Time to dust off this old supergroup one-off and see what we have 40 years later.

HSAS – Through The Fire

Released March 1984 via Geffen Records

HSAS was the long-sough collaboration between Sammy Hagar and Neal Schon. The two had time after Journey released Frontiers and Sammy had been touring behind Three Lock Box during 1983. There were a minimum of rehearsals and the album was recorded during live shows in San Francisco in late ’83. The crowd noise was turned down for the recordings and some overdubs were needed on guitar, but otherwise the album is what was recorded on stage. For this project, Schon is handling the guitars and Hagar is confined to vocal duties.

Supergroups are often more about the members and that is certainly the case here, as the entire story of this album is in the lone paragraph above. So let’s have a look at each member of this short-lived group.

Sammy Hagar had finally established himself as a viable force in the early ’80’s after grinding away during the prior decade as a solo artist after his short tenure with Montrose. Hagar had gone platinum with Standing Hampton and then gold with Three Lock Box. In ’84 he was just a few months away from more huge solo success with VOA, and in a year’s time his world would look radically different.

Neal Schon had come up with the Santana band in 1971. After Santana, Schon and bandmate Gregg Rolie would form the band that went on to become Journey. They of course enjoyed massive success in the early ’80’s. Schon is still with Journey to this day and has a list of side projects and guest appearances that would take a book to keep track of.

Kenny Aaronson came up in New York during the 1970’s, starting as a teen with the short-lived band Dust. He’d then go on to play a long stint with Rick Derringer as well as a brief jaunt with a just-formed Hall and Oates. He was with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts in 1984 and has gone on to scores of other appearances over the years, including a stint with Bob Dylan.

Michael Shrieve began pounding the drums in earnest as a founding member of Santana, thus linking him to Schon. After leaving that group, Shrieve recorded a wide variety of solo and session projects. He had just been doing Mick Jagger’s ’84 solo album when HSAS came up.

So this is the group of clearly accomplished musicians who would convene to record this effort. There are 9 tracks at a very reasonable 36:39 runtime. Everything was written by Hagar and Schon save for the obvious cover song. Both also produced the album. A few re-issues exist but nothing with any bonus stuff that I know of. If you were to want a copy of this record, $5 and a few minutes in the record store would do the trick, it is not hard to come by.

Top Of The Rock

The opener is a very simple hard rock track that sounds exactly like something you’d expect Sammy Hagar to record in the 1980’s. It would slot in just fine on any of his solo records. There isn’t anything really special or dynamic about this song but it is a quality effort. Grade: B

Missing You

This one is another pretty straightforward track, in some sense it is almost woefully basic. But it does execute well for a song from this time period. It does sound and feel like Neal Schon has his imprint on this song and there are a few guitar flourishes here and there for a bit of excitement. Grade: B-

Animation

This one wastes a few minutes with some weird, echo-ridden intro that does nothing but then it finally gets into a very nice, heavy and groovy song. It’s honestly a bit tough to grade since it’s half really good and half kinda shit. I guess that’s one way of being average. Grade: C

Valley Of The Kings

This one is a very nice, plodding yet pounding song that does feel like it’s going somewhere. It doesn’t necessarily get there but the song is a nice premise and it hits well with its pacing and tone. Grade: B

Giza

This is nothing really more than a small outro from the prior song. It’s fine from that perspective but on its own as a track on the album it’s a total waste of time. I don’t have an issue with musicians doing odd crap like that, but given that this project had several other songs they recorded that didn’t make the album, there was clearly room for something else here. This is a royal waste of time, thankfully it only wastes about a minute and a half. Grade: D

Whiter Shade Of Pale

This is a cover of the beloved Procol Harum classic. The original is such a stunner due to its organ, psychedelic vibes and mournful tone. This rendition is a standard ’80’s guitar rock exercise that turns the song into a rock ballad. It’s not badly performed but it also strips the essence out of the song. And playing an all-time classic like this kind of exposes that the rest of the album was written in a hurry and isn’t fully fleshed out. Grade: C

Hot And Dirty

Here the band really get down and rock out. The song is again pretty basic but this is also really slamming. Schon really gets going with the guitar and this is one you can really raise your fist and yell to. Easily the highlight of the record. It’s also the least-streamed song on Spotfiy, people are missing out here. Grade: A-

He Will Understand

This song starts out as a ballad about being alone, then it starts rocking out in maybe a bit of a rock opera fashion at one point. There are the makings of a decent song here, but this is pretty disjointed and clumsy. It could have been much more than what it became. Grade: D+

My Home Town

The album ends with a banging hard rocker. It’s all about the pounding drums and bass and Schon’s flying guitar here. The crowd noise was not able to be removed here, it’s clear they are in a concert setting. A really nice way to send this album off. Grade: B+

Through The Fire did wind up with the fate of being a side project album. The collective fanbases of Sammy Hagar and Journey did not fall all over themselves to purchase the record. The album did not chart at all. The album’s only single was Whiter Shade Of Pale and it barely charted, hitting 94 on the Hot 100. The album was quickly forgotten as Sammy Hagar went into his VOA era and later into Van Halen, while Neal Schon pressed on with Journey. Hagar and Schon would reconvene decades later with the Planet Us project, though they only did two songs that were released later on a Sammy solo record.

The verdict on Through The Fire is honestly a hair more complicated that it seems on the surface. One aspect that does stand out is the production – they did a great job capturing new songs from live shows. It’s very easy to hear each instrument here and everything sounds great. It does have that live album feel to it but it was captured wonderfully. It is something that needs to be pointed out when discussing the record.

Overall though, this one doesn’t offer a whole lot. There are a handful of quality songs and there are a few missteps. It does stand out that this project had promise and could have benefited from more time in the oven. If they’d taken more time to flesh out some songs and offer up a few more dynamics, we’d be talking about a much different album.

Album Grade: C-

In the end we’re left with a footnote in the careers of Hagar and Schon, as well as Aaronson and Shrieve. That’s often what happens with these side project sort of releases – a bit of hype when it comes together, then the album quickly hits the cut-out bin as the band members go on to their day jobs. It’s a cheap and easy piece to get if you’re a Sammy or Neal completionist. (If you’re a Kenny Aaronson completionist, you need help and a large bank roll) But this album is not essential for any sort of listening beyond that, even in the backdrop of 1984 this one got left in the wake of all the massive music that came around that year.