First Spin Impressions

[Metal T]

Dirty Looks - s/t ; a real shame about the crumby, dated and almost demo-like "production" on this CD. Because otherwise, if you ask me, this is one of the best Dirty Looks CDs released. I really liked the songs on this one and there was a bit more variety and fire in the band at this young stage - 1984. Yeah, sound was pretty poor but I still enjoyed this a lot.

 

Jagged Edge - 'Trouble' ; wow, I always just assumed this was no good, for whatever reason. The opening song is a blatant filler, 'You don't love me' is brilliant but on the debut, but the other 3 songs on the EP are all very good. The cover song of 'Good golly Miss Molly' is even very cool. There's a few more demos and live songs to round of this full length CD, and although it's not too marvelous, this one's actually well worth having.

 

Kelley's Heroes - s/t ; another decent surprise. Sleaze metal from around 1992 on Retrospect... surprised I haven't heard at least a little more on the board apart from Jacob mentioning them a few times. They're like a mix of No Respect, Sven Gali, Erotic Suicide with maybe a sprinkle of Skid Row. But don't get to excited. They don't quite have the songs of any of those bands, but they have a good sound/style and it's not a bad disc. I have to admit, though, they could have done a little better in the song writing department. A few sweeter hooks wouldn't have gone astray.

 

Lipstixx N' Bulletz - 'Bang your head' ; very, very nice. In the same game as Crazy Lixx and Crashdiet, but not in the same league... yet. But not too far off. Production budget is obviously a little less and song writing skills not quite in the big league yet, but it's a very good debut. They also remind me of the band Loud N' Nasty, who they're a little more on par with. Their last disc was great, as is this. Nothing negative to say about it at all to be honest... great debut, looking forward to an even better follow up.

 

John Lorraine - 'Liquid' ; decent if not uneventful EP from ex-Lorraine frontman. Yeah... songs ain't bad, just a little forgettable. Opener was my favourite song of the lot.

 

Malice - 'The rare and unreleased' ; not sure of the worth of this to be honest. The sound quality on a lot of this is so poor it wasn't worth releasing, imo. And I believe a lot of the songs are also released otherwise. I like this band, but I didn't really enjoy this CD at all to be honest. And what the hell is up with the Only Child song, 'Vice Versa' sitting there in the middle of it all? Not a Malice version of the song... Only Child's version. Did the tapes get mixed up? Very odd...

[Metal T]

 

 

 

 

Malice - 'The rare and unreleased' ; not sure of the worth of this to be honest. The sound quality on a lot of this is so poor it wasn't worth releasing, imo. And I believe a lot of the songs are also released otherwise. I like this band, but I didn't really enjoy this CD at all to be honest. And what the hell is up with the Only Child song, 'Vice Versa' sitting there in the middle of it all? Not a Malice version of the song... Only Child's version. Did the tapes get mixed up? Very odd...

[Metal T]

Dude,thats actually Paul Sabu fronting Malice on that song...they did it for the movie soundtrack of the same name.(i f--ked up the other posts-just ignore)

[heaven&hell]

Sammy Hagar - s/t (aka 'I Never Said Goodbye') ; pretty rubbishy to be honest. I didn't hate it, but it'll be on my trade list for sure. Just like with Van Halen, you have to wade through eight fillers for the sake of two pretty decent songs. 'Give to live' is kind of gayish, but not a bad tune and by far the highlight of this CD for me was 'Back into you.' Nice to see he could include at least one great song on the CD.

 

Sammy Hagar - 'Unboxed' ; If this is a best of I'd hate to see the worst of. 'Two Sides of Love' was a good tune, the aforementioned 'Give to live' (was this a demo version of the song? Sounds poor) and 'I can't drive 55' were also pretty cool. I also like 'There's Only One Way to Rock' even if Pretty Maids' version (obviously) absolutely crushes the original. But you take those 4 songs off this, and if those other 8 pieces of shit are seriously meant to be his best work... wow. No wonder Van Halen selected him to be their lead singer...

 

Unboxed is all killer no filler IMO.

