First Spin Impressions

[Geoff]

Rough - 'First Cut' ; another blessing from Azintex. Never heard of this band before. They look like your typical super ugly group of 80's Scandi rockers and I originally thought it was a five-peice of dudes, according to the photo on the back. But it turns out the lead singer is female (in a very sexy pose on the inner sleeve) surrounded by a group of dregs... but talented dregs, at least. This CD is good. Not amazing, but very solid, well produced and bar a super fast-paced filler or two (like the opener) it's all pretty impressive heavy melodic rock. Kind of like Warlock or Racer X with maybe a slightly more commercial edge thrown in the middle of the CD. Either way, glad I stumbled upon this one.

 

Sacred Heart - 'Darkness Falls' ; it must be said the guys have done well here. 4 albums down now, I think, and these guys write a good song. In fact, this may be their best album yet. The dude is not a brilliant lyricist (sometimes by any means) but it must be said he is a very engaging song writer. Nice, simple stories which you find yourself sitting there, listening intently to. Sure, the disc is recorded on a shoestring budget and it shows, especially with the drums, but the songs are good. I sure do wish a label had shown some interest in these guys, though, and given them a chance to record with a decent budget. With some production dollars behind them this CD could go from being very good to excellent, easily.

 

Okay, so I like the CD alot, but I can't leave without mentioning something I HATE about it. There are 13 album tracks which are consistently strong. That should be it. But no, they opt to make it a 17 track album, with 4 bonus tracks. Awesome, you say. If it's a good CD then 4 more songs will only make it better. On paper, yes. What they have done, though, is put 4 demos of songs already on the CD at the end of the CD. So, what you have is 13 very good songs with very minimal production value... barely scraping by themselves in terms of sound quality. But, to make it worse, you add 4 dreadful sounding versions of the already under-produced songs on the end of the CD? WTF were they possibly thinking? Who could ever possibly entertain the notion that this would add anything to the CD. Instead, it detracts from it. I f*cking hate shit like this. I really do.

 

End of the day, though, scrap the last 4 wastes of space and you have a good CD.

[heaven&hell]

Raven - Walk Through Fire

Maybe not as good as the early stuff but it's in the same spirit. With Raven they don't go to far out of their comfort zone and for Metal fans that is just fine. Not really a bad song on here and I dig the cover of "Space Station #5". If you like Raven and or NWOBHM you need this.

 

Evergrey - Glorious Collision

I bought this blindly without ever hearing an Evergrey tune. I'm not sure why I've waited so long to check out this band since I do like what I hear. I do have a minor complaint about the mix or production that makes the drums seem to loud and the guitars to low. My fav song is "To Fit the Mold" so far and the lyrics by Tom Englund are really good. This is a grower but it's getting better and better with each spin.

 

Anvil - Juggernaut of Justice

If you like Metal, Anvil or even Motorhead it's hard to imagine you not liking this. This is probably one of the best sounding Anvil albums and the drumming by Robb is exceptional. Fav songs so far are "Paranormal", "Fuken Eh!", "Conspiracy" and the title track. The disc does end with some jazzy metal numbers that are kind of out of place so if it ended with track 11 it would be a better disc IMO.

 

Symfonia - In Paradisum

Featuring Andre Matos(Angra), Timmo Tolki(Stratovarius) and Uli Kusch(Helloween/Masterplan/Gamma Ray) this sounds like you'd prob imagine with it having a very symphonic sound owing a lot to Stratovarius. Not really a bad tune on the disc but not quite as good as the new Strato(Elysium) IMO there are some great tunes on here with some great playing.

 

Mr Big - What If

Not quite up to the Lean Into It hype this one recieved pre-release but it's still really good IMO. "Undertow" is one of the best tunes of the year so far and one of the best Mr Big tunes ever. "All the Way Up" is another great tune as well. Sound wise it reminds me more of Hey Man and Get Over It with the bluesier sound and not quite as much Commercial Hard Rock as what I expected with Paul Gilbert returning. Eric stills sounds great and the band still play great and while it's not what I expected I still think it's a very good disc.

