First Spin Impressions

[Fat Freddy]

Seven Witches - DEADLY SINS

Sounds like Jack Frost's latest S.W. lineup has finally had time to gel. The last album with new vocalist Alan Tecchio (ex-Hades/WatchTower), AMPED, had its moments but Tecchio's vox didn't seem to mesh very well with the music (I still wonder if some of those tunes had been written with Tecchio's predecessor, the much cleaner voiced James Rivera, in mind). DEADLY SINS is a big improvement. The music is grittier than much of SW's previous output (leaning towards thrash occasionally, rather than the happy-happy-Euro-style power metal that had been their stock in trade on earlier records), but thankfully not as dark or morose as AMPED. Tecchio finally sounds "at home" in this band and guitarist Jack Frost's riff work is solid as ever. Frost sez this is "the best album of my career" and though I don't think I'd go quite that far (my fave S.W. is still PASSAGE TO THE OTHER SIDE), I'd say this disc blows away its predecessor for sure.

 

Greenhaven - THE LAST POWERFUL SECOND

Dunno why this was just sent to me for review now, cuz the copyright date on it is 2006, but whatever. Nothing spectacular here, just good ole fashioned bluesy boogie metal. Kinda like Monster Magnet without the acid, or a more metallic Clutch. Sounded cool while it was playing but nothing much stuck on the first spin.

 

Dantesco - PAGANO

Oh good Lord, this was simply awful. How's your Spanish? Non-existent? Mine too, which is too bad cuz this entire album is sung en Espanol. Dantesco's hype sheet claims that they're Puerto Rico's biggest metal band, but if that's true, then I wonder how much competition there really is for that title. Dantesco come across as a mish mash of Trouble, Sabbath, Candlemass and 70s Judas Priest (to name but a few) and musically they're decent (if unspectacular) mid-paced Metal with a Latin flavor. However, the vocalist is flat out TERRIBLE. Remember the vox on Grave Digger's first album?? Imagine that guy singing in Spanish. His squawking attempts at being operatic were funny for a while, but got annoying really freakin' quick. This one didn't end fast enough for me!!

[Blue Charvel]

Journey - Revelation

 

This is just plain good, Pineda is a dead ringer for Perry. Whether you think that's good or bad will probably define your experience with this album. To me it's great, a true return to form in the songwriting area, drawing from early to late model Journey. Some good rockers, some great ballads, everything you'd expect from a Journey album. Well done gentlemen!

[JLPRocks]

Journey - Revelation

 

This is just plain good, Pineda is a dead ringer for Perry. Whether you think that's good or bad will probably define your experience with this album. To me it's great, a true return to form in the songwriting area, drawing from early to late model Journey. Some good rockers, some great ballads, everything you'd expect from a Journey album. Well done gentlemen!

 

I think I'm gonna enjoy this one!

[TIM (2)]

HAREM SCAREM - Hope

 

So, their last album & it's a return to the down-tuned guitars & the sound of "Voice of Reason" and "Overload". It isn't as downright tuneless as "VOR", but it is a very similar sounding album to "Overload" IMO. But shit, it doesn't start well. "Watch Your Back" & "Time Bomb" are both just fillers, but then thankfully the title-track & awesome "Days Are Numbered" gets things back on track. The brilliant duo of "Never Too Late" & "Shooting Star" are as melodic this gets, & are awesome tunes (more "Weight of the World" than "VOR"), & "Calm Before the Storm" is another down-tuned but catchy rocker with a killer chorus, before the good-but-not-spectacular ballad "Nothing Without You" closes this.

 

Overall this is a good album that sounds like it might need a few spins. It's worth picking up for all fans & "Shooting Star" is almost worth the entry price along, but is slightly disappointing after the last album returned to their more melodic sound. And if you didn't like "Overload" you really should avoid this like the plague....

[Geoff]

Sounds interesting, Tim (2). Ideally I'd have preferred them not to revisit that sounds for thier last CD, but I have to admit 'Overload' is a discreet favourite of mine. I love every song on it (except one, I think) and really struggled not to put the whole thing on my Ipod when I did Harem Scarem. I'm looking forward to this one.

