When these two re-mastered albums dropped into my inbox, I was originally perplexed. Who is this Carmine Appice? I've never even heard of the man! Yet here he has two records re-mastered, so he must have done something right. Then I quickly Googled him, and damn... What a resume. Throughout his stellar career, he has drummed with the likes of Paul Stanley, Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck, whilst also having multiple best-selling drumming educational courses. So, it's safe to say, Mr Appice is one hell of a drummer. A songwriter however? Most definitely not.

Both of these records come across as the erratic mix tape of an artist never truly sure of who he wants to copy more. With "Rockers", Appice creates a monotonous bastardization of Phil Collins and Billy Joel's discographies, without any of the catchy melodies or superlative production. Whereas "V8" is barely a record. Half of the tracks feel as if they were just ideas, that were never developed and just released, regardless of length or quality. The other half however is just Carmine pretending to be a mixture of STEELY DAN and AVERAGE WHITE BAND. There are occasional drum centric tracks, but these are ruined by awful instrumentation on every instrument other than drums.

A perfect example of the quality of these records is the track, which is actually on both of them. Yes. The same track is on both of these re-mastered records. It is exactly the same track. A cover of "Paint It Black" originally by THE ROLLING STONES. This is essentially a drum solo. The drumming is fantastic, but everything else is not. The cheesiest, annoying and grating synthesized reimagining of the guitar parts from the original song. If only Appice had just left this as a drum solo, but no, instead he completely destroys one of the best songs ever written! It is excruciatingly painful.

Songs such as "Have You Heard" and "Drum City Rocker" raise the quality slightly, but the better songwriting results in incredibly generic drumming. Literally the only reason anyone would ever pick up these records, i.e. the drumming, is boring on the only listenable tracks! Some musicians are songwriters and instrumentalists. However, this is a painful example of how being talented at playing an instrument, does not mean they are a good songwriter.<