Tim “Ripper” Owens
PLAY MY GAME
SPV Records

It’s interesting how even for a rock star that’s toured the world in one of the biggest bands ever, he can still be bothered by the inconsequential nonsense that is spewed by critics over the years.  For Tim “Ripper” Owens, it seems as if the comments and criticism surrounding his ability to write songs has never fully gone away.  When he was in Judas Priest, he was rarely given any chance to write anything.  People harped on it.  When he moved on to Iced Earth, he quickly learned that all the music was written by a sole dick-tator.  Moving on to Yngwie J. Malmsteen, he too writes all the music to where 90% of what ended up on PERPETUAL FLAME was developed to fit his riffs, rhythms and leads.  Beyond Fear certainly featured Owens as a writer, but was definitely collaborative stuff with the rest of the guys (because whether people believe it or not, Beyond Fear IS a band and not Owens’ solo vehicle).  Now, with the insistence of the record label, we have the first Tim “Ripper” Owens solo album, called PLAY MY GAME.  According to Tim himself, this is an album of songs  that proves he can write songs.

Going into this album, I didn’t expect a whole lot to be honest.  Most times when you receive an album that’s loaded with “name” performers, it turns into an album that lacks chemistry and cohesion, and comes off flat just due to the lack of overall involvement in the project by the players.  That being said, PLAY MY GAME is a very solid effort from Owens which not only proves he can write a decent tune, but that he could create music that, no matter who the players are behind him, accentuates his talents as a vocalist. 

Listening through PLAY MY GAME, there’s a bit of new material covered here that doesn’t fall into the musical styles that Owens is best known for, but being honest, the best material on the disc comes when he teams back with up with his longtime writing partner (as well as one of the top 3 guitarists on the planet), Beyond Fear/Ringworm guitarist John Comprix.  If you don’t know is name yet, you should learn it because Comprix is probably the best there is that most people don’t know.  Listening to the albums two best songs, “Play My Game” and “Death Race”, it’s clear that Owens and Comprix worked on these almost Beyond Fear sounding songs.  In fact, the style of “Play My Game” is so recognizable to me that I’d swear it came from a writing session of Comprix’s first local band Spawn and their album ROUND 2, which conveniently was produced by Owens. 

While I could sing the praises of the team of Owens and Comprix for several thousand words, there’s nothing but great performances from notable musicians throughout PLAY MY GAME.  “The Cover Up” teams Comprix with Nevermore guitarist Jeff Loomis, who throws in some vicious leads at the beginning of the song and throughout.  “No More Goodbyes” is a musician’s delight as well as the Kulick brothers (Bob on Rhythm and Bruce throwing in a seething lead) tear things up as legendary bassist Billy Sheehan thumps out far more than a follow along underbelly.  “The Shadows Are Alive” is a pure metal rocker as well that features Chris Caffery in his non-TSO mode while Marco Mendoza and Simon Wright carry the bottom end.  There are a zillion other musicians on PLAY MY GAME, and all provide great performances.  When you look at it, with the names already mentioned as well as guys like Rudy Sarzo, Steve Stevens, Craig Goldy, Tony Franklin, David Ellefson and Michael Wilton all on this album, does it really stand a chance of not being musically relevant?

So even with all these guests on the album though, it still all comes back to Owens to make this a success or a flop.  Thankfully, it is a winner.  To hear slower, yet heavier songs like “Pick Yourself Up”, you can’t help but remember that Owens was a fan of Judas Priest.  This song has a distinct feel of his time in Priest, yet features a bit more of an updated sound so not to come off as a knock off in any way. 

To this point, I haven’t even really mentioned Owens actual vocals on the album.  Do I really need to?  As always, Owens proves himself to be one of the elite metal vocalists of our era.  Enough said about that.

PITRIFF RATING – 8/10 – Being completely honest here, when Owens announced he was doing a solo album before a new Beyond Fear album and filling it up with guest musicians, I wasn’t overly enthused.  That being said though, PLAY MY GAME is far and away above expectations.   While a bit different than Owens’ power metal past with his three “big” bands, and not nearly as crushing as Beyond Fear, PLAY MY GAME is a great collection of metal.  Now Tim, get it out of your system and let’s get that next Beyond Fear album done!

Chris Akin

Play My Game