''Assault Attack'' is the third studio album by the

Michael Schenker Group The Michael Schenker Group (often abbreviated as MSG) is an English hard rock band, formed in London in 1979 by former Scorpions and UFO guitarist Michael Schenker. After the release of their second live album, 1984's '' Rock Will Never Die'', ...

, and the only album to feature former Rainbow vocalist

Graham Bonnet Graham Bonnet (born 23 December 1947) is an English rock singer. He has recorded and performed as a solo artist and as a member of several hard rock and heavy metal music, heavy metal bands including Rainbow (rock band), Rainbow, Michael Schenke ...

. The album was recorded in France at the

Château d'Hérouville The Château d'Hérouville (commonly referred to as Honky Château) is a French 18th-century château located in the village of Hérouville, in the Val d'Oise département of France, near Paris. The château was built in 1740 by "Gaudot", an arc ...

and was produced by

Martin Birch Martin Phillip Birch (27 December 19489 August 2020) was a British music producer and sound engineer. He became renowned for engineering and producing albums recorded predominantly by British rock and metal bands, including Deep Purple, Rainbow ...

Overview

After returning to the UK from Japan in August 1981, having recorded the live album '' One Night at Budokan'', Schenker and his band played a short tour of the UK. After the tour,

Cozy Powell Cozy Powell (born Colin Trevor Flooks; 29 December 1947 – 5 April 1998) was an English drummer who made his name with major rock bands and artists such as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, B ...

and

Peter Mensch Peter Mensch (born March 28, 1953) is an American music manager. He started his career in music management at the age of 26, managing AC/DC. In 1982, Mensch formed the management company Q Prime with Cliff Burnstein. Their first client was Def ...

(Michael Schenker Group's manager) wanted a better singer for the band and suggested

David Coverdale David Coverdale (born 22 September 1951) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the founder and lead singer of the hard rock band Whitesnake. Coverdale was also the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976; he has had a solo car ...

, but Schenker himself wanted

. After some disagreements, which ultimately led to the termination of the cooperation between Mensch and MSG, Bonnet joined the MSG in February 1982. Meanwhile, Powell and Paul Raymond left the band for their own reasons and were replaced by drummer

Ted McKenna Edward McKenna (10 March 1950 – 19 January 2019) was a Scottish drummer who played with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Rory Gallagher, The Greg Lake Band, and The Michael Schenker Group. He also toured with Ian Gillan for a short period of ...

and session keyboardist

Tommy Eyre Tommy Eyre (5 June 1949 – 23 May 2001) was an English session keyboardist from Sheffield, England, who appeared on records by Joe Cocker, John Martyn, Gary Moore, Michael Schenker, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Greg Lake, B.B. King, Jo ...

. After four months the band went to France to start recording the album that would become ''Assault Attack'' with producer

, who arrived fresh from

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

's album '' The Number of the Beast''. The sessions took place at a French castle, Le

. This was the last time until the ''

Tales of Rock'n'Roll ''Tales of Rock'n'Roll'' is the twelfth full-length studio album recorded by the various M.S.G. lineups and the ninth studio album by the Michael Schenker Group. It was released in 2006 after two years of work in celebration of the band's 25th ...

'' album that Schenker and Bonnet cooperated. The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

broadcast of the Reading Festival concert was released in 1993 as ''BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert'' - this featured a returning Gary Barden on vocals. More recent CD reissues contain the bonus track "Girl from Uptown", the b-side of "Dancer", the album's sole single. The title track was featured in the 2009 video game ''

Brütal Legend ''Brütal Legend'' is an action-adventure video game with real-time strategy game elements created by Double Fine and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America, ...

''.

Reception

Attracting mixed reviews on release, ''Assault Attack'' is now looked on more favourably, and Schenker himself is considered by many critics to be in top form. In 2005, ''Assault Attack'' was ranked number 481 in '' Rock Hard'' magazine's book of ''The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time''.

Track listing

Songwriters are listed in brackets. ;Side one # "Assault Attack" ''(

Michael Schenker Michael Schenker (born 10 January 1955) is a German guitarist. He played in the rock band UFO and leads the Michael Schenker Group (MSG). He was an early member of the hard rock band Scorpions, a band co-founded by his elder brother Rudolf S ...

Chris Glen Christopher John Glen (born 6 November 1950), known simply as Chris Glen, is a Scottish rock musician. He is best known for playing with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band from 1972 to 1977, and The Michael Schenker Group from 1980 to 1984, 2008 t ...

)'' - 4:16 # "Rock You to the Ground" ''(Schenker, Bonnet)'' - 5:48 # "Dancer" ''(Schenker, Bonnet)'' - 4:41 # "Samurai" ''(Schenker, Bonnet, Glen)'' - 5:16 ;Side two #

"Desert Song" ''(Schenker, Bonnet)'' - 5:51 # "Broken Promises" ''(Schenker, Bonnet, Glen)'' - 6:21 # "Searching for a Reason" ''(Schenker, Bonnet)'' - 3:46 # "Ulcer" ''(Schenker)'' - 3:53

Bonus track on the 2009 CD reissue

"Girl from Uptown" ''(Schenker, Bonnet)'' - 5:21

Personnel

;Band members *

– guitars *

– vocals *

– bass *

– drums ;Additional musician *

– keyboards ;Production *

– producer, engineer *Benedict Tobias Fenner, Patrick Droguet – second engineers *Jack Magill – album title *Fin Costello – cover photo

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1982 albums Michael Schenker Group albums Albums produced by Martin Birch Chrysalis Records albums