[Geoff]

Julian Angel - 'Choreography sucks' ; yeah, I'm just going to have to straight out admit this ain't for me. Got a great deal for the 2 CDs and Julian seems like a really nice chap, so it gives me no pleasure to say it, but I just couldn't really get into the tunes. I had an album from him back in 1993 I think it was and I did not like that one at all. In fact, it's why I never really took notice when I saw him mentioned on the board. This CD kind of reminds me of a slightly better version of what I recall that CD sounded like. It wasn't so much that it is "bad" as such, the songs just didn't do it for me. They sounded like the kind of songs an artist might put between the good tunes... except there weren't any other types of tune. I did like the song about the radio, though.

 

Beautiful Beast - 'Adult orientated candy' ; much, much nicer. I'm glad I did finally take notice of this one, because this is a nice little disc. The first two songs are kind of similar to his previous disc - a bit better admittedly - but from track 3 onwards it turns into a pretty sweet full blown "hair metal" CD. Very nice, commercial hard rock tunes. And this dude can play his guitar too. I don't think there were real drums on the previous CD, but there are on this (I assume) and it makes a big difference. This is a really good disc. I dig it.

[Fat Freddy]

Anvil - JUGGERNAUT OF JUSTICE

 

Anvil's got a lot to prove with this album. It's their first new record since the award-winning documentary film ("Anvil! The Story of Anvil") and the whirlwind of sudden fame that came with it. Is it strong enough to live up to all the hype they've generated over the past couple of years? Hell yes! Lips and company bust out a dozen new goodies that are just as heavy, crunchy, and catchy as their classic material. I did notice a few moments where they seemed to be "borrowing" from some earlier songs ("Paranormal" has a distinct "Forged in Fire" vibe, "On Fire" reminds me of "Shadow Zone," and "This Ride" sounds a lot like they just took their old instrumental "March of the Crabs" and put lyrics over it) but considering that hardly anyone has heard their old material I can't blame them for cannibalizing their past goods here and there. (Hell, Blackie Lawless has been rewriting his own songs for over a decade now.) Overall this is a rock solid Metal platter that should please Anvil fans old and new.

[heaven&hell]

Warrant - Rockaholic

I just finished my first spin through. If I don't do the obvious and compare it to other Warrant releases and just judge it on it's own it's not a bad album with some really good tunes and Robert sounds great as always. There is also some blatant filler IMO such as "What Love Can Do", "Sunshine"(nice chorus but bad verses IMO) and the very average "Lifes a Song"(I thought I liked it at first when I saw the video but not so much now as it's not that great). I do really like the first five tunes with "Snake" and "Sex Aint Love" being my favs and "Dusty's Revenge", "Innocence Gone" and "Home" being very good as well. "Found Forever" is a great ballad and "Tears in the City" is just okay. "Show Must Gone", "Cocaine Freight Train" and "The Last Straw" are all upbeat rocking songs. And last but not least I kind of dig "Candy Man", sure it don't sound like Warrant but it has a nice AC/DC meets Aerosmith sleazey Big Cock type vibe which fits Robert's voice best. All in all not a bad album but the worst thing is the dreadful production. I'm shocked that someone like Keith Olson(Lynch Mob!) produced this as it sounds like good demos with no bass sound at all. I am one of those weird people that actually found the previous release 'Born Again' to be a damn good rock album with some great tunes such as "Hell CA." and "Bourbon County Line" and while I like most of this new disc I don't feel there are any songs on the level of the great songs that were on the 'Born Again' release.