 

Crazy Lixx - 'Do or die' ; This is called an EP, but with 9 songs I'd call it an album. I love 'Loud minority' and this is nice stuff, with a few tracks which were later spruced up for 'Loud minority' appearing here. Of the tracks that don't appear on it, there's some good stuff. It's a lot rawer and nowhere near as melodic, but this is a pretty good sleaze / hard rock disc. I wouldn't call it essential, even if you love 'Loud Minority', but it's a nice collection of tracks from a great band.

 

My Land - 'No man's land' ; Loved it. This has 4 of the best songs of the year on it, and two other gems. Aside from those 6 this is an otherwise very strong album. There's no blatant filler, and this is easily one of the surprise packets of the year for me. Awesome stuff. The first three songs are just stunning.

 

Miss Crazy - 'II' ; I just really, really like this band. The vocals are perhaps not quite as harsh this time round, but the songs are excellent again. Straight up 80's hard rock - killer riffs, great hooks. There's nothing I don't love about this... except the vocals aren't perfect.

[glam_junkie]

Crazy Lixx - 'Do or die' ; This is called an EP, but with 9 songs I'd call it an album. I love 'Loud minority' and this is nice stuff, with a few tracks which were later spruced up for 'Loud minority' appearing here. Of the tracks that don't appear on it, there's some good stuff. It's a lot rawer and nowhere near as melodic, but this is a pretty good sleaze / hard rock disc. I wouldn't call it essential, even if you love 'Loud Minority', but it's a nice collection of tracks from a great band.

 

 

Ther version I have has only 2-3 songs.

What the heckdo you have? Do you have an original, or a download?

[Geoff]

Crazy Lixx - 'Do or die' ; This is called an EP, but with 9 songs I'd call it an album. I love 'Loud minority' and this is nice stuff, with a few tracks which were later spruced up for 'Loud minority' appearing here. Of the tracks that don't appear on it, there's some good stuff. It's a lot rawer and nowhere near as melodic, but this is a pretty good sleaze / hard rock disc. I wouldn't call it essential, even if you love 'Loud Minority', but it's a nice collection of tracks from a great band.

 

 

Ther version I have has only 2-3 songs.

What the heckdo you have? Do you have an original, or a download?

Haha... I'm guessing it's probably just a compilation of all pre-debut tracks:

 

1. Do Or Die

2. Daddy's Little Girl

3. Rock n' Roller Coaster

4. Over You

5. Love Is A Drug

6. Get On Your Knee

7. Death Row

8. Bad In A Good Way

9. Love On The Run

[glam_junkie]

Crazy Lixx - 'Do or die' ; This is called an EP, but with 9 songs I'd call it an album. I love 'Loud minority' and this is nice stuff, with a few tracks which were later spruced up for 'Loud minority' appearing here. Of the tracks that don't appear on it, there's some good stuff. It's a lot rawer and nowhere near as melodic, but this is a pretty good sleaze / hard rock disc. I wouldn't call it essential, even if you love 'Loud Minority', but it's a nice collection of tracks from a great band.

 

 

Ther version I have has only 2-3 songs.

What the heckdo you have? Do you have an original, or a download?

Haha... I'm guessing it's probably just a compilation of all pre-debut tracks:

 

1. Do Or Die

2. Daddy's Little Girl

3. Rock n' Roller Coaster

4. Over You

5. Love Is A Drug

6. Get On Your Knee

7. Death Row

8. Bad In A Good Way

9. Love On The Run

 

 

Looks interesting.

The official one (with 2 tracks) can be sene here:

http://www.swedmetal.com/prodDetails.aspx?ProdID=7999

[Glen]

HAREM SCAREM - Hope

 

So, their last album & it's a return to the down-tuned guitars & the sound of "Voice of Reason" and "Overload". It isn't as downright tuneless as "VOR", but it is a very similar sounding album to "Overload" IMO. But shit, it doesn't start well. "Watch Your Back" & "Time Bomb" are both just fillers, but then thankfully the title-track & awesome "Days Are Numbered" gets things back on track. The brilliant duo of "Never Too Late" & "Shooting Star" are as melodic this gets, & are awesome tunes (more "Weight of the World" than "VOR"), & "Calm Before the Storm" is another down-tuned but catchy rocker with a killer chorus, before the good-but-not-spectacular ballad "Nothing Without You" closes this.

