High Gear (Howe II album)

High Gear is the first studio album by the American hard rock band Howe II, released in 1989 through Shrapnel Records. Howe II was a short-lived group fronted by guitarist Greg Howe and his brother Albert Howe on vocals.[1]

High Gear
Studio album by
Howe II
Released1989 (1989)
StudioPrairie Sun Recording Studios, Cotati, California
GenreHard rock
Length42:02
LabelShrapnel
ProducerMike Varney, Steve Fontano, Greg Howe
Howe II chronology
High Gear
(1989)		 Now Hear This
(1991)

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal7/10[2]

Andy Hinds at AllMusic reviewed the album positively, saying that "The songs on High Gear are good, the riffs are killer, and the execution is flawless." He praised Greg Howe's guitar playing as "more effective than ever; focused like a laser, his brilliant solos drive home the point of the songs rather than being the point of the songs" and likened Albert Howe's vocals to David Lee Roth. More praise went to the band overall: "The entire band plays with an articulate, inspired precision and energy that is truly awesome."[1] Journalist Martin Popoff described the album as "a rhythmic good time metal party" and the production as "a bit blocky, but vital like Van Halen".[2]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Albert Howe and Greg Howe.

No.TitleLength
1."High Gear"4:41
2."Carry the Torch"4:01
3."Strat-O-Various"1:13
4."Disorderly Conduct"4:33
5."Thinking of You"5:02
6."Standing on Line"3:32
7."Ferocious"4:34
8."Don't Let the Sloe Gin (Order the Wine)"5:08
9."Party Favors"3:30
10."Social Fever"5:48
Total length:42:02

Personnel
Howe II
Guest musicians
Production

Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording Studios, Cotati, California

  • Steve Fontano – producer, engineer, mixing
  • Joe Marquez – assistant engineer
  • George Horn – mastering at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California
  • Kerry Doyle – cover art guitar customization
gollark: * not practical to decrypt unless you have some extra information i.e. the key
gollark: When you talk about the "key" here, do you mean that you just need to know *how it works* to ~~use~~ decrypt it, or need to have some specific extra bit of information?
gollark: What do you mean "alphabet scrambles"?
gollark: Maybe you could ask someone about the concept. Or look it up on the internet to see if there are different ways to think about it which you might prefer.
gollark: Try solving things with said concept?

References
  1. Hinds, Andy. "Howe II: High Gear - Howe II, Greg Howe". AllMusic. RhythmOne. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  2. Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 163. ISBN 978-1894959315.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.