[Jeff]

Vains Of Jenna - Reverse Tripped

I wasn't too excited for this one only because I am not much for cover songs as it is, no matter who does them. So, I didn't really care for this either and it has nothing to do with VoJ as I like their music. There are a handful of songs that are ok, the F*ck You and Electric Avenue being 2 examples. I picked this up at their show Tuesday night and all of them signed the front cover. Very cool for that reason but I will be looking forward to their next CD with new material. \m/

[heaven&hell]

Vains Of Jenna - Reverse Tripped

I wasn't too excited for this one only because I am not much for cover songs as it is, no matter who does them. So, I didn't really care for this either and it has nothing to do with VoJ as I like their music. There are a handful of songs that are ok, the F*ck You and Electric Avenue being 2 examples. I picked this up at their show Tuesday night and all of them signed the front cover. Very cool for that reason but I will be looking forward to their next CD with new material. \m/

 

I passed on this one. I don't get why they did a covers album after changing singers. That makes no sense to me at all.

[heaven&hell]

Warrant - Rockaholic

I just finished my first spin through. If I don't do the obvious and compare it to other Warrant releases and just judge it on it's own it's not a bad album with some really good tunes and Robert sounds great as always. There is also some blatant filler IMO such as "What Love Can Do", "Sunshine"(nice chorus but bad verses IMO) and the very average "Lifes a Song"(I thought I liked it at first when I saw the video but not so much now as it's not that great). I do really like the first five tunes with "Snake" and "Sex Aint Love" being my favs and "Dusty's Revenge", "Innocence Gone" and "Home" being very good as well. "Found Forever" is a great ballad and "Tears in the City" is just okay. "Show Must Gone", "Cocaine Freight Train" and "The Last Straw" are all upbeat rocking songs. And last but not least I kind of dig "Candy Man", sure it don't sound like Warrant but it has a nice AC/DC meets Aerosmith sleazey Big Cock type vibe which fits Robert's voice best. All in all not a bad album but the worst thing is the dreadful production. I'm shocked that someone like Keith Olson(Lynch Mob!) produced this as it sounds like good demos with no bass sound at all. I am one of those weird people that actually found the previous release 'Born Again' to be a damn good rock album with some great tunes such as "Hell CA." and "Bourbon County Line" and while I like most of this new disc I don't feel there are any songs on the level of the great songs that were on the 'Born Again' release.

 

 

2nd spin through and it's getting better. Maybe this one is a grower but the production still sucks.

[Jeff]

FrenchKiss - Premier Baiser

This is a short EP or whatever you want to call it. For that I was hoping for a stronger set of tracks. On the other hand I paid something like $4 or $5 for this as it was mentioned here on the board. A couple of decent tracks but nothing really stuck with me.

[Jez]

Lovex - Watch Out!

Have loved both of their previous discs and I can now add this to the list aswell. Self produced (superbly I may say) by the band, this has a bit of a more straight forward Melodic Rock vibe to it than previously. I honestly can't find one average tune on here 'Queen Of The Night' (with brass section) is a belting opener, as is 'U.S.A' 'Slave For the Glory' 'Watch Out' '15 Minutes' 'One' - Hell ALL of it is superb and after a good few spins now, definitely their best album so far. Just what modern melodic rock should sound like in my book.

 

Sixx: A.M - This Is Gonna Hurt

The first 3 tracks on here are belters and bar the new Lovex, A better start to an album you will be hard pushed to find this year I reckon. 'Lies Of The Beautiful People' 'This Is Gonna Hurt' and 'Are You With Me' are all fantastic songs. Good tempo to the album with some good slower stuff aswell and 'Oh My God' is another highlight later one which picks things up again. Not to sure about the Muse stylings of 'Goodbye My Friends' but apart from that a pretty damned neat album.

 

Big Life

Straight to the point on this one. First few songs are really good 'Dying Day' especially, then the whole things veers off into boredom and mediocrity by track 5. Way way too long at 13 tracks and to be honest a major disappointment considering who is involved in this.