[Geoff]

Dude,thats actually Paul Sabu fronting Malice on that song...they did it for the movie soundtrack of the same name.(i f--ked up the other posts-just ignore)

Ah, thanks mate. That explains it. I seriously thought it had incorrectly got on the CD by mistake. Haven't heard the Only Child version for a while but I assumed it was just a demo for that song, by Only Child. Fancy that... Sabu fronting Malice. Never would have picked it.

 

 

Sammy Hagar - s/t (aka 'I Never Said Goodbye') ; pretty rubbishy to be honest. I didn't hate it, but it'll be on my trade list for sure. Just like with Van Halen, you have to wade through eight fillers for the sake of two pretty decent songs. 'Give to live' is kind of gayish, but not a bad tune and by far the highlight of this CD for me was 'Back into you.' Nice to see he could include at least one great song on the CD.

 

Sammy Hagar - 'Unboxed' ; If this is a best of I'd hate to see the worst of. 'Two Sides of Love' was a good tune, the aforementioned 'Give to live' (was this a demo version of the song? Sounds poor) and 'I can't drive 55' were also pretty cool. I also like 'There's Only One Way to Rock' even if Pretty Maids' version (obviously) absolutely crushes the original. But you take those 4 songs off this, and if those other 8 pieces of shit are seriously meant to be his best work... wow. No wonder Van Halen selected him to be their lead singer...

 

Unboxed is all killer no filler IMO.

Is there another version I missed out on?!

 

Montreal - s/t ; I thought these guys would be really lightweight AOR based on the imagery on the CD. But they went alright. Good solid melodic rock EP, with some very nice hooks on board. I liked it a lot.

 

Mr Mister - 'Welcome to the real world' ; another surprise. Don't ask me what it was that made me give this a go (the price tag?) but I did. And I'm glad I did. There were a few fillers like the opener and 'Is it love' that I didn't like, as well as a couple at the end. But the trio of 'Uniform of Youth,' 'Don't Slow Down,' and 'Run to Her' was really quite marvelous. Throw in 'Broken Wings,' which I have always liked but never knew who sung it, and you have yourself some great songs. In the end there's probably as many fillers as keepers ('Kyrie' was nice too) but the best songs on this CD are well worthwhile.

 

Nasty Nasty - 'Not hard to swallow' ; not bad. If you're a fan of Britny Fox and Cinderella check this out. A little heavier than those two, but those same screechy vocals are on offer. Not an amazing CD, but constantly solid and good production too for an unreleased (?) collection of songs from 1991.

 

Nasty Nuns - 'Too much is never enough' ; pretty nice stuff, this. Another sleaze band along the lines of Hardcore Superstar and Lipstixx N' Bullets etc. The 4th song is my fave so far but this is a very solid EP. Fans of sleaze hard rock will lap it up.

[Nightrain]

geoff, what type of music is this Mr.Mister ?

[glam_junkie]

 

Nasty Nuns - 'Too much is never enough' ; pretty nice stuff, this. Another sleaze band along the lines of Hardcore Superstar and Lipstixx N' Bullets etc. The 4th song is my fave so far but this is a very solid EP. Fans of sleaze hard rock will lap it up.

 

 

I love this EP. Remind me a bit more or Loud n Nasty than stuff like Hardcore Superstar.

[Geoff]

 

Nasty Nuns - 'Too much is never enough' ; pretty nice stuff, this. Another sleaze band along the lines of Hardcore Superstar and Lipstixx N' Bullets etc. The 4th song is my fave so far but this is a very solid EP. Fans of sleaze hard rock will lap it up.

 

 

I love this EP. Remind me a bit more or Loud n Nasty than stuff like Hardcore Superstar.

Haha! I was 2 seconds away from putting Loud N' Nasty down but I'd already done that for Lipstixx N' Bulletz so I thought I'd mix it up. But I do agree, Loud N' Nasty is a good comparison. Both very cool discs.

 

geoff, what type of music is this Mr.Mister ?

Ha, you must be younger than I am. Which sadly isn't hard to do these days.

 

Mr Mister is an old school AOR band. The songs I didn't like on the CD had a more "hi-tech AOR" kind of feel to them, but the good 'uns are just good slabs of AOR.

