Voices Of Rock - High And Mighty
First impression is that this is a lot tougher sounding than the first one and although that is not a problem at all, I think the songs on here are way off the debut which was one of my fave discs of 2007. There are some very nice tunes on here, Bert Heerink, Torben Schmidt and Joe Lynn Turners efforts especially, but some very very average ones aswell, Paul Sabu, Paul Shortino, Tony Mills and David Reeece spring to mind. All in all a little disapointed generally as this should have been better with the list of people involved.
Radio Silence - Who's Skin Are You Under
Loved the debut ('Tower Of Strength' was a huge tune) but hated 'Sirens' which was very very bog standard and below par songwise. This new one falls somewhere in between the 2. It starts off very nicely with 'Hand To Mouth' which is a great track, but consistency wise, this disc rises and falls at every given opportunity and I found it really quite hard to totally get into. I like Alistair Gordon's voice alot, but I still say the best thing he has done is the Bankstatement disc with Genesis' Tony Banks. Much better AOR stuff out there to get excited over than this.
AOR - Journey To L.A
Those familiar with AOR 's previous releases will definitely want to get hold of this one, as it stands right up there with the best of them so far. Typical Denander/ Slama stuff on here, so if you aren't a fan I advise to stear clear. 'Never Surrender' is brilliant with it's huge Denander solo and generally all the songs up to the final few are really very good indeed.. There are a couple of minus points for the horrible 'West Into The Sun' and 'Lost In Your Eyes' and do we really need more versions of 'Desperate Dreams and 'You're My Obbsession'? All in all a thumbs up, although there is nothing on here that is gonna completely turn heads.
Outloud - Outloud
Big, Brash melodic rock disc with some excellent material, although saying that, there isn't one original bone in it's body. Bon Jovi, Van Halen and 80's US melodic rock fans in general will love it. It's good and is generally getting raved over, but it's not that good imo.
VishusgruV - Dirty Little Secrets
This is more like it. Big sounding MR disc with some nice Pompy keys to add to the mix. It's quite a 50 minutes with some really nice material and no what I would call filler on here. Lots of high points including the excellent 'Destiny', 'Poison Kisses', 'Karma' 'Dreamer' & 'Victim Of The System'. AOR-fm come up trumps again and after the superb Dreamer disc, this fits neatly into 2nd place.
The Psychics - S/T
Very cool 'Old School' bombastic Brit hard rock in the vein of Whitesnake, Led Zep and Thunder. Some really tasty guitars on this and a very consistent disc with it's 10 quality tracks. This is a band that are definitley gonna be worth keeping an eye on for sure.
