''The Blitz'' is the eighth studio album by the Swiss

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band Krokus, released in August 1984. It became a

gold album Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The band hit the Billboard Hot 100 with "Midnite Maniac" from that album and became the first Swiss act to do so. While preparing to record it, the group had tapped Patrick Mahassen to join the band on guitar, with Mark Kohler switching to bass. However, Mahassen would end up leaving the band before recording commenced, and the album was ultimately recorded as a quartet; Andy Tanas played bass on the subsequent tour.Andy Tanas Biography
/ref> The song "Boys Nite Out", written by

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...

and

Jim Vallance James Douglas Vallance (born May 31, 1952) is a Canadian songwriter, arranger and producer. He is best known as the songwriting partner of Canadian musician Bryan Adams. Vallance began his professional career as the original drummer and main song ...

, was originally recorded by Adams for his hit 1984 album '' Reckless'' but was left off the final track list. Adams' version eventually saw a release on the 30th anniversary reissue of ''Reckless''. UK-based company Rock Candy Records reissued the album on CD in 2014.

In pop culture

A cover of Krokus' version of "

Ballroom Blitz "The Ballroom Blitz" (often called "Ballroom Blitz") is a song by British glam rock band The Sweet, written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. The song reached number one in Canada, number two in the UK Singles Chart and the Australian Chart, and ...

", originally performed by UK band

Sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones ...

, is featured as a playable track on '' Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s''.

Track listing

Personnel

;Krokus *

Marc Storace Marc Storace (''Sto-rah-che'') (born 7 October 1951) is a Maltese born rock vocalist. His career in music started in the 1960s. He is most noted for his position as frontman, lead singer and songwriter of Swiss hard rock band Krokus from 1980. Be ...

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Fernando von Arb Fernando von Arb or simply FVA (born 17 January 1953) is a Swiss guitarist, songwriter and producer. He is best known for being the lead guitarist of the Swiss hard rock band Krokus. Career In the early 1970s, Von Arb was playing in the ba ...

–

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

*Mark Kohler – bass * Jeff Klaven –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

;Additional musicians * Doug Johnson -

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Jimi Jamison Jimmy Wayne Jamison (August 23, 1951 – September 1, 2014) was an American singer. Best known as Jimi Jamison, he earned recognition as the frontman for the rock bands Target, Cobra, and Survivor from 1984 to 1989, performing the songs " Burn ...

–

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

in "Our Love" ;Production *

Bruce Fairbairn Bruce Earl Fairbairn (December 30, 1949 – May 17, 1999) was a Canadian record producer. He was active as a producer from 1976 to 1999, and is considered one of the best of his era. His most successful productions are ''Slippery When Wet'' an ...

– producer *

Bob Rock Robert Jens Rock (born April 19, 1954) is a Canadian record producer, sound engineer and musician, best known for producing rock bands and music artists such as Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, The Tragically Hip, the Cult, 31 ...

, Bob Ketchum –

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

* Mike Fraser – assistant engineer *Phil Burnett – mixing *George Marino – mastering

Charts

Album

Singles

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blitz, The Krokus (band) albums 1984 albums Albums produced by Bruce Fairbairn Arista Records albums Glam metal albums