First Spin Impressions

[Geoff]

For interest's sake, I've decided to embark on a super creepy adventure which will see me line up my two lists this year - MHR & Modern, and play the equally ranked disc from one list back to back with the disc from the other list. Out of nothing other than pure curiosity.

 

As I admitted above, I think the top 5 MHR discs will probably out-rank the modern stuff pretty easily, like Hitchcock is currently completely schooling the awesome Destrophy disc... BUT... I will be interested to see how it goes later down the list. I think there are a lot more enjoyable modern rock releases this year than MHR, is what I think one of my points were. I reckon as I get in the 10-40 region it will be quite interesting. Actually... looking at everything after this crazy good Hitchcock disc, I think it will all be very competitive.

 

Anyway, just a thing I'm doing with my new found musical freedom (at times) at work. Will post some of my findings as I go along... in a new thread, of course.

[heaven&hell]

Outloud - Love Catastrophe

A good album so far but not near as memorable as the debut IMO.

[Fat Freddy]

Warrant - BELLY TO BELLY

 

One of my co-workers (a fellow metal/hard rock fan, I've been tryin' to get him to join this forum for a while now, unsuccessfully) loaned me this today as part of the ongoing Jani Lane Pity Party. Two spins and I brought it right back to him saying "Ugh. That was bad."

 

Mind you this guy hates ULTRAPHOBIC, yet he owns BELLY TO BELLY. Good Lord. Gimme ULTRAPHOBIC any day of the week.

[Geoff]

Warrant - BELLY TO BELLY

 

One of my co-workers (a fellow metal/hard rock fan, I've been tryin' to get him to join this forum for a while now, unsuccessfully) loaned me this today as part of the ongoing Jani Lane Pity Party. Two spins and I brought it right back to him saying "Ugh. That was bad."

 

Mind you this guy hates ULTRAPHOBIC, yet he owns BELLY TO BELLY. Good Lord. Gimme ULTRAPHOBIC any day of the week.

Yeah, I tried again yesterday and it just doesn't work for me either. There are actually a fair percentage of songs on the CD that I can listen to just fine, but there's nothing aside from 'Letter to a friend' that makes me want to hear any of the songs again. Sadly, it's just a bad CD. Still, I will admit that it is 100% better than Dokken's 'Shadowlife.' If that means anything...

[Fat Freddy]

I will admit that it is 100% better than Dokken's 'Shadowlife.' If that means anything...

 

I own SHADOWLIFE and I even listen to it occasionally. I'd take that one over BELLY TO BELLY too.

[Glen]

Work Of Art - In Progress

 

Right off the bat Im gonna say that this is head and shoulders above any other pure AOR release so far this year and with only really Mecca II to come (which is supposed to be excellent by the way!), I cant really see it being topped (AOR wise) in 2011. The production is pretty stunning - I mean this is how an album is supposed to sound. Everything just sits perfectly and the mix is absolutely nailed. Vocals throughout are awesome, musicianship is top drawer. At least 3/4 of the songs feature excellent sing a long first time choruses. The only negative thing I can say about this album (and these are minor gripes) is that the whole album just sounds very familiar - WoA are definitely operating in their 'comfort zone' here and in many of the verses you can hear rhythms, samples, etc which are featured on the first album. The worst example of this is in the song 'Eye Of The Storm' where the verse is almost a copy cat of a song from the debut (havent checked out which)...you can almost forgive them tho cos the chorus is straight out of heaven....an AOR wet dream. elsewhere I have to admit that the chorus in 'The Rain' and 'Emelie' are just too close for comfort....that said again each song is excellent in its own right. That's why the highlights for me so far (purely based on 2 spins) are the songs which show a slight departure from their signature sound - 'Never Love Again'...which has hints of classic era 80s Journey and is utterly brilliant and 'Castaway' which starts out with an acoustic style (with awesome vocal!) but then explodes into the best chorus Ive heard all year -like the best Harem Scarem chorus youve heard. Just WOW!. Bottom line is there's hardly a weak moment on this, the albums flows just great. This is good - whether its good enough to top Toby Hitchcock remains to be seen....Im not sure it has the 'wow' factor of some of those songs, but I wont know for sure until I have the originals and can spin plenty of times. Definitely lives up to the hype tho.