 

New City Rockers - s/t ; from the CD player straight to the trade list. 'Rev it up', for me, is one of Treat's weaker songs. On this CD, NCR's version is the highlight of the CD. The rest is very, very lite AOR with no balls at all. I think one or 2 ballads were okay, but not great. The last 2 bonus tracks, obviously recorded at a later date with much better production... those 2 sounded a lot better but in essence they were still weak songs. And that's what was wrong with this - just weak, uninteresting songs.

[Nightrain]

haha i guess you're right about the age,

so is it similar to Outfield ?

[Geoff]

haha i guess you're right about the age,

so is it similar to Outfield ?

Yeah, I guess in style they're a little similar. I never liked The Outfield, though.

 

Out of curiosity, how old are you? And living in Indonesia, please tell me you surf over there?

[Nightrain]

well i'm about to turn 31 this August, Ratt and Dokken isn't the band that's popular in my high school years, but Linkin Park, Matchbox 20, Oasis, and Goo Goo Dolls are the one hitting the airwaves.

 

But I started listening to Mr.Big, Scorpions, and Metallica since I was 10-11 years old and eventually decided that 80s rock/metal is my thing, even though I still dig those modern/alternative rock stuffs either

 

so i guess that age explained that Mr.Mister well lol

 

if by surf you mean surfing on the beach's wave wearing Quiksilver suit, sadly I don't. I live in Jakarta which is quite crowded and the beach isn't for surfers, you need to go to Bali to have a wonderful experience, i bet you know that place (think of Bangkok and Pataya)

[Geoff]

well i'm about to turn 31 this August, Ratt and Dokken isn't the band that's popular in my high school years, but Linkin Park, Matchbox 20, Oasis, and Goo Goo Dolls are the one hitting the airwaves.

 

But I started listening to Mr.Big, Scorpions, and Metallica since I was 10-11 years old and eventually decided that 80s rock/metal is my thing, even though I still dig those modern/alternative rock stuffs either

 

so i guess that age explained that Mr.Mister well lol

 

if by surf you mean surfing on the beach's wave wearing Quiksilver suit, sadly I don't. I live in Jakarta which is quite crowded and the beach isn't for surfers, you need to go to Bali to have a wonderful experience, i bet you know that place (think of Bangkok and Pataya)

I see... so we're not far off in age. I'm 32 in May this year. I was about 16/17 when I really got into these tunes, though.

 

Don't get me wrong, before hearing this Mr Mister CD I knew nothing of the band either... not even sure what made me take the punt. Just thought I'd give it a go.

 

I would love to go to Bali, and I will. In fact, my wife and I were going there this year before this trip to Fiji came up. Maybe we will be in Indonesia next year? Not sure how long I'd be able to spend in the crowded parts, but looking forward to experiencing some of the quiter and tropical locations and even outer islands. I'd also really one day LOVE to just go on a surfing only trip with my brothers. Maybe one day... I'd really like that.

 

Yeah, I've been to Bangkok and the best part about it was we were only there for 2 nights. Nice to experience it, but we had 1000 times more fun on the outer islands of Thailand.

[Nightrain]

haha cool man, i'm expecting you to be at around 40 something but then with you been liking a lot of modern rock, i doubt that

 

yeah Bali is an exotic place, no wonder many American/European folks came all the way to fly thousand miles to go to that place, but I'm not really a beach guy though my birthplace is in Manado (if you ever heard of Bunaken, it's a paradise for diver) . I also like travelling but usually for cultural trip, you know, finding out local foods, architectural heritage sight-seeing, learning the culture and history, etc

 

have fun when you get there pal, i see you're not a city guy so Jakarta could be as boring as Bangkok, if you want to visit Indonesia, other than Bali, you should also try Mentawai in Sumatera island.

(http://www.sumatransurfariis.com/)

 

and to avoid this topic went too far off the edge, let's get back to the First Impression stuff

[JamesEagle]

30 and 31? Tsk.