 

Overall this is a good album that sounds like it might need a few spins. It's worth picking up for all fans & "Shooting Star" is almost worth the entry price along, but is slightly disappointing after the last album returned to their more melodic sound. And if you didn't like "Overload" you really should avoid this like the plague....

 

 

Amazing - this was pretty much my summary after just listening to the soundbites on Melrock. Weird.

 

I thought 'Overload 2' with some killer sounding tunes mid-way to the end.

 

Im still gonna get this as I initially thought that Overlaod was a disappointment but after 10-15 spins I absolutely loved it - so I guess I hope the same will happen with Hope.

 

Cheers

[Blue Charvel]

Journey - Revelation

 

This is just plain good, Pineda is a dead ringer for Perry. Whether you think that's good or bad will probably define your experience with this album. To me it's great, a true return to form in the songwriting area, drawing from early to late model Journey. Some good rockers, some great ballads, everything you'd expect from a Journey album. Well done gentlemen!

Okay, a whole lot of listens over the weekend, did a lot of driving. My final conclusion: wow!

 

As Lennie mentioned in another thread, comparisons to earlier Journey ala Evolution/Infinity are totally warranted, listen to "Sunshower" and you'd think it was an outtake from one of those albums. Nice catchy choruses throughout, some very nice fretwork from Mr. Schon, but really the whole band including Pineda sounds energised and passionate about the songs. I like the whole thing all the way through, some fast stuff, some slow stuff (it is Journey after all... ), and it all kinda just works. Big props to the boys on this one, it's definitely the next best thing to Perry returning to the lineup and possibly (dare I say it?) even better, hard to tell where Perry's head would be at today.

 

Overall if you like the older pre-Escape Journey this is a must have for your collection.

 

I still haven't listened to the second CD with the remakes, or the DVD, anyone else?

[TIM (2)]

Journey - Revelation

 

I still haven't listened to the second CD with the remakes, or the DVD, anyone else?

 

Honetly, the remakes are incredible. They sound fresh & the vocals & guitar solos are just awesome. "Don't Stop Believing" is an all-time fave tune & it just sounds HUGE on here, & Pineda hits every single high-note perfectly. "Be Good To Yourself" sounds better & fresher than the original. Play the 2nd disc ASAP....

[Blue Charvel]

Journey - Revelation

 

I still haven't listened to the second CD with the remakes, or the DVD, anyone else?

 

Honetly, the remakes are incredible. They sound fresh & the vocals & guitar solos are just awesome. "Don't Stop Believing" is an all-time fave tune & it just sounds HUGE on here, & Pineda hits every single high-note perfectly. "Be Good To Yourself" sounds better & fresher than the original. Play the 2nd disc ASAP....

Sounds like a winner, I'll be playing that on the drive home then.

[Geoff]

Double Heart - 'Hearts on fire' ; These guys remind me of Return. A few very nice songs, but an abundance of fillers, especially on the second half of this disc. Decent, but not essential.

 

Roulette - 'Better late than never' ; Wow, what a mix. These guys remind me a hell of a lot of Dream Police. Seriously, it's uncanny at times (sadly, more of their 2nd album than first). Generally, very bluesy but there is also some killer Scandi melodic rock in the style of bands like Treat, for example. There are about 4-5 songs like this, mostly towards the end. Beautiful tracks. The bluesy stuff is okay but if I were them I'd have stuck with the melodic stuff. 14 tracks, a lot of fillers. Could have been marvelous. Good as it is.

 

Scream in Eden - 'Original sin' ; This one's a must for hard rock fans. Great vintage 80's hard rock riffs from start to finish, and very good songs too. Recommended.

[Blue Charvel]

Journey - Revelation

 

I still haven't listened to the second CD with the remakes, or the DVD, anyone else?

 

Honetly, the remakes are incredible. They sound fresh & the vocals & guitar solos are just awesome. "Don't Stop Believing" is an all-time fave tune & it just sounds HUGE on here, & Pineda hits every single high-note perfectly. "Be Good To Yourself" sounds better & fresher than the original. Play the 2nd disc ASAP....

Sounds like a winner, I'll be playing that on the drive home then.

You were right, that was an awesome fucking disc, I should not have waited so long!