[heaven&hell]

Warrant - BELLY TO BELLY

 

One of my co-workers (a fellow metal/hard rock fan, I've been tryin' to get him to join this forum for a while now, unsuccessfully) loaned me this today as part of the ongoing Jani Lane Pity Party. Two spins and I brought it right back to him saying "Ugh. That was bad."

 

Mind you this guy hates ULTRAPHOBIC, yet he owns BELLY TO BELLY. Good Lord. Gimme ULTRAPHOBIC any day of the week.

Yeah, I tried again yesterday and it just doesn't work for me either. There are actually a fair percentage of songs on the CD that I can listen to just fine, but there's nothing aside from 'Letter to a friend' that makes me want to hear any of the songs again. Sadly, it's just a bad CD. Still, I will admit that it is 100% better than Dokken's 'Shadowlife.' If that means anything...

 

I think I have listened to Belly more than Shadowlife. Yup there are some dreadful songs on Belly but I do love "Letter to a Friend", "AYM", "Indian Giver", "Coffee House", "Solid", "Vertigo" and "Feels Good".

[TIM (2)]

BLACK TIDE - Post Mortem

 

Got a freebie of their new disc (out next week I think) and, having enjoyed a few tunes from their debut - which I only heard but didn't buy - I was looking forward to them cranking up the heaviness a bit as they came across like a slightly thrashier Trivium (without the good musicianship or great songs). This time round they sound like a 3rd rate Bullet For My Valentine (who are already pretty 3rd rate themselves). In fact they bring in a pop/punk sound to some of this, and it sounds like they're totally confused about which direction to take. One or two of the songs are just plain embarrassing. I know some of you round here think that the Black Veil Brides are worth listening to (I don't), in which case you might enjoy some of this, but the reality is that this band SUCK and there are a million unsigned bands out there better than this. Only the heavy/melodic strut of "Walking Dead Man" redeems this in any way at all, otherwise it's a 1/10. With 0/10 for the woeful production. DO NOT BUY THIS ALBUM.

[Geoff]

BLACK TIDE - Post Mortem

 

Got a freebie of their new disc (out next week I think) and, having enjoyed a few tunes from their debut - which I only heard but didn't buy - I was looking forward to them cranking up the heaviness a bit as they came across like a slightly thrashier Trivium (without the good musicianship or great songs). This time round they sound like a 3rd rate Bullet For My Valentine (who are already pretty 3rd rate themselves). In fact they bring in a pop/punk sound to some of this, and it sounds like they're totally confused about which direction to take. One or two of the songs are just plain embarrassing. I know some of you round here think that the Black Veil Brides are worth listening to (I don't), in which case you might enjoy some of this, but the reality is that this band SUCK and there are a million unsigned bands out there better than this. Only the heavy/melodic strut of "Walking Dead Man" redeems this in any way at all, otherwise it's a 1/10. With 0/10 for the woeful production. DO NOT BUY THIS ALBUM.

HAHA! To be totally honest, after finding the debut as bland as dog shit I'd never have bothered to check this out, but your review has made me think it might be worth a cheeky listen!

[Nightrain]

Edguy - Age of The Joker (2011)

Still continuing the path of melodic metal, 'Joker' is much better than 'Tinnitus', but to say that it's better than 'Rocket' is quite hard. Among 11 tracks, there are at least 6 superb tracks I found here, with only 2 fillers, and the rest are pretty balanced good tracks.

 

'Robin Hood' has that Iron Maiden feel but kinda too long clocking at 8 minutes; 'Nobody's Hero' riffs are spectacular, love this one!; 'Two Out of Seven' is full of commercial drips, another great one; 'The Arcane Guild' is probably the fastest track, too bad it's the only single power metal track, wish there are at least couple more powerful tunes like this; 'Fire On The Downline' is a bit AOR-ish; and 'Every Night Without You' is a wonderful ballad.