 

After Hours - Against The Grain

The debut 'Take Off' was a bit of a goodie all those years back and the 2nd album was ok too. Major surprise hearing they were doing another disc, but it is a good one overall, with 'Stand Up' 'Turn On Your Radio', 'Angel' and 'Hold On' being my picks of the bunch. Good solid AOR without any real surprises, but pleasant all the same

 

Shadowman - Watching Over You

I love Steve Overland like the next man, and overall the Shadowman stuff has been pretty ok by me, bar the patchy 2nd album. This one could go down as being the best one so far, as the songwriting has definitely been turned up a notch or 2. Good tunes in 'Suzanne', the title track, 'Renegades' is a beauty and 'Across The Universe' is a strong opener too. overall really liking this one.

[heaven&hell]

Voodoo Circle - Broken Heart Syndrome

 

Wow this is pretty damn good. The debut was really good but was much heavier in a more Malmsteen shred style but with David Readman's vocals the PC69 comparisons are hard to avoid. This follow up is much more melodic and in a more Whitesnake/Rainbow vein with a hint of Deep Purple and PC69 at times. Alex Beyrodt sounds amazing on his solos as usual and Readman is amazing on vocals. A possible contender for album of the year.

[Glen]

Voodoo Circle - Broken Heart Syndrome

 

Wow this is pretty damn good. The debut was really good but was much heavier in a more Malmsteen shred style but with David Readman's vocals the PC69 comparisons are hard to avoid. This follow up is much more melodic and in a more Whitesnake/Rainbow vein with a hint of Deep Purple and PC69 at times. Alex Beyrodt sounds amazing on his solos as usual and Readman is amazing on vocals. A possible contender for album of the year.

 

I love this album. Wont be my album of the year, but it is still great!

[Geoff]

Circus - 'Coming for you' ; not too bad. For me personally, I'm glad I got it and I will keep it. It does have those Cinderella/Britny Fox style vocals which I am not wild about, but the songs are generally pretty good. The 10 minute title track is a TERRIBLE choice, but aside from that I think these guys are pretty good.

 

44 Caliber - 'Can you handle...' ; I did hear MP3s of this once, but wasn't too impressed. Glad I persisted and picked the CD up because it's pretty good. Again, not great and there's a few average songs on here, but overall I like this one. Cool vibe, and some good tunes.

[Glen]

Big Life

Straight to the point on this one. First few songs are really good 'Dying Day' especially, then the whole things veers off into boredom and mediocrity by track 5. Way way too long at 13 tracks and to be honest a major disappointment considering who is involved in this.

 

 

backed. the first 3 (?) songs are pretty good and then Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Geoff]

Got through a few of my new CDs with a trip up the coast on the weekend. Some results:

 

Big Trouble - The very best of... ; not a bad CD and I will probably hold on to it. It's a new release from Retrospect, but it's actually demos from what I assume is the early 90's - there are some live tracks from 1991 at the end of the disc... and funnily enough the sound quality of those is about as good as the other tunes. If you know bands like Cold Shot and a million other bands like that that never quite made it, these guys are similar. Of the bands that did get signed, I guess they sound a bit like Roxy Blue? A lot of kind of pointless 100% filler "swagger-rockers" matched up with a small handful of commercial tunes. In fact, the last song, by far, is the best of the studio tracks - 'Lost in love' or something to that effect. Personally I would have liked a little bio with the CD, but there's some cool snaps - I blindly bought this CD on image alone as these guys had the image thing down to a tee. Song-wise, though, you can tell why they didn't get signed.

 

Elektradrive - Due ; Patchy, patchy affair. Strong keys and a handful of nice songs, but also a lot of fillers. I think the first song was one of the best, but there were a few okay ones. Keyboard heavy production wasn't great, and in all honesty I wouldn't recommend it.

 

Faithealer - Welcome to the edge of the world ; heard the MP3's last year and sadly this doesn't sound any better. I'm really not even sure it's a keeper. Mega boring songs, way too long... just a really, really uninspired CD.