[glam_junkie]

United Enemies - All The Sick Things We Do

Picked this one up after hearing one track ona swedish sleaze compilation. Worth the $'s. Very sleazy, but unlike most other swedish bands of the moment, this one isn't very glam influenced. It's the album that Faster Pussycat should've made ...instead of going industrial. It's heavy, it's sleazy, and it's got some dark influences.

 

Scream Clan - s/t

Haven't quite listened to this one all the way thru yet, but I like what I hear so far. If I had to draw a comparison to the sound of these guys I'd have to say "form a triangle out of Cinderella, AC/DC and Crystal Pistol and these guys will land right in the middle somewhere". Heavier than Cinderella, not a sleazy as crystal pistol.. with the hard hitting rock riffs of ACDC .

 

 

Nasty Idols - Cruel Intentions

How these guys were overlooked for so long bewilders me. They are classic sleazy hair metal perching themselves somewhere between Candy Harlots and early LA Guns. Even thouhg this is a re-mastered re-issue, the sound qulaity disappoints me slightly though. Tracks like "The Way Ya Walk", "Hopuse of Rock n Roll" and "Can't Get Ya Off My Mind" should have been smash hit back in the day.

 

 

Leaded Fuel - Inhale & Get Pale

One that I've been looking forward to. Has all the sleaze elements, but not as melodic as most other scandi bands of the moment. It's need some bigger choruses to compete with others in the genre, and I'm guessing will be a bit of a grower as there are no big stand out tracks. In isolation this would be a super album, but when u look at who they are competing against, they seem to fall just short.

[Geoff]

Glad to see you getting some Nasty Idols into you, mate. Killer band. That Scream Clan cover is different to mine... but another great band. 'American hair' is awesome.

[glam_junkie]

Glad to see you getting some Nasty Idols into you, mate. Killer band. That Scream Clan cover is different to mine... but another great band. 'American hair' is awesome.

 

 

that's the sleeve I nabbed off of hh main site. I think it is the same as mine. I have seen 3 different covers for it too, and it goes under 2 different names - one self titled, and one by the title of the opening track (can't recall the name - citizen 'something').

[aMetalhead1966]

Listening right now to Judas Priest "Nostradamus"...very good so far..touches a lot of ground here..

AOR to Metal to Prog Hard Rock..reminds me of their first two releases in some way...still gotta another disc

to go ...so far..good....

[aMetalhead1966]

Listening right now to Judas Priest "Nostradamus"...very good so far..touches a lot of ground here.. AOR to Metal to Prog Hard Rock..reminds me of their first two releases in some way...still gotta another disc to go ...so far..good....

Well this is a tough listen..not what you'd think from "Priest"..The "metal" factor

is buried heavily under a LOT of orchestration..there are some good solos

and Rob's vox are some of the best he's ever done but don't go looking for

"Painkiller" styled Priest cause it ain't here..still not as horrible as some have said..

still need to listen to it to more to really further any other comments

[Geoff]

Another busy weekend:

 

Hydrogyn - 'Deadly Passions' ; Pretty cool actually. The closing ballad was very nice and there was a great hard rocker towards the end too. Overall, solid again but these guys really aren't making anything essential, imo.

 

Elevener - 'When kaleidoscopes collide' ; Wow, AOR fans are going to whiten their pants when they hear this one. Aside from managing to fit the word 'love' into pretty much every chorus, these guys are really, really good. Essential for AOR/Melodic rock fans. I heard a bit of Arcangel and Asia in their sound. Not the best vocals, but superb songs.

 

Jorn - 'Lonely are the brave' ; I really dug this. Not sure about the Axel Rudy pell vibe I was picking up off it, but the title track is one of the best I have ever heard from Jorn. There's no way to really fault this - it's Jorn. Solid heavy rock start to finish.

 

Crash parallel - 'World we know' ; Crappy, bland modern rock. Some of the choruses were actually pretty cool, but man this band is bland. I stopped about halfway through 'cause I just lost interest.

 

Circular Logik - 'One' ; Wow, this is bad. I actually didn't mind some of the songs (2 or 3) but this was just a really, really scrappy, poor and budget sounding CD. I'd avoid this like hell.