[All Nights Reserved]

Firebird - Double Diamond (2010)

 

Bill Steer, after his death/grind past (Napalm Death, Carcass), came out with this band as a guitarist and singer. The music is cool, groovy, bluesy, powerful, 70's hard rock with a touch of southern rock. I guess some of you would dig it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG4f02nofvQ&feature=related

[TIM (2)]

BLACK VEIL BRIDES - We Stitch These Wounds

 

Brand new modern band attracting a lot of attention due to their image (is like a bunch of 12 years olds trying to look like Nikki Sixx did in 1985). Unfortunately what won't get them much attention is their music, as they sound like the sort of numb metalcore that Avenged Sevenfold or Bullet For My Valentine would've left on the cutting-room floor 10 years ago. In fact this is frankly just horrible, aside from a few half-decent lead-guitar runs there is very little talent here. Piss-weak vocals, forgettable songs, and the worst production job I've ever heard on a modern CD. This disc won't be getting a second spin.

[Geoff]

Spuns a few discs lately and here's a quick summary:

 

Axxis - Kingdom of the night ; I thought this would be better than the others I'd heard from some reason, but it wasn't. They're not a bad band, but I thought this was pretty average.

 

Enuff Znuff - Dissonance ; good first song, until the extended and terrible outro. After that it's all pretty bland and typical of what they've become.

 

Gunner Sixx - Desire ; nice. Looking forward to more spins of this one. In my accent-unfriendly state the accent got to me a little, but the songs are generally very good.

 

Magnum - Wings of heaven ; another good one. A bit of a lacklustre 2nd half of the CD, but the first half was quite impressive. Good disc.

 

New City Rockers - s/t ; one for the trade list for sure. Not my thing at all.

 

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin ; wowser, don't tell me I need to check out early Ozzy albums too! I really enjoyed this one. Great disc, and much better than the ones I've owned from the early 90's.

 

Perennial - You're The Ones...In My Dreams ; very nice, not what I expected. Harder rocking and impressive. I like this one.

 

Phenomena - Phenomena ; I hate the term, but man did this sound dated. It was kind of okay, but pretty average AOR to be honest.

 

Phenomena - Dream Runner ; Much better second effort. I thought this one was a very good disc.

 

Phenomena - Innervision ; But this one is the cream of the crop. I can't believe a CD that sounds like this has escaped my attention thus far. Jeez it sounds good. Perfect and well produced melodic hard rock sound, and some great songs too. This has been one of the best finds in my recent travels.

 

Problem Child - Smashin' time ; not too bad but not great either. Definitely not as good as the debut, but these guys managed to hold on for a pretty good second album here.

 

Quiet Riot - Condition Critical ; good, fun party rock. I dig it.

 

Quiet Riot - Terrified ; Once I got past the totally unecessarily long song lengths, this was quite good. I just don't understand why basic songs had to be stretched out to almost 6 minutes for the most part of this CD. Frustrating, but not a bad CD.

 

Quiet Riot - Down to the Bone ; again, another solid hard rocking disc. I enjoyed it.

 

Vains of Jenna - Reverse tripped ; this is the epitome of why I hate covers albums. Absolutely f*cking terrible from start to end. Their new track, 'F*ck you,' is kind of catchy, though. Not a good song, but the best on here. Terrible collection of songs.

[Jez]

Seeing as Sir Geoff has kicked things off again here and I have a spare few minutes, here's a few new ones that have popped through the door in recent weeks. A nice mixture of stuff here and some crackers to boot.

 

 

Pendragon - Passion

A band that have never ever let me down for the 30+ years I have been listening to them and this one is no different. 'This Green And Pleasant Land' is stunning and has a hook in the middle that you will be singing for ages. This has everything a Prog fan would want, from the token dreamy guitar work from Nick Barratt, great songs and a few twists along the way. Superb in a word.

 

Aviv Geffen - S/T

Nice surprise this one, as I had never heard of it before. Released in 2009, this is the first English language album from Blackfield's lead singer. Not easy to pigeonhole, but If you are a fan of Blackfield (Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame etc) then this is a must have. Immaculate songwriting, beautiful production and a little cracker of a disc.

 

Myland - Light Of A New Day

Loved their last album and still play it fairly often, so was really looking forward to hearing this new one. Pretty much a different band that recorded 'No Man's Land', so the sound is a little different and I will say that the songs aren't quite as good overall. Still an enjoyable album, with good songs that will get plenty of spins, but not on par with the last one.

