Mood Swings

Archive for the ‘4 stars’ Category

This band were on my radar at one stage, but I never seemed to find out much about them. In fact, the bands history goes back to 1989 and they released their first self-financed album, "Presence Of Mind", in 2000. They followed up in 2004 with "Omega".  After this the band went on hold for a period until interest picked up when singer Anette Olzon became a member of Nightwish. The band re-released their earlier albums in 2009 and started looking for a new singer. Arabella Vitanc got the gig and band set about the long process of recording this album.

On first track, "Liar", I was expecting something resembling Heart, but there is a bit more of an edge to the sound - maybe a little bit of Romeo’s Daughter in the mix as well. This is followed by a duet with Michael Bormann on which the voices work well together, but perhaps it is little too early in the album this this type of track.

Around the middle of the album on tracks like "Amazing Days", "Don’t Know Love Is Alive" and later on with "Somewhere", I’m hearing lots of Robin Beck in the sound and it sounds good. A couple of tracks, "Fallen" and "Into The Fire", prove that the band can cut it on slightly heavier material. I mentioned Romeo’s Daughter before and they are again a reference point for these tracks.

Elsewhere the other tracks are of similarly high quality, making this a very consistent album. Chris Laney does a good job on production. The net result is a great album of female fronted rock.

Shadowman is a bit of a cult AOR supergroup featuring Steve Overland (Wildlife, FM & The Ladder), Steve Morris (Gillan, Heartland), Chris Childs (various recording and touring gigs including Thunder, Go West & Andy Taylor) and Harry James (Thunder, Magnum).

I remember the Wildlife album I had being impressive stuff and since then Steve has been a favourite vocalist of mine, especially when FM where hitting their high spot. Heartland are another great UK melodic rock/AOR band where Steve Morris hooks up with another good vocalist, Chris Ousey). Thunder are another band that feature in my record collection. Therefore my expectations for this album we pretty high. In fact, I’m pretty surprised that this is my first encounter with Shadowman.

Well, as you would expect from musicians of this calibre, this album bops along quite nicely. The Led Zep influence on "Heaven Waits", "Whatever It Takes" has hints of the Eagles and little keyboard flourishes on tracks like "Waiting For A Miracle" (Gillan influence?) are the other things that kind of surprised me, but otherwise everything is as expected.  Fans of UK melodic rock as performed by FM & Heartland will be very happy with it. It has been a while since I listened to any material featuring Steve Overland, and this is an excellent reminder of what I’ve been missing. Of course, for Steve to shine the rest of the guys need to play their part and this they do so in style.

When the band hit a groove the music seems to flow effortlessly, such as on tracks "Watching Over You", "Waiting For A Miracle",  "Stop Breaking This Heart of Mine" and "Party Is Over".

Shining Line is an all star Melodic Rock/AOR project under the leadership of Italians Pierpaolo "Zorro11" Monti (songwriter & drummer) and Amos Monti (bassist). The guest vocalist list is huge. Alessandro Del Vecchio handles production and Michael Voss mixing and mastering. Completing the package on the musical side, we have Alessandro Del Vecchio on keyboards, Marco "Dandy" D’Andrea (Planethard)  and Mario Percudani (Hungryheart) on guitars, plus of course Piepaolo and Amos.

‘Highway Of Love’ starts off the show in good style with a good uptempo AOR track featuring Erik Martensson (Ecliplse) on vocals and it is clear that the album offers plenty of promise. This is followed up by some first Harem Scarem album style AOR with none other than Harry Hess on vocals. When third track, ‘Strong Enough’, starts and you are presented with another great track featuring Robbie LeBlanc, it should be clear that this is album with the potential to be really good.

And it doesn’t disappoint. Robin Beck gives a sterling performance on "Heat Of The Light", Mikael Erlandsson (Last Autumn’s Dream) follows on nicely on "Can’t Stop The Rock" and Sue Willets & Bob Rock work well together on "Still In Your Heart". And so it goes on, with only occasional tracks such as "The Meaning Of My Lonely Words" and "Homeless Lullaby" being a bit below the high standard but still perfectly listenable. Three part track "Under Silent Walls" with lead vocals by Michael Voss sits well at the start of the second half adding a feeling of depth to the album.

My review period for this album has been extended as I devoted some time to revamping the site and my enthusiasm for this album hasn’t faded. Albums that find favour during a shorter review period can sometimes fade into the background and not be that frequent listens. However, that hasn’t been the case with this album and it has stood the test of time!

