Jump to content

Guilty as Charged (Culprit album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Guilty as Charged!
Studio album by
Released1983
RecordedMarch 1983
StudioPrairie Sun Recording Studios, Cotati, California
GenreHeavy metal
Length42:53
LabelShrapnel
ProducerMike Varney
Culprit chronology
Guilty as Charged!
(1983)
Innocent ‘Til Proven Guilty
(2005)

Guilty as Charged! is the only studio album released by the American heavy metal band Culprit through Shrapnel Records in 1983.[1]

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal6/10[2]

Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic gave the album a glowing review, writing "one has to wonder if the then still Dungeons & Dragons-toting Queensrÿche didn't take note of Culprit's more lucid approach further down the road, since Guilty as Charged feels in many ways like a rough draft of Operation: Mindcrime. All conjecture aside, and even more unusual as compared to their average labelmates' guitar-first philosophy, Culprit songs like 'Steel to Blood,' 'Ambush,' and 'Same to You' boasted extremely memorable, singalong choruses to go with their disciplined instrumental foundations. As it stands, Guilty as Charged remains a lost gem of American metal from the 1980s, and well worth seeking out for fans of other bands from the period."[1] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff was less enthusiastic and found the execution "too loose, raw and undisciplined to impress", conceding that the band "showed promise and caused a lot of hype never to be fulfilled".[2]

In 2005, Guilty as Charged! was ranked number 476 in Rock Hard magazine's book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[3]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by Culprit, except "Stone Cold Crazy" by Queen

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Guilty as Charged"5:45
2."Ice in the Back"5:09
3."Steel to Blood"4:28
4."I Am"3:45
5."Ambush"3:54
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."Tears of Repentance"5:10
7."Same to You"4:57
8."Fight Back"4:05
9."Players"5:38
2000 Hellion Records reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
10."Guilty as Charged" (Live at Subzero, Seattle 1/2/98)6:28
11."Stone Cold Crazy" (Live at Subzero, Seattle 1/2/98)2:31
12."Fight Back" (Live at Subzero, Seattle 1/2/98)4:37

Personnel

[edit]
Culprit
  • Jeff L'Heureux – vocals
  • John DeVol – guitar
  • Kjartan Kristoffersen – guitar
  • Scott Earl – bass
  • Bud Burrill – drums, lead vocals on track 11
Production

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Culprit – Guilty as Charged review". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 2015-12-25. Retrieved 2012-01-10.
  2. ^ a b Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 978-1894959315.
  3. ^ Best of Rock & Metal – Die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten (in German). Rock Hard. 2005. p. 16. ISBN 3-89880-517-4.