Orion The Hunter

Orion the Hunter was, as all of us review-posters on here know, the brainchild of former Boston co-lead guitarist Barry Goudreau, who was never given his due in Boston. He went solo in 1980 and then proceeded to form this band after having grown tired of Boston's interminable waiting-time between albums (which was largely as a result of founding member and guitar wizard Tom Scholz's monumental self-indulgency). Like many young men coming of age at a time when MTV was in its youth and Friday Night Videos was in its infancy, I became aware of Orion the Hunter when I first heard "So You Ran" on FM rock radio and saw the video in May of 1984. I immediately liked the song and loved the video, and was awestruck by lead singer Fran Cosmo's incredible vocal range. I almost bought the album on vinyl back then, except that at the time, I was leery about buying any full-length album on which I knew only one song. Unfortunately, it would prove to be my last chance to purchase it for many years afterwards, as the album was discontinued by 1985 and apparently not made available on CD until 1995. Of course, since no record stores I have been inside of have ever carried this CD, I was totally unaware that it had been released until seeing it here on Amazon at this time last year.
Well, I finally purchased this CD from Amazon a few weeks ago, and now having just listened to the entire thing for the very first time, I must say that it's been well worth waiting for all these years. This is a progressive heavy-metal recording in all of the finest ways: it is musically complex while being tightly arranged at the same time, it is melodic but full of power, and it is thoroughly listenable while providing a good headbanging experience (especially on "Dreamin'", "Fast Talk", and "I Call It Love", which are the heaviest and fastest songs on the CD).
Musically, the sound is similar to Boston (with a touch of Aldo Nova thrown in), but this is not Boston Redux: none of the album's 9 songs feels remotely like a retread of Barry's previous band. This is the case even though Brad Delp wrote four of these songs AND sings backup on three of them! Vocally, Fran Cosmo (whose real last name is Migliaccio--why do entertainers still feel the need to change beautiful ethnic names like that?) sounds more like Mickey Thomas of Jefferson Starship/Starship than he does Brad Delp of Boston--his range is higher than Delp's and has since only been matched by the great Tony Harnell of TNT.
Every single song is good on this CD, and about half of them are very good. Two of them are power ballads; "Dark and Stormy" and "Joanne", which are both excellently done. The thunderstorm effects on the former should be cliche` by now, but they actually do fit in well within the song. The sound is crisp and clear; the production values are first-rate, courtesy of Mr. Goudreau himself. If you love Boston in particular and progressive heavy rock in general, then you should buy this CD; it's well worth its reasonable price.
The inside CD cover mentions, below all of the credits, that ORION THE HUNTER charted at #57 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart after its debut on 5/19/84. It would have been much higher had the band's record company and management had done their jobs and promoted the darn thing in the first place. Oh, well...at least I own this album now! As I said before, it was well worth the wait.

CD ORION THE HUNTER- ORION THE HUNTER (1984) :
Orion The Hunter's first and only album.

