Main Man," "Panic State O.D." and especially "When All Is Said and Done" (great guitar, awful words). For all his wondrous technique, would-be guitar hero Patton still based his every lick and solo on Eddie van Halen's inimitable style, and frontman Brash fared even worse, his general incapacity for tunefulness, aimless lyrics, and smaller-than-life persona simply serving to substantiate David Lee Roth's often unheralded talents and unparalleled charisma. Opener "Beaten to the Bone," the speedy "Bandit's Run," and the re-hashed oldie "Nobody's Fool" are the only decent cuts to be found here, and neither the band's uneventful take on Elton John's "Saturday's Alright for Fighting" nor the Stray Cats-influenced, swing-cum-rockabilly romp "Daddy Dig Those Cats" can save The Big H from a depressing morass, which unsurprisingly spelled the end of the road for Hellanbach. [The Big H was later included in its entirety on 2002's The Big H: The Hellanbach Anthology.]