 

'Pandora's Box' and 'Faces In The Darkness' are the weakest links for me here but not totally horrible though, the rest are pretty good. I'll say a solid 80% is deserved on the first spin, might climb to 85% later and finish around #25-#35 in my end-of-year's list. A good effort on climbing back the ladder and hopefully this is a sign of Sammet's strong comeback.

[Glen]

Edguy - Age of The Joker (2011)

Still continuing the path of melodic metal, 'Joker' is much better than 'Tinnitus', but to say that it's better than 'Rocket' is quite hard. Among 11 tracks, there are at least 6 superb tracks I found here, with only 2 fillers, and the rest are pretty balanced good tracks.

 

'Robin Hood' has that Iron Maiden feel but kinda too long clocking at 8 minutes; 'Nobody's Hero' riffs are spectacular, love this one!; 'Two Out of Seven' is full of commercial drips, another great one; 'The Arcane Guild' is probably the fastest track, too bad it's the only single power metal track, wish there are at least couple more powerful tunes like this; 'Fire On The Downline' is a bit AOR-ish; and 'Every Night Without You' is a wonderful ballad.

 

'Pandora's Box' and 'Faces In The Darkness' are the weakest links for me here but not totally horrible though, the rest are pretty good. I'll say a solid 80% is deserved on the first spin, might climb to 85% later and finish around #25-#35 in my end-of-year's list. A good effort on climbing back the ladder and hopefully this is a sign of Sammet's strong comeback.

 

wowser man, you have 25-35 albums ranked above 85%

 

Realistically so far its about 10-15. Hey ho.

 

Pretty much agree with your summation of this album. Yeah Id say there are about 5 out and out winners here....namely 'Nobodys Hero' , 'Breathe', 'Two Out Of Seven', 'Fire On The Downline' and 'Every Night Without You'.....each is excellent in its own right and any of them could have featured (strongly) on Rocketride.

 

The album starts out with 'Robin Hood' which in true Sammatt style is tongue in cheek, but God damn me if this doesnt kick MAJOR arse from 5 mins, shame they couldnt ditch the spoken word parts cos it could have been awesome.

 

'Rock Of Cashel' (a castly type tourist attraction in Ireland if anyone's interested) is typically Irish sounding and kind of heart warming, but a bit of a mistake.....so is 'Behind The Gates' which is a bit overlong and not enough going on.

 

But the rest is good to very good......all in all, a very good effort from Edguy and proves that Rocketride wasnt just a one off melodic attempt away from the typical euro power metal.

[Nightrain]

wowser man, you have 25-35 albums ranked above 85%

 

Realistically so far its about 10-15. Hey ho.

 

haha well like i said, to me, 2011 is a strong year, but i tend to lump any genre that i like into the whole top 100 so unlike Geoff who have a different list, i might see a modern disc, heavy metal, thrash, prog or any great disc together with MHR, though of course the list is 80% dominated by MHR/AOR

 

and so far it's actually around 25 albums that i rank above 85%, if Edguy later were stucked in 80%, then it's around #35 (right now i have more than 40 albums above 80%)

 

my highly-rated discs that probably isn't in your list are Within Temptation, Symphony X, Headshot, Big Life, Wicked Jester, Battle Beast, Whitesnake, Tesla, and Blackrain

 

but till the end of year, the list will fluctuates wildly, depends on what comes later, i expect several strong contender in the top 20 such as Reckless Love, Steel Panther, Vega (any info whether this is 2011 or 2012?), Sencelled, Newman, House of Lords, Dream Theater, Anthrax, White Widdow, Megadeth, etc

 

Pretty much agree with your summation of this album. Yeah Id say there are about 5 out and out winners here....namely 'Nobodys Hero' , 'Breathe', 'Two Out Of Seven', 'Fire On The Downline' and 'Every Night Without You'.....each is excellent in its own right and any of them could have featured (strongly) on Rocketride.

 

The album starts out with 'Robin Hood' which in true Sammatt style is tongue in cheek, but God damn me if this doesnt kick MAJOR arse from 5 mins, shame they couldnt ditch the spoken word parts cos it could have been awesome.

