[Not That Final Frontier] -- In the spring of 1986, I was not yet in college and I had not yet finished high school. And, hitting the stores on April 30, 1986, Keel's third studio album, The Final Frontier, pretty much kickstarted my summer.
Back in the day, Keel's main claim to fame was two-fold: first, vocalist Ron Keel had previously performed with one-album-wonder Steeler (with guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen); second, Gene Simmons of KISS produced Keel's first two albums. Keel, both the band and the singer, were pretty standard in terms of hair metal. But, as cliched as some of these tracks might seem in retrospect, this album marked a band really coming into its own and crafting their own songs; at least half of the tunes on their debut album were written outside the band, with Simmons contributing three songs that probably weren't good enough for his own band.
Keel released two singles from this album – a cover of Springsteen's "Because the Night" and the power ballad "Tears of Fire" – but neither charted despite their music videos receiving pretty regular rotation on MTV. It's a shame because, whatever you might think of a metal band covering a Springsteen tune, they did a pretty good job. And their power ballad had real substance, a rarity in this genre.
The Final Frontier managed to reach #53 on the Billboard 200. And the band's Wikipedia page notes that Keel won the Best Band of the Year award in the second annual Metal Edge magazine readers poll in 1986. I cannot find an actual citation for that win, but I'd like to think Keel did win that award, and maybe some other magazine polls. At least it makes them not completely forgotten. 🤘
Flashback: The Final Frontier (April 30, 1986)
And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.
See you in seven!
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