INTRODUCTION: One of the greatest classic rock groups of the late seventies was Boston. Although the guitarist from that group who tends to get all the attention is Tom Scholz, the group had another equally-excellent guitarist that never got the proper attention - Barry Goudreau. Goudreau became fed up with Scholz's perfectionistic and lengthy production techniques between album recording sessions, and fled the band. After recording his first solo album (which used mostly Boston personnel), Goudreau formed his next group - Orion The Hunter. Unfortunately, the band only lasted for a single album. The new-wave pop music and heavy metal trends of the day overshadowed the group's lone album. As such, it was forgotten with time. But what about the album itself? Is it a solid album, or one that was rightfully neglected? Read on for my review of Orion The Hunter's lone album. OVERVIEW: Orion The Hunter released their first and only album on Sony Records in the Spring/Summer of 1984. The group consisted of guitarist Barry Goudreau (formerly of Boston), vocalist Fran Cosmo (who would sing for Boston in the nineties), bassist Bruce Smith, and drummer Michael De Rosier (formerly of Heart.) The Razor And Tie company did the CD reissue of the album. Tracklist consists of All Those Years, So You Ran, Dreamin', Dark And Stormy, Stand Up, Fast Talk, Too Much In Love, Joanne, and I Call It Love. REVIEW: I wasn't sure what to expect from this album. Was it going to be a retread of the old Boston sound, or something totally new? If anything, the sound on the album is more the latter. While there definitely are trace elements of the old Boston sound here (due in no small part to Barry Goudreau's distinctive guitar stylings), for the most part this is something new. There are a ton of unique sounds thrown together, ranging from stuff that sounds like Aldo Nova, right down to stuff that sounds like Jefferson Starship. Goudreau's unique musical mixture here makes this one of my personal favorite albums. It should have been huge, and it's a shame it was completely overshadowed by the other popular music of the era. What resulted on this album was a musical masterpiece, unfairly neglected by time. Read on for my a track-by-track analysis! -SIDE A- -All Those Years: The band starts things off with a winner. This is straight-up AOR-style rock with a melodic touch. The guitar stylings will instantly bring the classic Boston style to mind, but with synthesizer backing and Fran Cosmo's soaring vocals, it sounds like something totally new, an almost Jefferson Starship-esque sound. Awesome opener. -So You Ran: This was one of the biggest hits from the album, and appropriately so. One of the few things that scored the band some popularity was the frequent rotation of the music video of this song on MTV. Once again, the band creates that sound that fuses melodic rock, hard rock, and AOR-flavored rock into a single tune. The end result? Pure genius. Great stuff. -Dreamin': Another excellent song. Surprised? You shouldn't be. Once again the band succeeds musically, with their style that takes a plethora of other styles and brings them together perfectly. Many elements of this song resemble the sound of Canadian rockers Triumph from their Sport Of Kings era. One again, the rockers succeed beautifully. -Dark And Stormy: After three tunes that rocked hard but were also fairly melodic, the band slows things way down, and delivers a power ballad of sorts. There is a lot of piano in this track, which is played excellently. All of the instrumentation here is very melodic, but it's by no means a wimpy ballad. It's melodic enough to be liked by the ballad fans, but still has enough rock elements to keep the rock crowd happy. Do I need to say it? Another cool one. -SIDE B- -Stand Up: And then the hard rock picks right back up. Once again, the band serves up one of those synthesizer-heavy rockers. The instrumentation will bring eighties-era Triumph to mind, while Fran Cosmo's vocals will sound like something from a Jefferson Starship song. Nice cross of these musical extremes. Great song once again. -Fast Talk: This song is much more guitar-driven than the other pieces on the album. Synth usage is very much minimal here. It's the closest thing on the album to a hard rock/heavy metal song, but still manages to maintain the general formula of the other pieces just enough that the piece doesn't seem alienated from the other tracks. A very likely candidate for best song on the album. -Too Much In Love: After a song that rocked hard and relentlessly, we're back to the melodic, pop/AOR stuff. And the band's return to the style after that hard rocker is an excellent return to form. There are a lots of keyboards and synths here, and they make the song all the more appealing and fun to listen to. One of the virtually-infinite numbers of awesome songs this album has to offer. -Joanne: Here's another power ballad of sorts. This one uses piano and classical-style backing arrangements, but combines them with plenty of rock elements. What results here is a power ballad, the way power ballads were meant to be done. Great song, but I guess I probably shouldn't have to tell you that by now. -I Call It Love: And here, we find ourselves at the album closer. This is another one of the harder-rocking pieces on the album. The backing piano in the verses give the song a boogie feel in some places, which makes it all the more fun to listen to. For the most part, it's straight-up rock, with Goudreau doing what he does best. The band couldn't have finished off the album on a higher note. OVERALL: Overall, Orion The Hunter was an underrated genius of a band. It's just a shame that, after this, Barry Goudreau was all but forgotten by the musical world. Even this release was widely neglected. If you're a fan of classic hard rock/AOR/pop metal/etc., Orion The Hunter's lone album is highly recommended! This is one of the most unfairly underrated albums of all time. Don't make the same mistake so many other people have made of overlooking it - this is the way rock music is supposed to sound! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! EDITION NOTES: This album was only released on compact disc once (to my knowledge), by Razor And Tie. This reissue is VERY hard to find, due in no small part to the album's relatively obscure nature. Take my advice - if you have a Tower Records in your area, look there for it (it's where I got mine.) If not, your best bet is ordering it online or getting it on an auction site.

Orion charted at #57 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart after its debut on 5/19/84. "So You Ran" managed to make the Top Ten on rock radio and was a mid-chart hit on mainstream pop radio.
Orion featured Bruce Smith on the bass and ex-Heart drummer Michael DeRosier. The album also included the late Brad Delp, former lead singer of Boston. Brad sang background vocals on numerous tracks. The influence of Goudreau's Boston sound is evident on the album.