Despite the fact that the guys have released 7 albums before this from 2004 onwards, I have only recently discovered the band. Just as they show up on my radar, this latest album pops up in my review inbox.

The band was originally formed by vocalist Mikael Erlandsson and Andy Malecek (Fair Warning). The original version of the band also consisted of 3 members of Europe, who later left when Europe reformed. The band has been through various line-up changes over the years and now consists of Mikael and Andy, along with Jamie Borger (Talisman & Treat) on drums and Nalle Pahlsson (Treat, Zan Clan, Vinditiv & Therion) on bass.

The style of the album is lightweight melodic rock meets AOR. Whilst that may sound retro, they deliver the tracks in a manner which makes the music sound fresh and vibrant. If I tell you that there is a cover of Michael Bolton’s ‘Fool’s Game’ and a Jeff Paris track called ‘Kissin’ Goodbye My Tears’, you will be able to work out where the guys are coming from.

‘I’m Fallin Into You’ is a great up-tempo start that reminds me of early Harem Scarem. You will find yourself wanting to sing along with Mikael’s raspy vocals. In fact, many of the tracks have an instantly familiar feel and greet you like a long lost friend. You will find yourself singing along without realising it. ‘Michelle Don’t Live Here Anymore’ being another prime example.

Second track, ‘The Sound Of A Heartbreak’, has an up-tempo melodic hard rock meets AOR feel and you realise you are in for a very pleasurable listening experience.

The album hits a peak starting with the aforementioned  ‘Michelle Don’t Live Here Anymore’ and the following couple of tracks, ‘In This Thing Too Deep’ has the guys putting in more effort in the song writing department on this glam AOR track. ‘Still Standing Where You Left Me’ is a track that grabs you a few times into listening to the album, making you wonder why it didn’t stand out on previous listens. Throw in a couple of ballads in the form of ‘If I Could Change The World’, ‘Alive’ and the soft rock of ‘Another Night’, and you’ve got an album that should satisfy most fans of melodic rock and AOR.

Rating: 4 stars

“The Showdown” is the third installment from the team of Jorn Lande (Jorn & Masterplan) and Russell Allen (Sympathy X) on vocals with Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Starbreaker) on guitars/keyboards/bass and song writing. Jaime Salazar completes the line-up drums.

I have to admit that whilst I have heard both 2005’s “The Battle” and 2007’s “The Revenge”, this is third album is the first time I have really sat down and spent some time listening to these guys.

And an impressive experience it is. In their day jobs Allen and Lande have proven that they are top notch singers and Karlsson has displayed some impressive song writing skills in his various projects. If you have heard the first two albums, then it is no surprise that we are dealing with melodic hard rock that sometimes has elements of symphonic metal. Title track, “The Showdown”, is a powerful opener and next track “Judgement Day” combines melody and power which is basically what this album is all about. The band then proceed to romp through a fairly consistent set of tracks that have a good balance of light and shade. In addition to that opeing duo, highlights include the heavy AOR of “Bloodlines”, “We Will Rise Again” and the more metal “The Artist”.

So we have another impressive addition to the Allen/Lande catalogue.

Rating: 4 Stars

www.frontiers/it , http://www.jornlande.com/ , http://www.myspace.com/allenlande2

Vega teams up former Kick vocalist, Nick Workman, with songwriting duo Tom & James Martin (HOL, Khymera, Sunstorm etc) and drummer Dan Chantrey, plus adds Dennis Ward (PC69) at the mastering desk.

I’m not that familiar with either Nick or the Martin’s previous efforts, but what I hear on this album is a style which is retro. We are talking keyboard heavy 80s rock meets pop. At times I felt Rick Springfield was a good comparison, along with acts like Balance, Aviator and Harlan Cage. Towards the end of the album a couple of tracks reminded me of Billy Idol. A good production job on the album keeps it sounding fresh, rather than dated.

This is a slick music generation machine, with everyone playing their part well. I found the vocals took me a little while to get used to. At first, I wasn’t sure they matched the music, but they have won me over.

When I was going through rating each song, I found the majority of the tracks got a 4 star rating. The ballads are decent enough, but they seemed to lack the spark of the other songs. However, they don’t detract from the positive impact of songs like “Kiss of Life”, “One Of A Kind” & “Staring At The Sun” where the band create some great keyboard driven AOR with vocals, keyboards and guitars all intertwined marvelleously.

Rating: 4 Stars

www.myspace.com/vegaofficial , www.frontiers.it