First Spin Impressions

[Geoff]

HARD - 'Time is waiting for no one' ; wow, this one actually really sucks. I was pretty harsh on the debut because it was so average and run-of-the-mill, but although they've taken a step forward in terms of band tightness and production... the songs are just crap. There are two melodic tunes ('Love goes with anything' and 'Nona') which are both okay, at best. But the rest is really pretty freakin' bad. Almost like a bad version of Krokus.

[Glen]

Tradia - From The Basement

 

One or two nice tracks, but to me this sounds very very very very very soft and I'm not overly keen.

 

The debut 'Trade Winds' is much much better.

 

Cheers Jez, I think I bought it speculatively because it was cheap. Just looked up the price of the debut.

 

 

Trade Winds is OK, but nothing i'd fork out mega bucks on

[Jez]

Tradia - From The Basement

 

One or two nice tracks, but to me this sounds very very very very very soft and I'm not overly keen.

 

The debut 'Trade Winds' is much much better.

 

Cheers Jez, I think I bought it speculatively because it was cheap. Just looked up the price of the debut.

 

 

Trade Winds is OK, but nothing i'd fork out mega bucks on

 

I wouldn't fork out mega bucks for any cd to be honest. I had 'Trade Winds' on vinyl from years back and have always loved it, so luckily, I picked up 'Trade Winds' for the princely sum of a tenner on CD a few years back and very glad I did. Compared to some of the crap at the time, it was a breath of fresh air, great songs, especially in the first half and a good solid band in general, Johnny Lindsey's vox especially, and for a smaller label release, it blew away some of it's majors imo. Great album for me.

[JamesEagle]

Steevi Jaimz - My Private Hell

 

Loved the first track, the rest of it was okay. Presumably further listens will unearth a few more gems.

[bangerdave]

i wouldn't trade steel prophet's "in the dream"(compo track) with the whole maiden/saxon/gamma ray collections.....

 

 

Why did I just know you were gonna chime in on this one? (rolls eyes)

 

You'd take one Steel Prophet song over all of Maiden, Saxon, and G-Ray's work? Um...yeah, OK, whatever. Steel Prophet's a good band, but they ain't THAT good.

F.F i agree and Sharatan that is a big call man,you got some big balls firing that out there and each to their own musical taste,but come on.

[Jez]

Newman - The Art Of Balance

 

The first thing about this newie is the opening track 'Hero To Zero'. It starts with an atmospheric intro, about various music stars that have passed, Hutchence, Jacko etc, then BANG! into a killer riff that smacks you straight in the gob - most definitely the heaviest thing I have heard Newman do so far and a great track. The general feel of the whole album is of a much tougher sound in places than previous, which is no bad thing in my book. All the tunes are mostly very good, although apart from the opener, I would say that the album does lack the one real killer track, a comment I have thought previously about other Newman releases to be honest. Production is excellent, Mr Newmans puts in an, as usual, excellent performance on various instruments - Guit/Vox/Bass/Keys and overall, this is a very good, consistent Newman album to slot in with the others in his catologue, and one that will be getting plenty of airtime in the coming weeks.

[Geoff]

Newman - The Art Of Balance

 

The first thing about this newie is the opening track 'Hero To Zero'. It starts with an atmospheric intro, about various music stars that have passed, Hutchence, Jacko etc, then BANG! into a killer riff that smacks you straight in the gob - most definitely the heaviest thing I have heard Newman do so far and a great track. The general feel of the whole album is of a much tougher sound in places than previous, which is no bad thing in my book. All the tunes are mostly very good, although apart from the opener, I would say that the album does lack the one real killer track, a comment I have thought previously about other Newman releases to be honest. Production is excellent, Mr Newmans puts in an, as usual, excellent performance on various instruments - Guit/Vox/Bass/Keys and overall, this is a very good, consistent Newman album to slot in with the others in his catologue, and one that will be getting plenty of airtime in the coming weeks.

Hmm, looks like we have some pretty different thoughts on individual songs on this one. The overall opinion is the same - good, consistent album (as always). But where I do strongly disagree is with 'Hero to zero', which to me is a very poor opener and a blatant filler. Hated it when I heard the sample and didn't like it at all this morning either. Just a filler to me, like the tracks on the end of the new Giant CD. Anyway, thankfully that's by far the worst song on the CD so far (still got 3 songs to go) and most of it is very good. 'Stay With Me' is the clear highlight for me - just a beautiful melodic rock ballad. Love it. 'Tumble Down' had a great chorus and 'Find my heart' was the second best song I heard this morning, another gem. 'Your surrender' sounds good too. Overall, another good solid disc from the man.