 

Head On - Washington and battery ; I do dearly wish I'd known before purchase that this was recorded from 1981-1983 because I would have stayed away. It's not awful, and for anyone into this era of music it might even be pretty decent, but it was definitely not for me. Dated, uninteresting songs. I didn't mind the ballad on the end of it, but not much else going on here.

 

Hung Jury - Screaming in blue ; like Big Trouble, you'd give them 10/10 on image alone, and I think in the end that's why I took a chance on this after holding off for so long. These guys are hard do describe. Sort of like Kingdom Come and Blue Murder mixed with heavier rock bands from the early 90's... actually a bit like Cutlass, if you know them. It's not bad, I guess. Well played, gritty tunes. But it is lacking heavily in the hook department. Pretty unmemorable, but worth some more spins.

 

Johnny Crash - Unfinished business ; I always had a big soft spot for their debut, and this one is the perfect follow-up. A real shame the guys never got this one released. Sure it would have been a commercial failure at the time, but it's a real good disc which does not for a second stray from the formula that made their debut so likeable - good sleazy "back alley" () rock, with great big gang vocals come chorus time. In short, if you liked the debut take the time to track this one down.

 

Steve Lukather - All's well that ends well ; I put this on my list if I ever saw it cheap, and I did. Kind of wish I hadn't. Yes, it's well played and he has a great guitar tone, but I just don't like most the songs. I do admit I really like 'Can't Look Back' and 'Don't Say It's Over,' which are the two songs that stood out for me when Jez brought this to the masses last year. But the rest? No, just not for me. Generally really unlikeable verses and the choruses weren't often that great either, imo. Not a fan.

 

Danger Zone - Line of fire ; heard the MP3s briefly, but I was glad to pick the actual CD up. It's really not that bad. Like I think I said before, it's not amazing and certainly not essential, but reading the booklet and history of this band got me in the spirit and I just enjoyed the disc. A couple of back to back fillers around the 3/4 mark don't do it any favours, but there's some good stuff on here. I especially loved the last track.

 

Dirty Looks - ICU ; this one was an odd one. Not the Dirty Looks I know and love. Not saying it was bad. It was still okay, but the vocals sounded different, and not the norm. There were some great riffs, but the songs also didn't really have that trademark Dirty Looks sounds, which had somehow been kept in tact through a billion line-up changes. As I said, it's not a bad one as such, but not my favourite Dirty Looks CD, that's for sure.

 

Pearl - Little immaculate white fox ; Not bad at all. There were several fillers, especially the ballads and other slower tracks. But some of the rockers and the early song about war were really quite good. Not essential, but a good solid CD.

 

Gunner Sixx - Desire ; What to do with these guys? Another new release from Retrospect, this time from a current band. Musically, this is deadset one of the best CDs I've heard from this year. Great stuff. But there are two negatives going against this band, and sadly they are both quite significant. One, I just don't like the lead vocals at all. Strong accent (I believe these guys are Argentinian, was it?) and just not really a good voice otherwise. Two, the choruses. There are some pretty nice ones on here, but generally I just feel the choruses let a lot of good songs down. A bit more focus on writing better hooks, maybe a bit more in the vocal harmonies? These guys are good and this is good for a debut album... but I think they could offer up a cracking second disc I hope.

[Nightrain]

sounds like from your first impression, only Johnny Crash is a real satisfaction there

[glam_junkie]

FrenchKiss - Premier Baiser

This is a short EP or whatever you want to call it. For that I was hoping for a stronger set of tracks. On the other hand I paid something like $4 or $5 for this as it was mentioned here on the board. A couple of decent tracks but nothing really stuck with me.

 

 

thouhg tthis would been right up your alley. i really liked this one!

