First Spin Impressions

[heaven&hell]

Night Ranger - Feeding off the Mojo

 

This is a pleasant suprise. I didn't expect much from this disc since I've never been a huge fan but couldn't pass it up for $5 especially after reading some positive comments on this site. I have to admit this is damn good and I like this guys voice about as much as Jack Blades(who has a great voice IMO). It just don't get better than "Last Chance".

[Jez]

Leverage - Circus Colossus

Not as stellar as the previous two discs(with Tides being my fav and one of my favs of the decade) but I've actually played this one a few times and it's growing on me. Fav songs are "Movie Gods", "Wolf and the Moon", "Legions of Invisible" and "Revelation".

 

Have listened to this once so far and very disappointed. Quite power metal sounding, which for me usually means silly singalong choruses. Hopefully subsequent listens will change my mind (as they so often do).

 

If you haven't heard their debut "Tides" then get that one.

You can probably finds samples all over youtube.

 

Having listened to Circus Colossus a few more times, it definitely goes on my 'to sell' list. Two tracks I like very much, but the rest I find quite dull.

 

 

A little suprised by that to but some things hit different people different I guess.

I still don't like it as much as 'Tides' but I think it's really good.

 

Yep - different strokes and all that, but this for it's type, is top quality stuff imo.

[heaven&hell]

Night Ranger - Feeding off the Mojo

 

This is a pleasant suprise. I didn't expect much from this disc since I've never been a huge fan but couldn't pass it up for $5 especially after reading some positive comments on this site. I have to admit this is damn good and I like this guys voice about as much as Jack Blades(who has a great voice IMO). It just don't get better than "Last Chance".

 

I forgot to mention how much more I dig this than that boring "Neverland" disc I have.

[heaven&hell]

Dirty Penny-Take it Sleazy

Solid sleaze metal but I've heard better. There's not any tunes I dislike but had higher hopes after hearing so many great things about these guys over the last couple of years. Again not bad and I'm glad I bought it but I hope it grows on me more but for right now these guys aren't in the same level as bands like Crashdiet, Hardcore Superstar, Hell N Diesel or Crazy Lixx. Also how cheap is this packaging? Damn this is worst than the last Buckcherry disc.

 

Edit: This is much much better on the second spin. 'Vendetta' kicks ass.

 

Dirty Penny-Young & Reckless

Just a few songs in so far but this sounds better than the debut and the packaging is at least a little better.

Edit: Now 5 tunes in and all 5 are winners so that's good.

 

Laidlaw-The Foam Box Sessions

I loved the bands debut 'First Big Picnic' and the EP they sold at shows 'Sample This' but for some reason had held off buying this after it came out way back in 2006 I guess since it was a entire different lineup even though it's been for sale for $6 since it came out and I've only read positive reviews. Well I'd like to kick myself for not buying this sooner. This is a great combo of Southern Rock and Zeppelin style classic rock with some killer songs. Fav tunes so far are "Sunshine Woman", "Revolution is Coming", "Let Your Love Light Shine", "Swan Song(Tribute to Led Zeppelin)", "Are You Living Your Dream" and "War Machine". Highly recommended of anyone that likes Southern or Classic Rock style bands.

[Geoff]

Dirty Penny-Take it Sleazy

Solid sleaze metal but I've heard better. There's not any tunes I dislike but had higher hopes after hearing so many great things about these guys over the last couple of years. Again not bad and I'm glad I bought it but I hope it grows on me more but for right now these guys aren't in the same level as bands like Crashdiet, Hardcore Superstar, Hell N Diesel or Crazy Lixx. Also how cheap is this packaging? Damn this is worst than the last Buckcherry disc.

 

Edit: This is much much better on the second spin. 'Vendetta' kicks ass.

 

Dirty Penny-Young & Reckless

Just a few songs in so far but this sounds better than the debut and the packaging is at least a little better.

Edit: Now 5 tunes in and all 5 are winners so that's good.

Both get better with more spins. They're simple songs, but it still takes a few spins for them to get etched in the brain.

