Tag: Sterling Cooke

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Sterling Cooke – Have Guitar… Will Rock

Sterling Cooke
Have Guitar… Will Rock
1989 (no label)
Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, USA

  1. Say What
  2. A Thousand Points of Light
  3. Little Wing
  4. Savoy Shuffle
  5. Red Sky at Night

This EP was released four years before Above and Beyond, so it makes you wonder if there are any other recordings out there. Like Above and Beyond, this is instrumental heavy metal with more attention paid to crafting songs than your typical instrumental metal. This also came four years after Cooke released Force This as Sterling Cooke Force, which Cooke has described as not well done. This tape was well done if you ask me. Not much information on this one – so I don’t know if Cooke recorded all the instruments here, or if others joined in.

Missing Information: Did anyone else play on this?

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Sterling Cooke – Above and Beyond

Sterling Cooke
Above and Beyond
1994 (no label)
Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, USA

Sterling Cooke – Guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, drum programming, percussion

Side 1:

  1. Above and Beyond
  2. New Day
  3. Fred Zeplin
  4. Greenpeace
  5. Walkin’ Shoes
  6. Rainbow Bridge

Side 2:

  1. Frankenstein
  2. Kick Some Acts
  3. Reflections
  4. Back to Cali
  5. The End Times

The cover looks like you are about to get a dose of Texas blues rock, but after the first intro song, you are treated to some 80s party metal. The liner notes state that the influence on this song is Van Halen and Ratt, and that fits. Well, if those bands did instrumentals for the Lord. The liner notes of other songs mention ZZ Top and Stevie Ray, so there is still that Texas blues influence as well. Yes, it is an all-instrumental guitar album, but Cooke seems to avoid the endless shredding that so many instrumental guitar albums beat to death. He focuses on writing songs and crafting melodies. I know that there was another album after this one in 1996 called Doxology, as well as an ep from 1989 called Have Guitar… Will Rock. Cooke also recorded as Sterling Cooke Force in the 80s, but I haven’t tracked down those recordings yet. From what I can find online, Cooke didn’t feel those early recordings were very well done. Seems he overcame what ever caused that by the time he got to this album.