[TIM (2)]

WILLIAMS/FRIESTEDT - S/T

 

On paper a killer combination of ultra-wimpy westcoast man Friestedt and ex-Toto vocalist Joseph Williams. I love Williams' ultra-smooth vocals (his performance on Toto's "The Seventh One" is a vocal masterclass) so bought this by-sight, but others should be wary. This is very lightweight stuff, and there's also no hint of any modern sound/production techniques so it sounds like an early 80's release. It's also very typical westcoast with only a few songs that can be seriously deemed as AOR ("Say Goodbye" is the best of them), with the rest being either jazzy/ballads or an instrumental (?!). Given you only get 9 songs then there's obvious filler. Great vocals, a few killer songs, and not much else means if you're after killer westcoast music make sure you get the recent re-issues of King Of Hearts/L.A. Cowboys/Time Gallery long before getting this...

[Jez]

WILLIAMS/FRIESTEDT - S/T

 

On paper a killer combination of ultra-wimpy westcoast man Friestedt and ex-Toto vocalist Joseph Williams. I love Williams' ultra-smooth vocals (his performance on Toto's "The Seventh One" is a vocal masterclass) so bought this by-sight, but others should be wary. This is very lightweight stuff, and there's also no hint of any modern sound/production techniques so it sounds like an early 80's release. It's also very typical westcoast with only a few songs that can be seriously deemed as AOR ("Say Goodbye" is the best of them), with the rest being either jazzy/ballads or an instrumental (?!). Given you only get 9 songs then there's obvious filler. Great vocals, a few killer songs, and not much else means if you're after killer westcoast music make sure you get the recent re-issues of King Of Hearts/L.A. Cowboys/Time Gallery long before getting this...

 

 

I thought I had put on 'The Seventh One' after the first couple of tracks. As near to that era of Toto as you are likely to get this day and age I reckon. This is nice stuff though and just the way I like my Westcoast stuff. I also noted how good Jo Williams sounds, especially compared to the Vertigo stuff he did a while back - the guys voice seems to be back big time.

[TIM (2)]

WILLIAMS/FRIESTEDT - S/T

 

On paper a killer combination of ultra-wimpy westcoast man Friestedt and ex-Toto vocalist Joseph Williams. I love Williams' ultra-smooth vocals (his performance on Toto's "The Seventh One" is a vocal masterclass) so bought this by-sight, but others should be wary. This is very lightweight stuff, and there's also no hint of any modern sound/production techniques so it sounds like an early 80's release. It's also very typical westcoast with only a few songs that can be seriously deemed as AOR ("Say Goodbye" is the best of them), with the rest being either jazzy/ballads or an instrumental (?!). Given you only get 9 songs then there's obvious filler. Great vocals, a few killer songs, and not much else means if you're after killer westcoast music make sure you get the recent re-issues of King Of Hearts/L.A. Cowboys/Time Gallery long before getting this...

 

 

I thought I had put on 'The Seventh One' after the first couple of tracks. As near to that era of Toto as you are likely to get this day and age I reckon. This is nice stuff though and just the way I like my Westcoast stuff. I also noted how good Jo Williams sounds, especially compared to the Vertigo stuff he did a while back - the guys voice seems to be back big time.

 

Yeah his vocals have lost that rough-edge he seemed to have on the Vertigo stuff (think all of that was in too low a pitch for him). I still prefer the more-AOR type stuff from him (his "I Am Alive" solo disc ties with the first Vertigo as the best pure AOR output from him IMO) though, rather than some of the jazzy tunes on this...

[Jez]

WILLIAMS/FRIESTEDT - S/T

 

On paper a killer combination of ultra-wimpy westcoast man Friestedt and ex-Toto vocalist Joseph Williams. I love Williams' ultra-smooth vocals (his performance on Toto's "The Seventh One" is a vocal masterclass) so bought this by-sight, but others should be wary. This is very lightweight stuff, and there's also no hint of any modern sound/production techniques so it sounds like an early 80's release. It's also very typical westcoast with only a few songs that can be seriously deemed as AOR ("Say Goodbye" is the best of them), with the rest being either jazzy/ballads or an instrumental (?!). Given you only get 9 songs then there's obvious filler. Great vocals, a few killer songs, and not much else means if you're after killer westcoast music make sure you get the recent re-issues of King Of Hearts/L.A. Cowboys/Time Gallery long before getting this...