[Jez]

Newman - The Art Of Balance

 

The first thing about this newie is the opening track 'Hero To Zero'. It starts with an atmospheric intro, about various music stars that have passed, Hutchence, Jacko etc, then BANG! into a killer riff that smacks you straight in the gob - most definitely the heaviest thing I have heard Newman do so far and a great track. The general feel of the whole album is of a much tougher sound in places than previous, which is no bad thing in my book. All the tunes are mostly very good, although apart from the opener, I would say that the album does lack the one real killer track, a comment I have thought previously about other Newman releases to be honest. Production is excellent, Mr Newmans puts in an, as usual, excellent performance on various instruments - Guit/Vox/Bass/Keys and overall, this is a very good, consistent Newman album to slot in with the others in his catologue, and one that will be getting plenty of airtime in the coming weeks.

Hmm, looks like we have some pretty different thoughts on individual songs on this one. The overall opinion is the same - good, consistent album (as always). But where I do strongly disagree is with 'Hero to zero', which to me is a very poor opener and a blatant filler. Hated it when I heard the sample and didn't like it at all this morning either. Just a filler to me, like the tracks on the end of the new Giant CD. Anyway, thankfully that's by far the worst song on the CD so far (still got 3 songs to go) and most of it is very good. 'Stay With Me' is the clear highlight for me - just a beautiful melodic rock ballad. Love it. 'Tumble Down' had a great chorus and 'Find my heart' was the second best song I heard this morning, another gem. 'Your surrender' sounds good too. Overall, another good solid disc from the man.

 

Apart from the opener, seems like were not a million miles away on this one mate to be honest - no bad songs on here at all for me.

[Geoff]

Newman - The Art Of Balance

 

The first thing about this newie is the opening track 'Hero To Zero'. It starts with an atmospheric intro, about various music stars that have passed, Hutchence, Jacko etc, then BANG! into a killer riff that smacks you straight in the gob - most definitely the heaviest thing I have heard Newman do so far and a great track. The general feel of the whole album is of a much tougher sound in places than previous, which is no bad thing in my book. All the tunes are mostly very good, although apart from the opener, I would say that the album does lack the one real killer track, a comment I have thought previously about other Newman releases to be honest. Production is excellent, Mr Newmans puts in an, as usual, excellent performance on various instruments - Guit/Vox/Bass/Keys and overall, this is a very good, consistent Newman album to slot in with the others in his catologue, and one that will be getting plenty of airtime in the coming weeks.

Hmm, looks like we have some pretty different thoughts on individual songs on this one. The overall opinion is the same - good, consistent album (as always). But where I do strongly disagree is with 'Hero to zero', which to me is a very poor opener and a blatant filler. Hated it when I heard the sample and didn't like it at all this morning either. Just a filler to me, like the tracks on the end of the new Giant CD. Anyway, thankfully that's by far the worst song on the CD so far (still got 3 songs to go) and most of it is very good. 'Stay With Me' is the clear highlight for me - just a beautiful melodic rock ballad. Love it. 'Tumble Down' had a great chorus and 'Find my heart' was the second best song I heard this morning, another gem. 'Your surrender' sounds good too. Overall, another good solid disc from the man.

 

Apart from the opener, seems like were not a million miles away on this one mate to be honest - no bad songs on here at all for me.

Yeah, having heard the last three songs I can say that the opener was the only song I didn't like at all. 'Forever' is on a razor's edge, but a decent line or two in the chorus saves it. The other two of the last three songs were cool and the album closer was one of the best on the album. Overall, good stuff again from Mr Newman.

[Geoff]

Mastedon - 'It's a jungle out there' ; wowser is all I can say. I've had their 2nd album forever but always thought it was a very patchy affair with only two good songs. Mix that with last year's terrible album and I just never really had any desire to hear this one. I passed buying the re-issue the other day but having just heard this album via MP3 I will be rectifying that as soon as I make my next order. This one crushes 'Lofcaudio' and obviously the trainwreck that was last year's CD. From start to end it's just punchy, melodic rock / AOR. Very strong songs, only several blatant christian references and overall just a really cool disc. Can't wait to pick up the re-issue asap.

