First Spin Impressions

[TIM (2)]

Sunstorm - house of dreams

Yawn.

 

No idea why everyone hates this - I love it...

[phaffas]

Sunstorm - house of dreams

Yawn.

 

No idea why everyone hates this - I love it...

 

Compared to the debut it just has nothing... and the debut wasnt as good as other similar releases..

[Jez]

Sunstorm - house of dreams

Yawn.

 

No idea why everyone hates this - I love it...

 

Me too - Great album!

[heaven&hell]

Sunstorm - house of dreams

Yawn.

 

No idea why everyone hates this - I love it...

 

Me too - Great album!

 

I adored the debut and played the living crap out of it for the first year but haven't played it in quite some time but I still haven't heard 'House of Dreams' yet.

[Geoff]

Sunstorm - house of dreams

Yawn.

 

No idea why everyone hates this - I love it...

 

Me too - Great album!

Easy explanation, guys. Matt is gay and his ears and like homosexual gay things. The album is a delight.

 

These two, however...

 

Lord Tracy - 'Deaf gods of babylon' ; Like Wes said in another thread yesterday, this is okay but not much better than that. I don't really get it. The choruses are just so bland and uneventful. I didn't hate the disc but I really grew tired of it towards the end. Songs are too long and just not good enough.

 

Manikin Laff - s/t ; and another one. Haven't these bands heard of choruses? There is something I don't hate about this CD, but again, it's just so average. I think this one'll probably go straight off my want list onto my Trade list. A perfect advertisement for downloading MP3's pre-trade.

[Jez]

Voices Of Rock - High And Mighty

 

First impression is that this is a lot tougher sounding than the first one and although that is not a problem at all, I think the songs on here are way off the debut which was one of my fave discs of 2007. There are some very nice tunes on here, Bert Heerink, Torben Schmidt and Joe Lynn Turners efforts especially, but some very very average ones aswell, Paul Sabu, Paul Shortino, Tony Mills and David Reeece spring to mind. All in all a little disapointed generally as this should have been better with the list of people involved.

 

 

Radio Silence - Who's Skin Are You Under

 

Loved the debut ('Tower Of Strength' was a huge tune) but hated 'Sirens' which was very very bog standard and below par songwise. This new one falls somewhere in between the 2. It starts off very nicely with 'Hand To Mouth' which is a great track, but consistency wise, this disc rises and falls at every given opportunity and I found it really quite hard to totally get into. I like Alistair Gordon's voice alot, but I still say the best thing he has done is the Bankstatement disc with Genesis' Tony Banks. Much better AOR stuff out there to get excited over than this.

 

 

AOR - Journey To L.A

 

Those familiar with AOR 's previous releases will definitely want to get hold of this one, as it stands right up there with the best of them so far. Typical Denander/ Slama stuff on here, so if you aren't a fan I advise to stear clear. 'Never Surrender' is brilliant with it's huge Denander solo and generally all the songs up to the final few are really very good indeed.. There are a couple of minus points for the horrible 'West Into The Sun' and 'Lost In Your Eyes' and do we really need more versions of 'Desperate Dreams and 'You're My Obbsession'? All in all a thumbs up, although there is nothing on here that is gonna completely turn heads.

 

Outloud - Outloud

 

Big, Brash melodic rock disc with some excellent material, although saying that, there isn't one original bone in it's body. Bon Jovi, Van Halen and 80's US melodic rock fans in general will love it. It's good and is generally getting raved over, but it's not that good imo.

 

 

VishusgruV - Dirty Little Secrets

 

This is more like it. Big sounding MR disc with some nice Pompy keys to add to the mix. It's quite a 50 minutes with some really nice material and no what I would call filler on here. Lots of high points including the excellent 'Destiny', 'Poison Kisses', 'Karma' 'Dreamer' & 'Victim Of The System'. AOR-fm come up trumps again and after the superb Dreamer disc, this fits neatly into 2nd place.

 

The Psychics - S/T

 

Very cool 'Old School' bombastic Brit hard rock in the vein of Whitesnake, Led Zep and Thunder. Some really tasty guitars on this and a very consistent disc with it's 10 quality tracks. This is a band that are definitley gonna be worth keeping an eye on for sure.