 

'Rock Of Cashel' (a castly type tourist attraction in Ireland if anyone's interested) is typically Irish sounding and kind of heart warming, but a bit of a mistake.....so is 'Behind The Gates' which is a bit overlong and not enough going on.

 

But the rest is good to very good......all in all, a very good effort from Edguy and proves that Rocketride wasnt just a one off melodic attempt away from the typical euro power metal.

 

'Rock of Cashel' has an interesting melodic riffs and that folkish Irish sounding you mentioned, but the verse/chorus is a bit weaker than the rest, though it's still a good track. Couple of 'too long' tracks, maybe an old habit that's carried on from his Avantasia project, I think power/melodic metal without any prog element, should be limited to 5.50 - 6 minutes max, otherwise it will get monotonous and repetitive.

 

interesting release, hopefully it grows more later, i spotted a two versions of this disc, there is a limited 2CD edition but damn it's a digipak, i'll wait couple of months on Amazon till it dropped around 8 or 9 GBP, then it's a buy

[Glen]

wowser man, you have 25-35 albums ranked above 85%

 

Realistically so far its about 10-15. Hey ho.

 

haha well like i said, to me, 2011 is a strong year, but i tend to lump any genre that i like into the whole top 100 so unlike Geoff who have a different list, i might see a modern disc, heavy metal, thrash, prog or any great disc together with MHR, though of course the list is 80% dominated by MHR/AOR

 

and so far it's actually around 25 albums that i rank above 85%, if Edguy later were stucked in 80%, then it's around #35 (right now i have more than 40 albums above 80%)

 

my highly-rated discs that probably isn't in your list are Within Temptation, Symphony X, Headshot, Big Life, Wicked Jester, Battle Beast, Whitesnake, Tesla, and Blackrain

 

but till the end of year, the list will fluctuates wildly, depends on what comes later, i expect several strong contender in the top 20 such as Reckless Love, Steel Panther, Vega (any info whether this is 2011 or 2012?), Sencelled, Newman, House of Lords, Dream Theater, Anthrax, White Widdow, Megadeth, etc

 

Pretty much agree with your summation of this album. Yeah Id say there are about 5 out and out winners here....namely 'Nobodys Hero' , 'Breathe', 'Two Out Of Seven', 'Fire On The Downline' and 'Every Night Without You'.....each is excellent in its own right and any of them could have featured (strongly) on Rocketride.

 

The album starts out with 'Robin Hood' which in true Sammatt style is tongue in cheek, but God damn me if this doesnt kick MAJOR arse from 5 mins, shame they couldnt ditch the spoken word parts cos it could have been awesome.

 

'Rock Of Cashel' (a castly type tourist attraction in Ireland if anyone's interested) is typically Irish sounding and kind of heart warming, but a bit of a mistake.....so is 'Behind The Gates' which is a bit overlong and not enough going on.

 

But the rest is good to very good......all in all, a very good effort from Edguy and proves that Rocketride wasnt just a one off melodic attempt away from the typical euro power metal.

 

'Rock of Cashel' has an interesting melodic riffs and that folkish Irish sounding you mentioned, but the verse/chorus is a bit weaker than the rest, though it's still a good track. Couple of 'too long' tracks, maybe an old habit that's carried on from his Avantasia project, I think power/melodic metal without any prog element, should be limited to 5.50 - 6 minutes max, otherwise it will get monotonous and repetitive.

 

interesting release, hopefully it grows more later, i spotted a two versions of this disc, there is a limited 2CD edition but damn it's a digipak, i'll wait couple of months on Amazon till it dropped around 8 or 9 GBP, then it's a buy

 

Yeah the Within Temptation is a keeper - I got the deluxe version off itunes as well which has a couple of bonus tracks. Whitesnake is also good - a grower.

 

Wont be picking up the Tesla or the Wicked Jester - sound didnt do it for me. Would like to hear Symphony X so might check that out on Spotify.

 

Regarding whats to come I agree and am really excited about Reckless Love, Steel Panther and White Widdow. HOL has been pretty hit and miss over the last couple albums....so not too sure about that one. Vega will definitely be 2012 now.