[Glen]

Mastedon - 'It's a jungle out there' ; wowser is all I can say. I've had their 2nd album forever but always thought it was a very patchy affair with only two good songs. Mix that with last year's terrible album and I just never really had any desire to hear this one. I passed buying the re-issue the other day but having just heard this album via MP3 I will be rectifying that as soon as I make my next order. This one crushes 'Lofcaudio' and obviously the trainwreck that was last year's CD. From start to end it's just punchy, melodic rock / AOR. Very strong songs, only several blatant christian references and overall just a really cool disc. Can't wait to pick up the re-issue asap.

 

Easily their best album IMO. Great disc from start to finish.

[Dead Planet]

Mennen........Back To The Real World...........damn this sucker rocks!!

[heaven&hell]

Armored Saint - La Raza

 

Had high hopes for this one but still not sure about it. I'm actually on my second spin and while it's much better than my first impression it still has left me a little cold when compared to their previous discs. There's some good grooves going on and John Bush sounds great as always but there's quite a bit of Latin feel to many of the tunes and if I wanted that I'd listen to Puya or something like that. It is more melodic than the last disc 'Revelation'(has it really been 10 years?). Overall it's more of a Hard Rock disc and less Metal than before. I was hoping more for something closer to the great 'Symbol of Salvation' but they've moved on plus it appears that Joey Vera has written all of the music with no input from the guitar players and that shows. It just seems that besides a handful of tunes they just don't mesh well together. "Left Hook From Right Field" is my fav tune so far. Hopefully it's a grower but so far I'm dissapointed.

[heaven&hell]

Saxon - Innocence is No Excuse

 

Wasn't sure what to expect with this one after reading that most considered it a "sell out" album back upon it's release but I have to say I love it. Not a bad song on the disc IMO with some great tunes throughout such as "Call of the Wild", "Back on the Streets", "Devil Rides Out", "Broken Heroes" and my fav "Rock N Roll Gypsy. Much more melodic than previous albums but still very much a Saxon disc IMO but with some more radio friendly tunes thrown in. While I wouldn't rate is as my fav Saxon disc(that would be most likely reserved for "Strong Arm of the Law") I would probably put in my top 5 or 6 favs so far.

[heaven&hell]

Saxon - Rock the Nations

 

Another great Saxon disc that I wasn't expecting much from after reading some reviews, but since I had to complete my Saxon reissue collection I had to have it. Almost every song is great and it's a little more old school Saxon sounding than the previous disc was. My favs so far are the title track, "Waiting for the Night", "Battle Cry", "Empty Promises", "You Aint No Angel", "Northern Lady" and "We Came Here to Rock". Also some great bonus tracks on this one like there is on all the Saxon reissues.

[Jez]

Saxon - Innocence is No Excuse

 

Wasn't sure what to expect with this one after reading that most considered it a "sell out" album back upon it's release but I have to say I love it. Not a bad song on the disc IMO with some great tunes throughout such as "Call of the Wild", "Back on the Streets", "Devil Rides Out", "Broken Heroes" and my fav "Rock N Roll Gypsy. Much more melodic than previous albums but still very much a Saxon disc IMO but with some more radio friendly tunes thrown in. While I wouldn't rate is as my fav Saxon disc(that would be most likely reserved for "Strong Arm of the Law") I would probably put in my top 5 or 6 favs so far.

 

Great album. 'Back On The Streets' is a great track especially, and I remember it pissing off big time some of the Saxon old guard, as it featured the dreaded 'keyboards' in the mix, which they hadn't really done before, not to that level anyways. It is a good mix of the more commercial stuff and typical Saxon aswell, so for me it is a great album. 'Destiny' went even further with the Commerciality and Keyboards, but I liked that one alot aswell as ,like 'Innocence', the songwriting was still most definitely there, even if it wasn't like the days of old.

[Jez]

Saxon - Rock the Nations

 

Another great Saxon disc that I wasn't expecting much from after reading some reviews, but since I had to complete my Saxon reissue collection I had to have it. Almost every song is great and it's a little more old school Saxon sounding than the previous disc was. My favs so far are the title track, "Waiting for the Night", "Battle Cry", "Empty Promises", "You Aint No Angel", "Northern Lady" and "We Came Here to Rock". Also some great bonus tracks on this one like there is on all the Saxon reissues.