[Nick C]

Agreed about The Psychics matey...v. good....lovin' it. Still waiting for my VishusgruV - I ordered it just too late to miss the postal strike that Bruce warned about.

 

Porcupine Tree - The Incident

 

Flipping heck, now I like this a real lot! But I'm not sure what to make of it.....have the band regressed slightly? The album nods more towards The Sky Moves Sideways era with a much more proggy feel than say F.O.A.B.P. , Deadwing, Stupid Dream or In Absentia. The heavy riffing of the last couple has definitely been toned down a little - but it's not completely absent.

So maybe this is a logical point to be at, representing a melting pot of the two styles.

Either way it's working for me, I've been playing it nearly non-stop since Monday - it's got the usual darkish themes - yet it isn't nearly as claustrophobic in feel as F.O.A.B.P. - I've mainly played disc 1 as the 55 minute title track (albeit in 14 parts) is obviously the centrepiece - giving the second disc a kind of E.P. feel...kind of like the Nil Recurring release that was extras recorded during the F.O.A.B.P. sessions. Yet the tracks on the second disc are just excellent too.

 

I think it's gonna take many more listens to this as the 6 or 7 times I've played it so far reveal different things each time. I think I need a break from it for a day (but I don't want to stop playing it) ...luckily Cheap Trick came in the post today...lol.

[heaven&hell]

Sargant Fury - Still Want More

 

Some damn good Melodic Hard Rock that I expect to get many future spins.

Fav songs so far are "Just One Night", "Still You Want More", "Mindgames" and "NO 9".

[Geoff]

Sargant Fury - Still Want More

 

Some damn good Melodic Hard Rock that I expect to get many future spins.

Fav songs so far are "Just One Night", "Still You Want More", "Mindgames" and "NO 9".

All killer songs, especially 'No.9'. I hate to say it about such a killer hard rock albu, but my fave is the amazing closing ballad, 'Don't you know'.

[heaven&hell]

Sargant Fury - Still Want More

 

Some damn good Melodic Hard Rock that I expect to get many future spins.

Fav songs so far are "Just One Night", "Still You Want More", "Mindgames" and "NO 9".

All killer songs, especially 'No.9'. I hate to say it about such a killer hard rock albu, but my fave is the amazing closing ballad, 'Don't you know'.

 

The track before that one "Losing Control" kicks butt too.

[Geoff]

Sargant Fury - Still Want More

 

Some damn good Melodic Hard Rock that I expect to get many future spins.

Fav songs so far are "Just One Night", "Still You Want More", "Mindgames" and "NO 9".

All killer songs, especially 'No.9'. I hate to say it about such a killer hard rock albu, but my fave is the amazing closing ballad, 'Don't you know'.

 

The track before that one "Losing Control" kicks butt too.

Yeah, I love 'em all. Doubt there's one song on the disc I don't like.

[TIM (2)]

EUROPE - Last Look At Eden

 

Managed to hear this (though obviously I didn't buy it), and I'm amazed this band are still around. Sure they're a good live band, and Norum/Tempest have a lot of talent, but they're getting progressively worse with each disc to the point where they're just wasting everyone's time. There's nothing awful on this disc, but everything is so totally forgettable and bland it all passes you by while you think about what album to play next. Forget about this bands history and past albums and there's no way in the world they would have a record deal. The title tracks okay, so are a couple of other tunes, but this is generally just lame & where are the hooks? Don't pay good money for this....

[phaffas]

EUROPE - Last Look At Eden

 

Managed to hear this (though obviously I didn't buy it), and I'm amazed this band are still around. Sure they're a good live band, and Norum/Tempest have a lot of talent, but they're getting progressively worse with each disc to the point where they're just wasting everyone's time. There's nothing awful on this disc, but everything is so totally forgettable and bland it all passes you by while you think about what album to play next. Forget about this bands history and past albums and there's no way in the world they would have a record deal. The title tracks okay, so are a couple of other tunes, but this is generally just lame & where are the hooks? Don't pay good money for this....

 

I played Secret Society again today and remembered theyd hidden Tempests vocals alot in some muddy effect .... do they do that on LLAE?

[glam_junkie]

BB Steal - 'Resurrection' ; Man this is disappointing. Glad I have it in the collection, but I don't get it. Honestly, I think I could have played the guitar on this. Musically, this is one the most boring and uninspired releases I've ever heard. There are one or two decent songs, but the music is just dead. Same slow tired track each time. I really liked track 5, but that was it. I will try it again, but basically the truth of the matter is you could take a 10 second snippet off any moment from 'On the edge' and it'd kill this album single handedly.