 

Paul Young - Chronicles

Unreleased songs from the brilliant singer with Sad Cafe and Mike + The Mechanics, who sadly passed away way way to early in the early 90's. This was started originally in the early 90's, but after Pauls untimely death, were never completely finished or released until now. If you are a fan of the aforementioned bands, then definitely worth checking out and there are some great songs on here and some fine vocal performances from Mr. Young too.

 

Rush - Moving Pictures (30th Anniversary) CD/Blu-Ray

One of the major discs of the early 80's now re-issued with an absolutely stunning 5.1 sound Blu-ray disc. If you know and love this album like I do, treat yourself to a copy of this and be prepared to be blown away. Enuff said.

 

Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

Dave Grohl back on top form and with a more back to basics sound for their 7th album. Rawer, crisper and more importantly, better songs that are unmistakably The Foo's. 'Rope' is brilliant and the rest ain't too shabby either. Putting it simply, this is their best album since 'The Color And The Shape'. Can't wait to see them live in July.

 

Eden's Curse - Trinity

Good debut album, even better follow up and now another step up. Nothing earth shaking going on here, but who cares when some of the songs are this good.

 

Mike + The Mechanics - The Road

Basically this is the Mechanics reformed, with all new personnel bar Mike Rutherford. Nice choice in getting Andrew Roachford along for the ride, as he has a great, soulful voice which suits the material really well (although I will say that I really miss Paul Carracks input in the whole thing). It maybe a little one paced at times and a couple of duffers on show, but generally this is a very good addition to the bands fine back catologue.

 

Uriah Heep - Into The Wild

Another year, another very very good Uriah Heep album. Great to see that, once again, the band steadfastly refuses (apart from their 80's output) to give up on their token sound that is unashamedly 70's in sound. 'T-Bird Angel' is one of the standout songs on a very strong disc.

 

Tokyo Blade - Thousand Men Strong

Long awaited return of the NWOBHM stalwarts and once again, a very good, strong disc with some great tunes. They never quite reached the heady heights of the Maiden's and Saxon's of this world, but boy, they can still bang a tune out like the rest of 'em. A nice surprise this one.

 

The Poodles - Performocracy

Very good, solid album that has grown with subsequent spins. 'Cuts Like A Knife' is still my top moment along with 'As Time Is Passing', although there are a couple of duffers featured aswell. Still not as good as ' Clash Of The Elements' imo, but a strong disc that shows after 4 albums, this band is still going along nicely.

 

King Kobra - S/T

No Mark Free on here, so minus points straigh away, although Paul Shortino does a good enough job in filling his shoes. 'Thrill Of A Lifetime' is still their crowning glory, albeit a flawed one (majorly in places), so if you are expecting 'TOAL' part 2, then go elsewhere, as this new one is in no way, shape, or form, up to the standards of some of the songs off that. There are some good moments featured, 'Live Forever' and 'Fade Away' are particular highlights but too many average ones.

 

Julian Angel's Beautiful Beast - Adult Oriented Candy

A little bit cheesy, a little bit corny but bloody good all the same. Do you like 80's Hard rock and AOR?. Buy this then.

 

Leaves' Eyes - Meredead

4th disc int their career and a bit of a diferent beast to their previous releases. Whereas before, they had a more Within Temptation/Nightwish/ Sirenia etc type thing going on (and very bloody good it was too), this time around it's, lighter and much more laid back than previously with an almost Folksy feel in places. It's still very good but will take a few more listens to appreciate further I feel.

 

 

 

Over and out for now

[embrock]

 

Vains of Jenna - Reverse tripped ; this is the epitome of why I hate covers albums. Absolutely f*cking terrible from start to end. Their new track, 'F*ck you,' is kind of catchy, though. Not a good song, but the best on here. Terrible collection of songs.

 

Wow, surprised to read such a harsh statement!

For me, this is one of very few covers-albums that actually works fine and I think they are doing a pretty good job adding their twist to the songs. Looking forward to hearing new material from these guys much more though!

