Blue Murder was the brainchild of guitar virtuoso John Sykes. It was a melodic heavy metal band from England, founded by ex-
Whitesnake guitarist Sykes. Upon Sykes' firing from the most successful version of
Whitesnake, the former Tygers Of Pan Tang and
Thin Lizzy axe-man set out to create a similar sounding bluesy hard rock band. They released two studio albums and one live album before breaking up in 1994.
The late Ray Gillen, most famous for singing for Black Sabbath and Badlands, sang for an early version of Blue Murder, and reportedly the band recorded demos with him, but no albums. Another interesting
thing to note is that John Sykes was himself once in a different band also called Badlands.
Another masterpiece by Sykes. Listen to the awesome guitars, vocals, and songwriting of John Sykes. He is one of the greatest of all time. Lock yourself into the monster groove of "Cry for love"!! Listen to another huge Sykes signature riff on "I'm on fire"!! You will never stop listening to this stuff.
The second Blue Murder album is a bit of a catch-all in that it features tracks with the original trio, with the Marco Mendoza version of the group, and even one with (temporary) lead singer Kelly Keeling. For metal fans, there's a bunch of excellent material here, but I can't help but feel that it all suffers in comparison to the fantastic first album. The album is 1-2 songs too long, and it was released too late to catch any of the heat from the semi-success of the first CD. Nonetheless, the playing is great, and the 2nd version of the group is at least a good stand-in for the first, with Mendoza proving himself especially able. Sykes has some better lyrics on this album and shows himself maturing as a songwriter.