 

 

I thought I had put on 'The Seventh One' after the first couple of tracks. As near to that era of Toto as you are likely to get this day and age I reckon. This is nice stuff though and just the way I like my Westcoast stuff. I also noted how good Jo Williams sounds, especially compared to the Vertigo stuff he did a while back - the guys voice seems to be back big time.

 

Yeah his vocals have lost that rough-edge he seemed to have on the Vertigo stuff (think all of that was in too low a pitch for him). I still prefer the more-AOR type stuff from him (his "I Am Alive" solo disc ties with the first Vertigo as the best pure AOR output from him IMO) though, rather than some of the jazzy tunes on this...

 

2 or 3 of the tunes here were on the 2 L.A.Project discs that Friestedt did before (the 2nd one especially was excellent) but with Williams singing, so only really 6 new tracks featured. A bit stingy at 33 minutes aswell, as I would have liked a bit more of it to be honest. I like the Jazzy side to Westcoast sound, so this one suits me to a tee - I can see why it's not for everyone though.

[Jez]

Farcry - Optimism

 

The debut was great, but I think that the new one overall may even edge it for me personally. 'Satisfaction' reminds me somewhat of Poisons' Nothin' But A Good Time 'in the chorus (minus point for that Pete ), but apart from that, some really really very good songs throughout. Special note for some great harmonies and of course Pete's excellent playing too. Thumbs up again chaps

 

Elevener - Symmetrry In Motion

 

Rather than the duo on the debut, Elevener are now a fully fledged 'band' and you can tell somewhat in the overall results on show, especially in the much improved vocals (from Prisoner's Piere Winsberg) and A slightly tougher overall sound. What made the debut stand out from the run of the mill for me, was the consistency in the songwriting and whilst I don't think the songs here quite match those high standards, they are non the less, pretty impressive throughout. Well worth a punt for all the AOR guys 'n' gals.

 

 

Battle Beast - Steel

Really very good old fashioned female fronted Metal (with a few modern keyboard touches) and a whole heap of catchy tunes aswell. Seems to be released on a small Finnish label, so thanx to Stefan for putting me onto this one, as it would most definitely have passed me by. Check out the vids Stefan has put up in the Heavy Metal thread for a taster of things to come.

 

 

Neal Morse - Testimony 2

 

9th solo release from the Ex Spock's Beard front man and a really beautiful Prog disc. Disc one features 3 parts split into 13 tracks. 'Jayda' especially is a delicate, emotional track, whilst 'Mercy Street' 'It's For You', 'Crossing Over' and 'Mercy Street Revisited' really show what a talented songwriter/ musician this guy really is. Get in quick and get the 2CD version plus bonus DVD box set for a real prog treat.

[Fat Freddy]

Crashdiet - GENERATION WILD

 

Hair Metal's Great White Hope returns with album (and vocalist) number three, and y'know what? I think this may be their best yet. Catchy enough for the hair fans, heavy enough for the metal fans, with a pinch of F*ck-You punk rock added to the mix, this thing quite simply whooped my ass!

[TIM (2)]

EDDIE VEDDER - Ukelele Songs

 

Can't help myself with this stuff, the guy just has such a killer voice. This is good stuff, immaculately sung and nicely laid-back enough for most around here to enjoy. Loved his "Into the Wild" solo disc and like this one just as much. GREAT.

[JamesEagle]

FrenchKiss - Premier Baiser

This is a short EP or whatever you want to call it. For that I was hoping for a stronger set of tracks. On the other hand I paid something like $4 or $5 for this as it was mentioned here on the board. A couple of decent tracks but nothing really stuck with me.

 

 

thouhg tthis would been right up your alley. i really liked this one!

 

For what it's worth, this is right up my alley too in terms of sound, but I listened to the songs online and they didn't do anything for me at all.