 

I have always rated this as the weakest Saxon album of them all. It does have some nice tracks like 'Waiting On The Night and 'Empty Promises' but it also features some true horrors like 'Party til Yo Puke' and 'We Came here to Rock', The 2 worst Saxon tunes of all time in my book.

[Jez]

Bruce Kulick - BK3

 

Another disc that is definitely a game of two halves. Some good tracks in opener 'Fate', 'Dirty Girl' and the instrumental 'Between The Lines', but also some very bog average stuff like 'Ain't Gonna Die' 'I'll Survive' and the horrible 'Hand Of The King'. Not a complete disaster, but not exactly a top ten (or twenty) contender either.

[heaven&hell]

Saxon - Rock the Nations

 

Another great Saxon disc that I wasn't expecting much from after reading some reviews, but since I had to complete my Saxon reissue collection I had to have it. Almost every song is great and it's a little more old school Saxon sounding than the previous disc was. My favs so far are the title track, "Waiting for the Night", "Battle Cry", "Empty Promises", "You Aint No Angel", "Northern Lady" and "We Came Here to Rock". Also some great bonus tracks on this one like there is on all the Saxon reissues.

 

I have always rated this as the weakest Saxon album of them all. It does have some nice tracks like 'Waiting On The Night and 'Empty Promises' but it also features some true horrors like 'Party til Yo Puke' and 'We Came here to Rock', The 2 worst Saxon tunes of all time in my book.

 

"Party Till You Puke" is the only song I didn't like but I did like "We Came to Rock", at least on the first listen.

[heaven&hell]

Bruce Kulick - BK3

 

Another disc that is definitely a game of two halves. Some good tracks in opener 'Fate', 'Dirty Girl' and the instrumental 'Between The Lines', but also some very bog average stuff like 'Ain't Gonna Die' 'I'll Survive' and the horrible 'Hand Of The King'. Not a complete disaster, but not exactly a top ten (or twenty) contender either.

 

The three you rated as average I actually liked.

[Jez]

Auras - New Generation

 

Just as I suspected - 3 or 4 of good songs early on, but I was really struggling to find any other of merit, just weak weak songs with no really big hooks at all,especially in the second half. I very nearly turned it off after track 9 I kid you not. Sounds very much like Two Fires and to be completely honest, neither of their albums blew me away either, the 2nd one especially being very poor imo. I'll keep on with this one, but on first impression, not impressed at all and this could be another to add to the list of AOR letdowns.

[Nick C]

Auras - New Generation

 

Just as I suspected - 3 or 4 of good songs early on, but I was really struggling to find any other of merit, just weak weak songs with no really big hooks at all,especially in the second half. I very nearly turned it off after track 9 I kid you not. Sounds very much like Two Fires and to be completely honest, neither of their albums blew me away either, the 2nd one especially being very poor imo. I'll keep on with this one, but on first impression, not impressed at all and this could be another to add to the list of AOR letdowns.

Uh-oh....this may well arrive in the post today, doesn't bode well mate....but I'll approach it with an open mind....one man's shit is another man's sugar as they say (isn't that a quote from the bible or something?).

I've always been a bit wary of what Frontiers puts out as it's very hit and miss quality wise (more miss I'd say) they seem content to just throw anything out and hope something hits home, they really need to tighten quality control.

But what I heard of this I had high hopes for....anyway I'll give it a good chance.

[Jez]

Auras - New Generation

 

Just as I suspected - 3 or 4 of good songs early on, but I was really struggling to find any other of merit, just weak weak songs with no really big hooks at all,especially in the second half. I very nearly turned it off after track 9 I kid you not. Sounds very much like Two Fires and to be completely honest, neither of their albums blew me away either, the 2nd one especially being very poor imo. I'll keep on with this one, but on first impression, not impressed at all and this could be another to add to the list of AOR letdowns.

Uh-oh....this may well arrive in the post today, doesn't bode well mate....but I'll approach it with an open mind....one man's shit is another man's sugar as they say (isn't that a quote from the bible or something?).

I've always been a bit wary of what Frontiers puts out as it's very hit and miss quality wise (more miss I'd say) they seem content to just throw anything out and hope something hits home, they really need to tighten quality control.

But what I heard of this I had high hopes for....anyway I'll give it a good chance.