 

Also dont forget the following - Strangeways (think this is set for Oct and s/b great! fingers crossed for this one), Mecca II (heard good things on this one too - supposed to be a cracker!), The Magnificent (AOR project due Dec I think - the sound sample they had on Melrock.com sounded awesome!), Grand Design, Kimball/Jamison......................all have the potential to be great!!

[TIM (2)]

 

Regarding whats to come I agree and am really excited about Reckless Love, Steel Panther and White Widdow. HOL has been pretty hit and miss over the last couple albums....so not too sure about that one. Vega will definitely be 2012 now.

 

Also dont forget the following - Strangeways (think this is set for Oct and s/b great! fingers crossed for this one), Mecca II (heard good things on this one too - supposed to be a cracker!), The Magnificent (AOR project due Dec I think - the sound sample they had on Melrock.com sounded awesome!), Grand Design, Kimball/Jamison......................all have the potential to be great!!

 

Given I don't really like Steel Panther or WW, and Reckless Love are great but not all their stuff is appealing to me, then after getting physical CD's of WoA and Toby Hitchcock I don't have a lot to look forward to! Strangeways could be good, but the last one was shite and even Brock's "Diamond Blue" album was patchy. Do you honestly think Mecca could be great? I mean, the first one was proper elevator music IMO, right up there with Michael Bolton's Christmas album...

[Glen]

 

Regarding whats to come I agree and am really excited about Reckless Love, Steel Panther and White Widdow. HOL has been pretty hit and miss over the last couple albums....so not too sure about that one. Vega will definitely be 2012 now.

 

Also dont forget the following - Strangeways (think this is set for Oct and s/b great! fingers crossed for this one), Mecca II (heard good things on this one too - supposed to be a cracker!), The Magnificent (AOR project due Dec I think - the sound sample they had on Melrock.com sounded awesome!), Grand Design, Kimball/Jamison......................all have the potential to be great!!

 

Given I don't really like Steel Panther or WW, and Reckless Love are great but not all their stuff is appealing to me, then after getting physical CD's of WoA and Toby Hitchcock I don't have a lot to look forward to! Strangeways could be good, but the last one was shite and even Brock's "Diamond Blue" album was patchy. Do you honestly think Mecca could be great? I mean, the first one was proper elevator music IMO, right up there with Michael Bolton's Christmas album...

 

my my you are a hard man to please. If there's one album due which I think is gonna be a cop out its HOL.......they just dont appeal anymore.

 

Diamond Blue patchy??! I listened to that album just yesterday and its still pretty great IMO. Maybe one filler?? The rest is just sublime AOR IMO.

 

As for the rest Im only going on what ive read etc...yeah some could be shite, but Brock has gone on record to say that are going back to WITF sound with a big production....so you either believe him or not....WW I think will be great, purely based on the few samples Ive heard it sounds like it will surpass the debut by some way....Mecca II might be shite..I didnt really like the debut that much either, but this is supposed to be step up....

 

One which I think might be really special is 'The Magnificent'....keep an eye on that one (due Dec I think) as the sample I heard was pretty stunning.

 

Also just read today that Grand Illusion have a new album due in October....now this doesnt excite me one bit, but I know you like them.

[TIM (2)]

 

Regarding whats to come I agree and am really excited about Reckless Love, Steel Panther and White Widdow. HOL has been pretty hit and miss over the last couple albums....so not too sure about that one. Vega will definitely be 2012 now.

 

Also dont forget the following - Strangeways (think this is set for Oct and s/b great! fingers crossed for this one), Mecca II (heard good things on this one too - supposed to be a cracker!), The Magnificent (AOR project due Dec I think - the sound sample they had on Melrock.com sounded awesome!), Grand Design, Kimball/Jamison......................all have the potential to be great!!

 

Given I don't really like Steel Panther or WW, and Reckless Love are great but not all their stuff is appealing to me, then after getting physical CD's of WoA and Toby Hitchcock I don't have a lot to look forward to! Strangeways could be good, but the last one was shite and even Brock's "Diamond Blue" album was patchy. Do you honestly think Mecca could be great? I mean, the first one was proper elevator music IMO, right up there with Michael Bolton's Christmas album...

