Another decent box set from the ever-reliable Cherry Red, Rock Justice pulls together the first three albums from Alcatrazz, the band that was formed by Graham Bonnet following his all too brief tenure fronting the Michael Schenker Group. Like many of the 80’s hard rock bands, Alcatrazz had their fair share of ups and downs and line-up changes along the way, and are now probably best remembered for launching the career of Yngwie Malmsteen and then securing a more than capable replacement in Steve Vai. But having performed the magic trick once, when Vai left to join Dave Lee Roth they replaced him with Danny Johnson and lost their way with 1986’s Dangerous Games, the band going their separate ways the following year.

So, what is in the box? Well you get the three studio albums, 1983’s No Parole From Rock ‘N’ Roll, Disturbing The Peace from 1985 and the aforementioned Dangerous Games. Each comes with some level of bonus material by way of interviews, demos, instrumentals and rehearsals. Pulling together what else remains from the 80’s outtakes, disc four offers more unreleased demos from 1985 – 1986 and some new mixes by keyboardist Jimmy Waldo. Along with bassist Gary Shea, Waldo is still part of a 21st century reformed Alcatrazz fronted by Doogie White, with Bonnet having recently confirmed his own version of the band have a new album in the pipeline.

Written by Bonnet and Malmsteen for the most part, No Parole… remains the pick of the three studio albums, with MTV favourite ‘Islands in the Sun’ surely the best song Rainbow never wrote. The whole album, of course, was very much aimed at fans of Down to Earth, with Malmsteen’s classical licks and Waldo’s 80’s synths very much at the forefront and perfectly complementing Bonnet’s gritty vocals and melodic hooks. With Vai stepping into the breach, Disturbing the Peace continued in much the same style, albeit the guitar histrionics are toned down, with ‘God Blessed Video’ somehow not managing to be the big hit single that Alcatrazz needed in order to break out, despite it’s huge riff and chorus. By Dangerous Games, however, it is clear that the band have run out of steam, covers of ‘It’s My Life’ and ‘Only One Woman’ cannot hide the fact that when the band hit the studio there was a definite lack of decent songs around. With the significant line-up changes Alcatrazz were never going to be the most consistent of bands, but for anyone wanting to pull their 80’s work together in one place this box set is the definitive collection.