The Price You Pay

by Dave ThompsonThe Price You Pay? No, the price you pay. The price for not having risen to the heights that were so close at hand in the early decade; the price for not driving the band's greatest hits into every ear in the land. The price for not taking "Liberator" to number one. Spear of Destiny's final album before their 1988 discorporation, with the band having undergone yet another major lineup convolution, is little more than a clutch of rhythms and yelps, desperately crying out for attention while a rent-a-band boogie clatters on in the distance. Kirk Brandon's songs remain as captivating as they ever were, but the soul has slipped from the performances, and the magic dripped out of the faucet long ago. The B-side of the band's final single, the album's "Radio Radio," was called "Life Goes On." Fortunately, it didn't.