A real gem of the 80's
Christian Graus | Hobart, TAS, Australia | 10/31/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you haven't heard of Black n Blue, consider that Gene Simmons produced some of their albums, John Kalodner says he still doesn't get why they were not huge, and Bruce Fairbain got the job of working on Slippery When Wet because Jon Bon Jovi loved his work with this band. It's classic 80's hard rock, on the Bon Jovi/Poison side of the tracks, and this box contains four albums, each in a cardboard sleeve that replicates the original album cover ( but let's not kid ourselves, it's done like this to be cheap ), and a DVD of a live performance, which obviously is still VHS quality, but at least it's not going to wear out. There's also one booklet, which talks about the different albums, and it's all in a cardboard box. Overall, I think the quality of presentation is not great, but it's worth it to own these classic albums, and in the end, who cares what the box looks like - the music rocks."
Little Package (-ing) with Lots O' Rock!!!
LawrenceSvetlana | USA | 09/29/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"First I'll say a bit about Black `N Blue, then I'll get to the box set (skip the first half if you want). Of all the admittedly second-tier bands to emerge from the explosion of the 1980s heavy metal hysteria, BLACK `N BLUE seemed like one of the bands that had a shot at the top. They had a sound and attitude that was all their own. Because of their all-out energy, exuberance, and in-your-face-late-teenaged ballsiness, they got away -- and had us pumping our fists and banging our heads -- at lines that were as corny as heck but awesome to believe in when BNB rocked them out. So we believed it when these rockhards from Seattle (just a few years older than my eighth grade self in 1984) told us that we were gonna knock the socks off the hot shots and make them feel like sewer trout; that we could get back at every cold "wicked b***h" that ever spurned our souls; that autoblasting wasn't for kids anymore; and that if "money can't buy it," we don't wanna talk. And, oh, yeah: we were from the school of hard knocks and were gonna hold onto 18 forever. Anyway, this BOX SET collects the entirety of BNB's studio albums and includes a dvd of a 16-song (!!) concert in Tokyo. You won't find any marketing or packaging gimmicks because there aren't any. Each cd comes in a cardboard sleeve; the insert provides history not found in the regular cds but no lyrics. The jewel is the dvd. This show captures just how determined these guys were as they rock through sixteen high-octane rockers with Jamie St. James's weird-but-cool chicken dances, Tommy Thayer's elite-ly cool musicianship, and the rest of the band's gutsy, playin'-to-prove-it-attitude. As to the price: It's worth the $80-100 that I've seen it going for lately. The first two cds are absolute must-haves and will cost you $20 apiece almost anywhere. And you get two more cds (the last two of which people now are saying are BNB's best work, though I disagree) and a dvd. If you loved Poison, Warrant, Ratt, Kixx, Dokken, early W.A.S.P., then you'll love this. You'll feel like it's --in the words of Jamie St. James -- your dirty little cherry bomb and that you're just the shotgun needed to blow it away.
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Track Listings (10) - Disc #1