[heaven&hell]

Dirty Penny-Take it Sleazy

Solid sleaze metal but I've heard better. There's not any tunes I dislike but had higher hopes after hearing so many great things about these guys over the last couple of years. Again not bad and I'm glad I bought it but I hope it grows on me more but for right now these guys aren't in the same level as bands like Crashdiet, Hardcore Superstar, Hell N Diesel or Crazy Lixx. Also how cheap is this packaging? Damn this is worst than the last Buckcherry disc.

 

Edit: This is much much better on the second spin. 'Vendetta' kicks ass.

 

Dirty Penny-Young & Reckless

Just a few songs in so far but this sounds better than the debut and the packaging is at least a little better.

Edit: Now 5 tunes in and all 5 are winners so that's good.

Both get better with more spins. They're simple songs, but it still takes a few spins for them to get etched in the brain.

 

I think that's where lies the problem and maybe they are to simple and that's why they seemed a little generic at first but the more I've played them the more they've grown on me.

[heaven&hell]

Tunnel - S/T

Featuring Dave Henzerling from Big Cock/King Kobra. Overall this is a solid disc with a sound that is similar to what would expect if Robert Mason or Oni Logan were singing for Badlands but without as many great songs. There are many very good tunes such as "Sound of Thunder", "Blood on the Highway", "Open Up For Me", "In Your Groove", "American Metal" and "Into the Sun". Really the only stinker is the strange "The Balcony" that is very out of place.

 

American Angel - EP 92

After just recently hearing the debut from AA I was excited to hear this one after I picked it up for $7.99 but after one spin I'm a little let down. There's not any bad songs or anything but it's so much more laid back and less metalic than the debut. Still some good tunes but not near as awesome as the debut IMO.

 

Machines of Grace - S/T

Featuring Zakk Stevens from Savatage/Circle II Circle. This band has more of a Melodic Hard Rock instead of the Melodic Metal of his other bands. Not a bad song on this disc and many many great ones IMO. There are some more metalic moments mixed in with some of the more melodic tunes that makes it an interesting liesten. The only bad thing is that it appears that this cd is only sold in cdr format with a homemade insert. It's only $8.99 so I can't compalin to much but I would of rather had a real silver pressed cd.

[Geoff]

Tunnel - S/T

Featuring Dave Henzerling from Big Cock/King Kobra. Overall this is a solid disc with a sound that is similar to what would expect if Robert Mason or Oni Logan were singing for Badlands but without as many great songs. There are many very good tunes such as "Sound of Thunder", "Blood on the Highway", "Open Up For Me", "In Your Groove", "American Metal" and "Into the Sun". Really the only stinker is the strange "The Balcony" that is very out of place.

If you ask me this sounds like the next Big Cock CD half the time. So many times while I was listening and not concentrating and I thought I was listening the Robert Mason. Not as good as Big Cock, but I liked it. Some good tunes like, as you say, 'American Metal' was cool. Even the lyrics were still often quite sexually suggestive. Pretty cool stuff.

[heaven&hell]

Tunnel - S/T

Featuring Dave Henzerling from Big Cock/King Kobra. Overall this is a solid disc with a sound that is similar to what would expect if Robert Mason or Oni Logan were singing for Badlands but without as many great songs. There are many very good tunes such as "Sound of Thunder", "Blood on the Highway", "Open Up For Me", "In Your Groove", "American Metal" and "Into the Sun". Really the only stinker is the strange "The Balcony" that is very out of place.

If you ask me this sounds like the next Big Cock CD half the time. So many times while I was listening and not concentrating and I thought I was listening the Robert Mason. Not as good as Big Cock, but I liked it. Some good tunes like, as you say, 'American Metal' was cool. Even the lyrics were still often quite sexually suggestive. Pretty cool stuff.

 

I felt it was a little more classic rock sounding than Big Cock is but that's just me.

[heaven&hell]

Shout - S/T(1997/Escape Music)

 

Holy crap this is excellent melodic rock. I'm really enjoying this one and until recently hadn't heard of these guys. I had heard of the other Shout with Ken Tamplin but had never heard them either. But these guys are very good.