 

my my you are a hard man to please. If there's one album due which I think is gonna be a cop out its HOL.......they just dont appeal anymore.

 

Diamond Blue patchy??! I listened to that album just yesterday and its still pretty great IMO. Maybe one filler?? The rest is just sublime AOR IMO.

 

As for the rest Im only going on what ive read etc...yeah some could be shite, but Brock has gone on record to say that are going back to WITF sound with a big production....so you either believe him or not....WW I think will be great, purely based on the few samples Ive heard it sounds like it will surpass the debut by some way....Mecca II might be shite..I didnt really like the debut that much either, but this is supposed to be step up....

 

One which I think might be really special is 'The Magnificent'....keep an eye on that one (due Dec I think) as the sample I heard was pretty stunning.

 

Also just read today that Grand Illusion have a new album due in October....now this doesnt excite me one bit, but I know you like them.

 

Yeah "Diamond Blue" didn't do it for me. Nice production and great guitar work, but too formulaic with not enough passion/soul IMO (though from track 5 on it gets a lot more interesting) and a bit forced and workmanlike. Grand Illusion are good and always have at least 2 songs worth the album price alone, even if their best albums are behind them. Agree about HOL. I know I'm hard to please but these days I listen to a lot of modern rock/metal too so only want to buy albums I'm actually going to like/play otherwise they will guarantee to collect dust...

[Nightrain]

hi Tim, i'm curious on how you can get into modern metal thing ?

 

i listen to almost every music, and i try to chew lots of metalcore stuff from Lamb of God, As I Lay Dying, Trivium, Shadows Fall, and some other modern thrash, but nothing's good with me, probably there are a few, but most of em are not. As for Trivium, I only like 'The Crusade' but it's only because the sound is very close to Metallica.

 

because as far as I know, modern metal is like a huge opposite of the 80s which I think is supposed to be your thing, just like grunge to the glam.

[TIM (2)]

hi Tim, i'm curious on how you can get into modern metal thing ?

 

i listen to almost every music, and i try to chew lots of metalcore stuff from Lamb of God, As I Lay Dying, Trivium, Shadows Fall, and some other modern thrash, but nothing's good with me, probably there are a few, but most of em are not. As for Trivium, I only like 'The Crusade' but it's only because the sound is very close to Metallica.

 

because as far as I know, modern metal is like a huge opposite of the 80s which I think is supposed to be your thing, just like grunge to the glam.

 

My taste evolved when bands like Machine Head and Anthrax started doing something different in the 90's, and then Slipknot came along and I loved it (contrary to everyone else on planet Heavy Harmonies). Never got into the tuneless nu-metal of Deftones/KORN etc, but then started loving heavier vocal styles. These days I love screaming/growling vocals but only if the music is heavy, and I love bands that combine heavy versus with a melodic chorus. Trivium, Slipknot and Killswitch are the best at it IMO, and bands like Asking Alexandria take it to the extreme (brutal versus with almost pop-like catchy choruses). There are some songs on the new Trivium (like "Built to Fall", "Watch the World Burn", "Of all these Yesterdays") that have all clean vocals and are catchier than anything on "The Crusade" by a million miles. I thought "The Crusade" was pretty patchy songwise whereas the albums before and after it were both nearly flawless...

[Nightrain]

cool i'll go check out the latest Trivium and see how it goes

[Nightrain]

Diamond Lane - World Without Heroes (2011)

 

a gem slipped by my very eyes, another overlook awesome indie, combining sleaze, 80s hooks, and modern metal edge, think of Avenged Sevenfold, Guns N' Roses, and Hardcore Superstar in one bowl. 10 songs, first five is better than the second half, with 'All Rebels Welcome', 'City of Sin', 'Sundress City', and 'Never Going Home' being the winner. The guitar parts, especially on some solos, are very close to Slash style. Great album, probably I'll rate this a solid 85% comfortably, let's see if this will go further than that, but can't deny the quality of this album!