 

 

First Spin Impression (well actually, a couple more spins):

 

Supercharger - That's how we Roll: Much more diverse than their debut, adding quite a bit of a southern-rock vibe on some songs. Co-Produced by Anders Ringman (Chris Laney's sidekick from Platform days), this is more melodic than "Handgrenade Blues", the vocals are cleaner, the arrangements bigger. I like it a lot. Check these guys out!

[whiplash1972]

Mike Tramp & The Rock n Roll Circuz - Stand Your Ground

 

Just finished this one for the first time, and I gotta say, it is MUUUUCH better than the 2009 effort. Songs are much catchier and more instantly memorable. This one will receive quite a few spins over the upcoming weeks.

[heaven&hell]

 

Eden's Curse - Trinity

Good debut album, even better follow up and now another step up. Nothing earth shaking going on here, but who cares when some of the songs are this good.

 

The Poodles - Performocracy

Very good, solid album that has grown with subsequent spins. 'Cuts Like A Knife' is still my top moment along with 'As Time Is Passing', although there are a couple of duffers featured aswell. Still not as good as ' Clash Of The Elements' imo, but a strong disc that shows after 4 albums, this band is still going along nicely.

 

King Kobra - S/T

No Mark Free on here, so minus points straigh away, although Paul Shortino does a good enough job in filling his shoes. 'Thrill Of A Lifetime' is still their crowning glory, albeit a flawed one (majorly in places), so if you are expecting 'TOAL' part 2, then go elsewhere, as this new one is in no way, shape, or form, up to the standards of some of the songs off that. There are some good moments featured, 'Live Forever' and 'Fade Away' are particular highlights but too many average ones.

 

 

I love the Eden's Curse, awesome stuff and one of my favs from 2011 so far.

 

The Poodles I was let down on first spin but have the 2nd spin through it's better but I'm one of those weird guys that liked the heavier Sweet Trade disc.

 

The King Kobra I think is very good as long as I don't compare it to the Mark Free stuff and the mighty Ready To Strike album. Paul sounds great as always and I like the songs so I expect to give it many spins going forward.

[Geoff]

Kingdom Come - 'Twilight Cruiser' ; a good one, but not a great one. Definitely sounds like KC, but there was a pretty noticeable lack of hooks on this one. Solid songs, a keeper. But it's not an amazing disc for sure.

 

Loverboy - 'Wildside' ; so very nice. Easily their 2nd best disc behind the recent 'Just getting started.' I much prefer this to their earlier discs and it has a real nice 80's AOR / melodic rock style. Like a lot of discs I've heard recently, it does fade a bit during the 2nd half of the CD, but overall a good effort.

 

Mason - 'Inside your head' ; this is not my first spin as I did own this and (accidentally) sold it a few years back. Got it confused and had an incorrect impression of it, leading to the trade/sale. Anyway, got it back recently. Thankfully I didn't have to pay much to get it back - in fact, got it really cheap - because it's a good solid one, but is lacking somewhat. It's nice melodic rock / AOR but the non-English writers really come up with some poor lyrics and song writing on this one. Still, some good melodies and nice music... a worthwhile CD for sure.

 

Mad Max - 'Here we are' ; I would have to say this is their weakest yet. Grasp this concept for a second - Voss got a bunch of his musician buddies to pen the music for the songs on this CD and he wrote the lyrics. So what you have is a rather diverse collection of riffs / songs but the only kind of flow seems to be that they're all pretty weak. Not even Voss' song-writing can really make much of most of these. I hate to say it, but to me it seems he went to all these famous musicians and asked them for music. Because they all want to save the best for their own CDs, it feels like Voss ended up with a bunch of cutting room floor riffs and then had to make the best out of them. And sadly, to me, it's a failed effort. The best song, in fact, is the last track - a soft ballad penned completely by Voss alone. It's like a covers album. Voss is a better song writer than any clown who contributes to this album and I'd much rather have seen just a "normal" Voss-penned CD. Don't get me wrong, it's not dreadful. But it's a weak Mad Max CD.

 

Rage N' Rox - s/t ; very, very impressed with this one. If female fronted AOR / melodic rock from the 80's is your thing, you must own this one. Strong songs, super consistent... another gem from the Retrospect collection.