At times the vocalist reminds me of the singer of Dirty Rhythm and musically their not far off of DR either.

[Geoff]

Haven't heard this all today, but a few first spins over the last couple of weeks:

 

Bullet For My Valentine - 'Your betrayal' and 'Begging for mercy' (singles) ; very, very excited about the new album based on these two songs. Screams definitely taking a backseat... just great solid heavy rock/metal. Some good hooks too, which were missing on the last CD. Excited, I am.

 

Digital Summer - 'Cause and effect' & 'Counting the hours'; A band for Glen to check out maybe. They remind me of the Bulletproof Messenger / Evans Blue type stuff. I still consider this kind of nu-metalish as they just refuse to have an uptempo tune in the mix, but all that said, these guys are pretty good at what they do. I don't mind them and would probably even rate the new one ('Counting the hours') over the stuff from those other 2 bands.

 

Enlightened - 'Time to fly' ; another new project from Thomas Wikstrom. I already find this 4 track EP more promising than Covered Call, which I did like, but it faded a bit. This new project, minus the foreign language track, sound pretty good to me. Good, strong harder edged melodic rock.

 

Lastdayhere - 'From pieces created' ; painfully average modern rock, but not actually awful. Will try a second spin before discarding.

 

Lifehouse - 'Smoke and mirrors' ; great new disc. A lot of really excellent tunes on this one and a nice surprise from this band who are just dying to give their fans a full release of good tunes before they call it a day.

 

The Murder of My Sweet - 'Divanity' ; didn't like this at all. Sounds like another one of Magnus Karlsson's projects, except even worse and with female vocals. Really just hard to bother listening to. All solid and all that, but songs to bland you'd not even dip a nacho in them.

 

The Rocket Summer - 'Of men and angels' ; I own a promising EP from these guys and if I recall correctly this sounds quite different to that. At first I thought in a bad way, but this album finished very nicely. Some excellent song writing / lyrics and I'll give it another go. Definitely seemed to have a stronger 2nd half than first.

 

The Rust - 'Anticipation' ; wow... this is nice. Released in 2008 I'm not sure how all modern rock fans missed this one. It reminds me a little of bands like Bliss 66 and another band at the time that was similar. It's pretty safe sounding modern rock, but these guys have a good melodic edge to them. The song, 'Missing you' is pure and utter bliss and there are about at least another 6 other songs on this CD with some really good hooks/choruses. I'll see how future spins go as to whether I make a thread for this or not. Hopefully they have a new CD due this year.

 

Tora Tora - 'Before and after' ; Sorry guys (Wes, lol) just couldn't dig most of this. Of the unheard songs only a couple were listenable to me. I don't know what it is with this band. They just seem to have recorded a thousand songs, and when you look at their CDs... I like the debut and the second album is okay. But neither is great and there are fillers on both. All these unrecorded tracks seem to be left off these CDs rightly so, which means if there were already fillers on those CDs it does not set up the story for these well. Wasn't impressed at all.

 

Tora Tora - 'Bombs away' ; Of the 3 Tora Tora releases to recently hit the airwaves this is easily the most worthwhile and the only one I found with a few cool songs. 'Bad', 'Lost in paradise' and 'When the wind blows' were all worthwhile.

 

Scorpions - 'Raised on rock'(single) ; Pretty cool new single. Not amazing, not bad at all. Sounds good enough to me to get me excited about the new CD.

[Dark Star]

Rob Zombie "Hellbilly Deluxe 2"

 

Ok I bought this a few weeks ago when it came out and gave it a spin... I gotta say.. It's good?? but not AS Good as I was hoping for.. Maybe a couple more spins will let it grow on Me?? I hope so as I do enjoy His work.....

[Jez]

Brian Howe - Circus Bar

 

Cheating a bit here, as I am on about my 20th spin of this now, but the board was down and my first impression would have been the same. I have written a few words on the main pages for this one, so you'll see from that, that I love this album. Brilliant songs throughout and I can honestly say none that I don't like, although 'Life's Mystery', 'It Could Have Been You', 'My Town' 'I'm Surrounded' and a fantastic re-working of 'Holy Water' are my picks. Not your average AOR disc and definitely enough here to please fans of old style and a more modern AOR styles. Brilliant.

