Biography
From the moment Neal Schon burst onstage with Santana at Woodstock at age 15, the guitarist chased a heavier brand of rock. His rapid-fire solos and sharp technique meshed with Steve Perry’s pop leanings across a decade of Journey releases, yet two projects alongside Jan Hammer left his ambitions for guitar-hero status unfulfilled. That drive for a tight four-piece sound in the vein of Van Halen or Montrose found an outlet with no-frills metal devotee Sammy Hagar, yielding the extensively polished live release Through the Fire. Bassist Aaronson added visual new-wave edge drawn from his tours with Billy Idol, though the connection remained largely cosmetic for the band. Drummer Shrieve likewise carried Santana ties. Through the Fire stays strictly conventional, never reaching the heights of Hagar’s defining work in the classic Montrose lineup, while equaling the appeal of his own 1980s solo output. The Hagar-Schon-Aaronson-Shrieve unit stretches every track into epic proportions, even when some cuts could lose excess length, letting both Hagar and Schon extend their AOR range. Hagar’s often questionable words occasionally strain patience, but the airplay single “Missing You” highlights Schon at his most incendiary, and the lumbering “My Home Town” echoes the lumbering force of bygone GFR/BTO/FM anthems. Schon later accepted a narrower role in Bad English, with John Waite stepping into the Perry position, then tested hair metal in Hardline, where he could again play freely yet without the classic-rock bite that marked Through the Fire.
Albums