The constant divisions in the Heavy Metal camp these days have helped to push tentative bands like Kick Axe away from raucous rock and towards more sophisticated production. Instead of moving into the direction of many American bands to simply "party" on their album, bassist Victor Langen explains that they wanted to develop a more European sensibility. More specifically they wanted to work on the Roy Thomas Baker sound that was so popular in the seventies.
With this in mind the band wanted to fill out their sound while still maintaining a hard edge. All five members sing, so instead of merely doubling vocals they doubled and sometimes tripled each part of the harmonies as well as doubling George Criston's lead vocals. langen used a guitar Rockman on his bass on three tracks ("With a Little Help..", "Welcome to the Club", and "Make Your Move") because the bass Rockman was, "too compressed sounding to my taste." Again, his bass was doubled using the Rockman and a dry track.
All the bed tracks and vocals were recorded at Metalworks and the lead guitars and keyboard embellishments were added at Pasha. One of the two lead guitarists, Raymond Harvey, says that to maintain consistent with the high quality of the sound at Metalworks they kept a level of simplicity in the recording. The guitars were generally miked off Marshall amps. "We went through about a dozen sets of amps before we found a pair that wouldn't shake and rattle when we turned them up to ten for a while." Instead of pointing directly into the amps the mikes were pointed at the hardwood floor in front of the amps to give a more room-like sound.