[Glen]

 

Eden's Curse - Trinity

Good debut album, even better follow up and now another step up. Nothing earth shaking going on here, but who cares when some of the songs are this good.

 

The Poodles - Performocracy

Very good, solid album that has grown with subsequent spins. 'Cuts Like A Knife' is still my top moment along with 'As Time Is Passing', although there are a couple of duffers featured aswell. Still not as good as ' Clash Of The Elements' imo, but a strong disc that shows after 4 albums, this band is still going along nicely.

 

King Kobra - S/T

No Mark Free on here, so minus points straigh away, although Paul Shortino does a good enough job in filling his shoes. 'Thrill Of A Lifetime' is still their crowning glory, albeit a flawed one (majorly in places), so if you are expecting 'TOAL' part 2, then go elsewhere, as this new one is in no way, shape, or form, up to the standards of some of the songs off that. There are some good moments featured, 'Live Forever' and 'Fade Away' are particular highlights but too many average ones.

 

 

I love the Eden's Curse, awesome stuff and one of my favs from 2011 so far.

 

 

+1.

 

Awesome is about the right word. I never thought Mike and boys would produce something this killer.

 

& it gets better with every spin.

 

[the Dio cover aint too shabby either!]

[Geoff]

A dodgy "first" spins collection, but here goes anyway:

 

Recon - Behind enemy lines ; I did actually own this CD about 10 years ago. Found it for cheap, got an awesome trade offer and because I wasn't too fond of it I let it go. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but the trade was good so it went. I never looked for it again, but recently ended up with a copy for old times sake. The vocals are worse than I remember, a few of the first tracks are pretty weak and the production is average at best, but aside from that, once you hit track 5 onwards you get some pretty good christian hard rock / metal here. Almost Yngwie-ish at times. Not a bad disc, but by no means essential.

 

Ratt - EP ; Haha, good one. Very raw, and the songs that ended up on later albums really sounds second rate here, but in a good way. I like this EP. Had the vinyl version of it for years, but never really played it. How dodgy is the bass twang in 'Back for more?' Good fun, simple disc.

 

Rattlebone - s/t ; another one I owned and traded... admittedly after it was on my trade list for years. I always thought it was a decent one I was trading merely to reduce numbers. Saw it for dirt cheap so decided to pick it up again. I spun it for the first time since I bought my first copy and yep, I was right the first time. It sucks animal balls.

 

Red Dawn - Never say surrender ; again, had the CDR of this forever, but this was my first silver-pressed spin. I'm not quite as wild about this as most others, and I do prefer Network. But there are only 2 fillers on this one and the other 8 are pretty impressive. I'll admit it's a very good disc.

 

Randy Piper's Animal – Virus ; wowser. Now this one was a well and true first spin. Can't believe I missed these guys first time round. Part of me wishes Laney had kept this project going because although he's no vocal god, Randy Piper sounds a lot better on the mic than Chris Laney... and Chris Laney does what he does best here - writes and plays killer hard rock songs. Seriously, this album was excellent. Big, heavy riffs and great melodies, strong choruses... loved it. Highly recommended album for those of you who like the idea of a more melodic WASP mixed with Chris Laney's solo stuff (with better vocals).

[Geoff]

David Lee Roth - 'Eat 'em and smile' ; rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. What a waste of Steve Vai's talents. In fact, what a waste of a whole band worth of talent. There were a couple of kind of "fun" moments on this CD, but basically it's just one filler after another. Such worthless, throw-away songs.

 

David Lee Roth - 'Skyscraper' ; and much the same here too. Again, a couple of half decent songs, but for the most part it's just utter garbage. Well played, but crap.

 

Rev Theory - Justice ; decent new modern rock disc. These guys still don't overly excite me, but it's a solid album.

 

Rex Hunter - Life goes on ; great EP from Retrospect. I really enjoyed these 4 songs and wish there were more. Good melodic/commercial rock.

 

Rock Ignition - 'I can't resist' ; pretty nice surprise here. 2008 release, produced by Dennis Ward... 6 song EP. Never really heard or saw anything about this one, but it's a good one. 5 very strong hard rockers and a weak ballad. Overall, unexpected, good effort.