Keel VI: Back in Action

Keel VI: Back in Action was released by DeROCK Records in 1998, Keel's first record since Larger Than Live in 1989. The front cover sets the names of Ron Keel, Marc Ferrari, Bryan Jay, Kenny Chaisson and Dwain Miller under the band's logo, above a large Roman numeral VI and a plate reading "Back in Action", and the spine reads "KEEL VI". The CD was made in Canada. Ron Keel and Marc Ferrari produced the album, and London Thompson mixed and mastered it at Wild Whirled in Phoenix, Arizona. There are ten tracks. The booklet credits "Back in Action" to all five members, "Reason to Rock" to Jay, Chaisson, Ron Keel and Miller, "Friday Every Night" to Jay and Ron Keel, "United Nations" to Ron Keel, and "Reach Out and Rock Somebody", "Proud to Be Loud" and "Answers in Your Eyes" to Ferrari, while "Hold Your Head Up" is by Rod Argent and Chris White. The closing pair, "Lay Down the Law '84" and "Speed Demon '84", take the titles of two songs from the 1984 debut album Lay Down the Law with the year added, and both are credited to Ron Keel. Ferrari has said that Keel left "Proud to Be Loud" on the shelf after he had recorded it for the band, and that Pantera, to whom he played it in 1987, cut their own version for their album Power Metal. Ron Keel later put the album down to friendship: after the split the members had kept in touch and kept playing together, and in 1998 they made Back in Action. When the band reunited in 2009, the line-up was Ron Keel, Ferrari, Jay and Miller with Geno Arce on bass. The provisional track list of Streets of Rock & Roll published in September 2009 included "Reason To Rock (Reunion Version)", and the Japanese edition of that album adds "Reason to Rock" as a bonus track.