 

N.O.W. - Force Of Nature

 

A bit of a mixed bag this one. Some nice tracks 'Peace Of Mind' and 'Midnight Call' spring to mind, but some really un-memorable stuff aswell. Bardowell sounds ok and the whole thing sounds not bad (nice keys throughout) but just lacks anything killer to lift it from the 'Very Ordinary' pile. Not bad, not great.

 

Rick Springfield - From The Vaults

 

I love most of RS' output over the years(80-88 especially), but this is a little hit and miss. Some nice tracks in the first half 'Dance On The Edge Of The World' being a highlight, but some other tracks that really should have stayed in the vaults to be honest. I'd say out of the 13 tracks 7 are keepers and 6 would go in the bin, so for that reason, I will keep hold of it.

 

Edge Of Forever - Another Paradise

 

2 very solid albums before, but this is a whole new ball game. Mostly excellent songs throughout ' Lonely' ,'Edge Of Your Life' and 'I Won't Call You' are superb and the rest aren't too far behind. I was expecting a good, solid disc, what I got was a really very excellent one instead.

[Geoff]

Edge Of Forever - Another Paradise

 

2 very solid albums before, but this is a whole new ball game. Mostly excellent songs throughout ' Lonely' ,'Edge Of Your Life' and 'I Won't Call You' are superb and the rest aren't too far behind. I was expecting a good, solid disc, what I got was a really very excellent one instead.

Yeah, backed. Extremely pleasant surprise, this one.

[Geoff]

China - 'Light up the dark' ; well, after reading several negative thoughts on this CD I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised, after my first spin. I didn't really expect this to be great melodic rock / AOR and it's not. I was expecting by-the-numbers bland hard rock. But it's not that either. It's definitely hard rock and a far cry from their lighter beginnings, but I actually like it. The first few tracks are all pretty good. Well written, confidently played and executed hard rock. And I always loved Eric St Michaels' voice too (which is sadly not really taken advantage of on this CD). The album hits a heavy road block at track 7, through, with the awful 'On my way' followed by the bland 'Stay' and then the blatant filler 'Deadly Sweet'. The last three songs are okay, but they don't fully recover from the speed hump. Before that, though, 'Gates of heaven' is an excellent ballad, 'Lonely rider' is a great rocker, the most melodic of the CD and the first 4 tracks are all cool, solid hard rockers. Unspectacular at times, but solid. Overall, I'm unsure what I'll think of this CD in time. Of course I'm disappointed it doesn't sound like the first two, or that St Michael's voice is not put to better use with more melodic stuff, and the guitar tone is pretty downtuned at times... but at the end of the day, for what it is, it sounds like a pretty good hard rock disc.

 

Fightstar - 'Be Human' ; I'm on quite a rollercoaster with these guys. The debut was crap, 'Grand Unification' is a brilliant modern rock album, the b-side digital release was crap and the last album, 'One day son this will all be yours' was crap too. So much so, I didn't even realise this 'Be Human' CD was released in 2009. Thankfully, this is their 2nd best album yet. Going back to basics seems to have paid off. Shorter, more direct songs with some good solid hooks. Still not a scratch on 'Grand unification' and the dude from Busted's voice sounds busted, but the songs sound pretty good here. I think this'll be a keeper.

[Jez]

A couple of goodies I got in a recent trade. Heard the names before, but hadn't actually heard very much of the music (in The Box's case), so these were a couple of new ones one me. Not on the HH main pages either, so I may add 'em, The Light especially.

 

The Box - The Pleasue & The Pain

 

French Canadian band I vaguely remember from their 'Closer Together' album. This is the next album from 1989 and is all round good stuff, very tpical late 80's hi-tech AOR/Pop rock sound, you know, the chiming, flanged guitar sounds and digital keys all over the place - marvellous. First band that came into my head were the excellent Tuesday Blue in places. There are some very nice tunes on here, especially 'Temptation' and ' Now Or Never' which are both excellent. Most definitely not for the ardent headbanger, or hair metal freak, but definitely a keeper and an album and one I enjoyed very much.