[Geoff]

Diamond Lane - World Without Heroes (2011)

 

a gem slipped by my very eyes, another overlook awesome indie, combining sleaze, 80s hooks, and modern metal edge, think of Avenged Sevenfold, Guns N' Roses, and Hardcore Superstar in one bowl. 10 songs, first five is better than the second half, with 'All Rebels Welcome', 'City of Sin', 'Sundress City', and 'Never Going Home' being the winner. The guitar parts, especially on some solos, are very close to Slash style. Great album, probably I'll rate this a solid 85% comfortably, let's see if this will go further than that, but can't deny the quality of this album!

I liked that one too on my first spin, haven't heard it since. Must re-locate it.

[Nightrain]

Roadhouse - s/t (1991)

been hearing lots of great news about this one. Musically, it's similar to FM/Giant/Def Leppard, with very good vocal work by Paul Jackson (kinda have that Darren Wharton/Steve overland vibe). Some winners here are 'Time', 'Loving You', 'Hell Can Wait', and 'One Heart'. The ballads are stronger than the melodic rock tunes, some songs could have been better especially the verse on 'All Join Hands' or 'Desperate Calling'. Overall, a good disc, will probably fall between 75% to 80%.

[Nightrain]

XORIGIN - State of The Art (2011)

another one that i expect to be a top twenty-er and yes i guess it didn't let down. In fact, it's a very good AOR thing whose sound is somewhat quite close to Work of Art, but of course WoA is on top of their game so it's pretty hard to level the game. Some goodies to make this a keeper are 'Can't Keep Running', 'Crying For You', 'Too Late', 'The One For Me', 'What Love Is All About', and the ballad 'Mend My Heart'. Some average/decent tracks that should have done better like 'Said And Done' or 'Gina', luckily the rest are quite good. 'This Is It' has a great verse but got sloppy on the chorus while 'Matters of The Heart' is stronger on the chorus and pale on the verse.

 

Overall a satisfying result and first touch of the album should be around 85% from me, a good buy for AOR fans i suppose

[Nightrain]

WOLFPAKK - s/t (2011)

a project of Michael Voss and Mark Sweeney, musically it's a cross of Euro power metal and typical melodic metal, with a hint of hard rock touch.

Basically a good disc, but shame there are couple of poor choruses and some lengthy songs that can steer the mood to boredom. 'Sirens' and 'The Crow' are two sensational power metal tunes while Reptile's Kiss' and 'Ride The Bullet' are couple of sensational hard rock pieces. 'Slam Down The Hammer' has great verse but too bad the chorus is weak, could have been great song if combined with chorus from 'Lost'. 'Wolfony' is actually a great power metal tune but it's too long to handle. Voss and Sweeney vocals are awesome, but the guitars are also somewhat spectacular especially on the solos part on some songs.

 

Overall, this is a likeable disc, 75% on the start, could grow but doubt if it can go beyond 80%

[Geoff]

American Bang ~ 'American Bang'(2010) ; gotta say this is not a bad disc at all. These guys are one of those, what I like to call "crossover" bands where they're not really modern rock and might not be quite enough for the purists. I'd call them a mix of Black Stone Cherry, Hinder, Tesla and Black Crowes maybe? Clearly not as good as Hinder or Tesla, but I hope that paints a vague picture at least. Very excellently produced, good vocalist and some really good songs. It's one of those half and half discs, which does include some southern-style average rockers. But it also has a handful of really good songs, with great and very strong hooks. The other band I was thinking of was a less 80's version of Beggars & Thieves too? I dunno, check them out yourself and see what you think. Not bad at all.

 

Atom Smash ~ 'Love Is in the Missile' ; Overall, this was really quite average. Plain, average modern rock / nu-metal seems to cover most this album. But, and I mean BUT! 'Erase those days' is stunning ; one of the best songs of 2010. A really excellent ballad. And the last song too - 'Shooting stars.' Funnily enough, it's another ballad but it's also the only other really good song on the CD. This is where their strength clearly lies, but that said, it's not all awful. It's pretty solid for what it is, just not overly my style apart from those 2 gems.