 

I'm sure the glowing reviews will come from some and you may well love it mate, but it isn't doing it for me at all. As I said, I shall bare with it, but first impressions are that this is just another one of those, 'Let's try and be Journey and fail'' releases if you know what I mean. It does have some good songs in the first half as I said, but, uggh, you know, same old same old boring Zzzzzzzz. Must be something in the water in Brazil, as the N.O.W release a few weeks ago was pretty bog average aswell, although this is slightly better than that one. Frontiers have been genrally ok for me with more good releases than bad, but this is hardly gonna go down as one of their finer moments.

[Nick C]

Auras - New Generation

 

Just as I suspected - 3 or 4 of good songs early on, but I was really struggling to find any other of merit, just weak weak songs with no really big hooks at all,especially in the second half. I very nearly turned it off after track 9 I kid you not. Sounds very much like Two Fires and to be completely honest, neither of their albums blew me away either, the 2nd one especially being very poor imo. I'll keep on with this one, but on first impression, not impressed at all and this could be another to add to the list of AOR letdowns.

Uh-oh....this may well arrive in the post today, doesn't bode well mate....but I'll approach it with an open mind....one man's shit is another man's sugar as they say (isn't that a quote from the bible or something?).

I've always been a bit wary of what Frontiers puts out as it's very hit and miss quality wise (more miss I'd say) they seem content to just throw anything out and hope something hits home, they really need to tighten quality control.

But what I heard of this I had high hopes for....anyway I'll give it a good chance.

 

I'm sure the glowing reviews will come from some and you may well love it mate, but it isn't doing it for me at all. As I said, I shall bare with it, but first impressions are that this is just another one of those, 'Let's try and be Journey and fail'' releases if you know what I mean. It does have some good songs in the first half as I said, but, uggh, you know, same old same old boring Zzzzzzzz. Must be something in the water in Brazil, as the N.O.W release a few weeks ago was pretty bog average aswell, although this is slightly better than that one. Frontiers have been genrally ok for me with more good releases than bad, but this is hardly gonna go down as one of their finer moments.

 

Nuts to it, I've cancelled the order .... serves Play right for being too slow shipping it. Reading your verdict raised huge doubts in my mind, I mean there's nothing really new under the sun with the old A.O.R. genre but you know what I'm like with stuff that is too safe/generic and the Blanc Faces and W.E.T. releases (also on Frontiers) just didn't do it for me even after initial soundbytes seemed promising. I might wait and grab it cheaper at a later date, but then again...maybe not!

[Jez]

Auras - New Generation

 

Just as I suspected - 3 or 4 of good songs early on, but I was really struggling to find any other of merit, just weak weak songs with no really big hooks at all,especially in the second half. I very nearly turned it off after track 9 I kid you not. Sounds very much like Two Fires and to be completely honest, neither of their albums blew me away either, the 2nd one especially being very poor imo. I'll keep on with this one, but on first impression, not impressed at all and this could be another to add to the list of AOR letdowns.

Uh-oh....this may well arrive in the post today, doesn't bode well mate....but I'll approach it with an open mind....one man's shit is another man's sugar as they say (isn't that a quote from the bible or something?).

I've always been a bit wary of what Frontiers puts out as it's very hit and miss quality wise (more miss I'd say) they seem content to just throw anything out and hope something hits home, they really need to tighten quality control.

But what I heard of this I had high hopes for....anyway I'll give it a good chance.

 

I'm sure the glowing reviews will come from some and you may well love it mate, but it isn't doing it for me at all. As I said, I shall bare with it, but first impressions are that this is just another one of those, 'Let's try and be Journey and fail'' releases if you know what I mean. It does have some good songs in the first half as I said, but, uggh, you know, same old same old boring Zzzzzzzz. Must be something in the water in Brazil, as the N.O.W release a few weeks ago was pretty bog average aswell, although this is slightly better than that one. Frontiers have been genrally ok for me with more good releases than bad, but this is hardly gonna go down as one of their finer moments.

 

Nuts to it, I've cancelled the order .... serves Play right for being too slow shipping it. Reading your verdict raised huge doubts in my mind, I mean there's nothing really new under the sun with the old A.O.R. genre but you know what I'm like with stuff that is too safe/generic and the Blanc Faces and W.E.T. releases (also on Frontiers) just didn't do it for me even after initial soundbytes seemed promising. I might wait and grab it cheaper at a later date, but then again...maybe not!

Didn't want to put you off mate, as it is only my useless opinion after all, but if you thought Blanc Faces and W.E.T were safe and generic, maybe you have done the right thing.