 

 

personally i think there are some pretty good songs on there but the mix does it no justice. It was mixed for commercial/radio purposes... which is why it has come up so gutless. When I visitied craig a few weeks ago he was showing me his new home studio and he put the Resurrection tracks on and started re-mixing them with big guitars and big drums and they sounded so much better. I think he wants to get a big rock producer to re-mix it.... alot based on what the response was from here, but says that's big $$$.

 

I find if i turn it up loud on a good stereo, it's a lot more ballsy comapared to when played quietly or in the car.

[TIM (2)]

EUROPE - Last Look At Eden

 

Managed to hear this (though obviously I didn't buy it), and I'm amazed this band are still around. Sure they're a good live band, and Norum/Tempest have a lot of talent, but they're getting progressively worse with each disc to the point where they're just wasting everyone's time. There's nothing awful on this disc, but everything is so totally forgettable and bland it all passes you by while you think about what album to play next. Forget about this bands history and past albums and there's no way in the world they would have a record deal. The title tracks okay, so are a couple of other tunes, but this is generally just lame & where are the hooks? Don't pay good money for this....

 

I played Secret Society again today and remembered theyd hidden Tempests vocals alot in some muddy effect .... do they do that on LLAE?

 

No the mix is fine and the vocals sound okay (though Tempest is just workmanlike on this thing), better than on the last couple of discs. The overall feel is less modern rock and more classic retro rock this time around. Might be more to most HH'ers tastes, but the songwriting is flat-out awful.

[Glen]

Sargant Fury - Still Want More

 

Some damn good Melodic Hard Rock that I expect to get many future spins.

Fav songs so far are "Just One Night", "Still You Want More", "Mindgames" and "NO 9".

All killer songs, especially 'No.9'. I hate to say it about such a killer hard rock albu, but my fave is the amazing closing ballad, 'Don't you know'.

 

The track before that one "Losing Control" kicks butt too.

Yeah, I love 'em all. Doubt there's one song on the disc I don't like.

 

There's a song I dont like - 'Slow n Easy'........a piece of monkey shite.

 

Otherwise the rest of the album is killer.

 

Mac is almost the perfect hard rock vocalist IMO

 

Cheers

[Geoff]

EUROPE - Last Look At Eden

There's nothing awful on this disc, but everything is so totally forgettable and bland it all passes you by while you think about what album to play next.

 

I'd have to disagree. As per my post in the Europe thread, this CD starts out okay but the second half of this disc is totally terrible.

 

As for Joey Tempest, I think he sounds excellent on this disc.

[Dead Planet]

Johnny Gale................Gale Force............very fine blues hard rock.....

[Dead Planet]

Joey C. Jones and the Glory Hounds.................S/T..............decent rock release but nothing mind blowing...

[Dead Planet]

Wilkes Booth........One Night Stand.........Very average hard rock...won't get many spins from me.....

[Dead Planet]

Crystal Ball..........Timewalker............Very good hard rocker.....

 

 

Sora........Demented Honour............decent hard rocker.....

[heaven&hell]

Strike Twice - S/T

 

Good 80's style hard rock and one of the better Eonian releases so far and I'm sure this will grow even more after a few more spins.

 

Felony - Helltown Hotel

 

Along with UZI this is by the far the heaviest thing that Eonian has released so far. Actually I think it's even heavier than the UZI release. After one spin I'm the heavier, dirtier vibe of this one.

[phaffas]

Crystal Ball..........Timewalker............Very good hard rocker.....

 

damn straight homie!

[Blue Charvel]

Stryper - Murder By Pride

 

Did they pay someone to produce this? It sounds like it was converted from some previously unused cassette recordings. The high end sounds all swishy and magnetized. Seriously I can't even listen to this.

[heaven&hell]

Stryper - Murder By Pride

 

Did they pay someone to produce this? It sounds like it was converted from some previously unused cassette recordings. The high end sounds all swishy and magnetized. Seriously I can't even listen to this.

 

I thought you were liking this one?

So it sounds that bad huh, that isn't good especially after how most of their fans didn't like Reborn much.