Gorky Park – Gorky Park Release Date: 1989 The Good: Bang, Try and Find Me, Hit Me With The News, Sometimes At Night, My Generation, Child of the Wind, Fortress, Action The Bad: Peace In Our Time, The Indifferent: Within Your Eyes, Danger
Back in 1989, the hard rock/metal world was wowed by The Moscow Music Peace Festival which took place at Lenin Stadium in Moscow, Russia. For the first time, some of the biggest names in hard rock (Skid Row, Cinderella, Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, and Bon Jovi) would join forces and perform a benefit for substance abusers in Russia (go figure). In exchange, we got Russian hard rockers Gorky Park. Now if you ask anyone who was a headbanger teen back then, they without a doubt saw this band’s video for the song “Bang” on MTV which was on in heavy rotation. The band was met with a lot of mixed words. You either dug them or you hated them and I was one of the ones that loved what they were doing.
Listening to this album over 20 years later, it’s really amazing to me how fun and still unique this album sounds. Gorky Park took elements of their homeland’s percussive sounds and even their gang-like chanting background vocals. Lead singer Nikolai Noskov had such powerful and unique voice that I still feel like I am hearing something really special. “Bang” still sounds cool and is a really neat way to open the album. I don’t think it’s anywhere near as strong as some of the other songs on the album but it’s still a cool song mixing American and Russian lyrics to create something really different. Gorky Park seems to teeter more on the mellow/melodic side of things with some really beautiful songs like “Try and Find Me” and “Child of the Wind” and the song “Sometimes At Night” reminds me of something that could’ve been an Ozzy Osbourne song reminiscent of “Fire In The Sky.”
The album does have some pretty cool, rocking songs like “Hit Me with the News” and “Action” but it’s their cover of The Who’s “My Generation” that really blows me away. I love nothing more than when a band can take a song by another artist to totally make it their own. I feel like this song is probably met with a lot of hate but I love what Gorky Park did to this song. They kept the spirit of the song while totally making it a heavy metal anthem complete with Russian chanting to make it relevant to their own people. There are a few duds on here but the weakest of the weak is the Jon Bon Jovi penned “Peace In Our Time.” Leave it to ol’ Jon BJ to find a way to stick his brown finger in something. I loved how he proudly proclaimed “discovering” this band only to drop them like a bad habit when they flopped here in the states. Oh well. Even that song is “listenable” at best but it still sucks.
Gorky Park is not a band for everyone. I’m not even quite sure who this album would appeal to being that most of my metalhead friends made fun of me for liking this one. I hated that because I could make fun of them for liking some other crap band like Bang Tango or something but for some reason, it seemed worse to like Gorky Park. If you’re an open minded hard rock/metal fan and you’re looking for something a bit different, this may be an album you’d like to check out. I still find it a fun and unique listen and I find the songs good enough to even get through the crappy, dated production of the album. Give this one a try if you can find it and I’d love to hear what you think. I can’t be the only Gorky Park fan on the face of this earth. Or am I?
I have been running this blog since 2009. AKA as the Great Southern Brainfart, Southeast of Heaven is my baby now and forever. I’ve had my ups and downs with bands over the years but they are all great experiences and memories. My Swedish friend Charlie said once, “Don is known for being one of the meanest bastards in American rock journalism.” It’s nice to be loved.
I also once took a shit in Anthrax’s dressing room toilet and didn’t flush.
Gorky Park – Gorky Park