 

Last Autumn's Dream - 'Hunting shadows' ; Nothing here I didn't expect, which is a good thing, I guess. These guys have their sound and they stick to it. Another solid collection of AOR/melodic rock.

[Geoff]

Michael Vescera - 'Sign of things to come' ; Shit, shit, shit. If you like Vescera's style you'd probably like this - the boring, fast metal tracks and bland melodic metal/hard rock songs, but if you don't you needn't waste your time here. Nothing new at all... just recycled stuff we've heard before. I turned this off before the end.

 

S.I.N - 'The 13th Apostyle' ; This is probably their best disc. Sadly, a few progressive elements, but some really strong songs with big riffs, good choruses... good song writing. If melodic very rock with hints of prog is your style, I'd suggest checking this one out. I liked it, and it's not even really my cup of tea.

 

Blind - s/t ; Wow, very nice. I haven't heard a modern rock disc for a while, sifting through new melodic rock releases... and I hate to say it, but this was a breath of fresh air. Very, very good songs, big hooks - very promising band. Nothing bad on this at all. Great stuff.

[Jez]

Listening right now to Judas Priest "Nostradamus"...very good so far..touches a lot of ground here.. AOR to Metal to Prog Hard Rock..reminds me of their first two releases in some way...still gotta another disc to go ...so far..good....

Well this is a tough listen..not what you'd think from "Priest"..The "metal" factor

is buried heavily under a LOT of orchestration..there are some good solos

and Rob's vox are some of the best he's ever done but don't go looking for

"Painkiller" styled Priest cause it ain't here..still not as horrible as some have said..

still need to listen to it to more to really further any other comments

 

 

That's about where I am at with this one as well - not half as bad as I was expecting, but a whole load more to get thorough yet

 

 

 

Silence - Open Road

 

Very very nice, laid back AOR with lots of nice stuff going on. Less accented vocally than the previous discs and the songs are managing to hold my attention for a lot longer than previously - even at 67 minutes of playing time. That was my main moan about 'Nostalgia' in that it was 3-4 songs too long. Not with this at all. Some nice arrangements on here to, subtle keys adding a nice wash to the proceedings - god dammit there is even a banjo in the mix on one or 2 songs. The last track 'Anywhere' is brilliant (if a little long) with all the neat little guitar solos thrown in there. This was touted as being Bon Jovi'ish (maybe a little in his vocal style) but otherwise, anyone expecting a Bon Jovi styled disc here is going to be a tad disappointed me thinks hahahahah. Great little album and one I will be flogging over the coming months, it might even creep into my top 20 come years end.

[Geoff]

Bombay Black - 'Psycho Magnet' ; Wow, I hate to say it but this album just sounds flat to me. If you loved everything about the first two albums this will probably bring you joy, but to me it was just too much of the same thing. There were about three absolute cracker songs on the debut and the rest was solid hard rock. I liked the 2nd album, but nothing on it really excelled past the "solid hard rock" that was the rest of the debut. And now we have a third album of "solid hard rock". The problem is, nothing has changed and nothing is standing out anymore and it all sounds the same as it did 3 albums ago. I guess that by now I was just expecting a little more. I'm not saying they should change their style... I would just expect higher quality songs after mastering this style. Decent album.

[TIM (2)]

MICHAEL BOLTON - Everybodys Crazy (Rock Candy remaster)

 

I never owned a copy of this disc, but it really is a great AOR album. The vocals, the production, the songwriting, all top-class. It sounds a little formulaic these days, but the remaster freshens up the sound allowing you to play it at high volumes. It's pretty much a flawless album, but top song honours goes to the magnificent "Desperate Heart" (one of the best ever AOR songs IMO). I know others disagree, but I think this is his best album & pretty essential for AOR fans...

[Dark Star]

Judas Priest "Nostradamus"

 

Ok Just listened to both CDs.. And I must agree with what's been said.. It IS good?? But if You are expecting "Painkiller" or "Screaming For Vengeance" You will be SORELY disappointed.. There is ALOT more orchestration and Prog metal influences on this than Anything they have ever done.. Now that's not a BAD thing really, as I DID enjoy listening to this, though I think I will have to give it a couple more spins and let it grow on Me.....

 

Overall I give it a... 7/10.. Not great, but it doesn't suck either......