 

The Light - On A New Horizon

 

I had previously heard (and bought the cd) of the excellent Dutch band Light, who released an excellent album on the now defunct SI Label in the mid 90's, and at first I thought this maybe connected to them, but alas no. What this is though is an excellent traditional Pomp disc - loads of excellent keys, semi prog bit's 'n bobs, sort of like a Kansas meets Yes crossover, or a little like what the excellent World Trade were doing on their debut, but without the major production behind it. Whatever, it's a good solid album throughout and for a small label release, it gets a couple of more points added. There are a couple of choice tunes on here that make the album worth searching for on their own, namely 'I'm on the Outside' and 'The Pleasure Field' - Pomp keys to the max on these little beautys, so any Pomp fan around these parts should really really try searching a copy down.

 

Panic Room - Satellite

 

Their debut 'Visionary Position' was a pretty good debut from these ex Karnataka members and was an eclectic mix. The new one is a whole new ball game. Shorter, more concise songs, great musicianship and I love Anne-Marie Helder's vocals aswell. Stylewise, Panic Room are very hard to pigeonhole, although some put them into the Prog category,they are far more eclectic than that and have elements of hard rock, prog, pop and more in the mix. Musically they are hugely varied, ranging from powerful harder edged stuff to gentle semi-acoustic numbers and big soaring ballads. For an independant release, this is quite stunning in places and as I said, after the debut which I passed on at the time (may have to re-check it now) this is a major major improvement.

[glam_junkie]

Reckless Love - s/t

 

I like this one. Some big cheesy hair metal anthems. There seemd to be a couple of clunkers in there towards the end - some sort of experimental pop of some sort, but on the whole i thought it was pretty good. Based on 1-2 listens it seems to be a combination of the cheesyness of wigwam, the pop sensibilities of the Trixter debut, and glorious yet cliche hair metal of early Danger Danger (ie first 2 albums). It's not all as chessy as Beautiful Bomb, but i think by releasing that song as the single they have bascially typecast themselves now.

 

 

Crashdiet - Generation Wild E.P.

Althouhg this is made up of one track from teh upcoming album, and 2 tracks that missed the cut, it gives good signs as to what might be comoing up on the album. Not as raw as Rest In Sleaze, but not as polished as Unattractive Revolution... the new disc should land somewher in the mid ground by the sounds. Really loved Fear COntrol which seems to have a bit of slight industrial influecne at times, sorta like Gemini Five.

[Geoff]

Crashdiet - Generation Wild E.P.

Althouhg this is made up of one track from teh upcoming album, and 2 tracks that missed the cut, it gives good signs as to what might be comoing up on the album. Not as raw as Rest In Sleaze, but not as polished as Unattractive Revolution... the new disc should land somewher in the mid ground by the sounds. Really loved Fear COntrol which seems to have a bit of slight industrial influecne at times, sorta like Gemini Five.

Wow, those songs didn't make the cut? I didn't know that. I actually figured they might be polished demos because of the drum sound which was not as heavy as the main track (almost like an AOR drum sound on a sleaze band) but didn't know they were cast-aways. Wow, if they're on the cutting room floor I can't wait to hear what made the cut! On the other hand, if they're on the cutting room floor I hope that's not a sign that they've cast aside the more melodic, anthemic numbers they recorded.

 

N.O.W. - Force Of Nature ; this made me yawn, often. Why people bother with albums like this is beyond me. Honestly, it's really not that bad. Not even far off that CD he recorded last year - Places of Power? This pretty much sounds like b-side from that album, except these ones are more well produced. Pretty harmless, safe AOR but amazingly average.

 

Last Winter - 'Transmission Skyline' ; man I like these guys. I don't know if this is a digital only release or what, but it's pretty much interchangable with their second CD which I own, 'Under The Silver Of Machines'. The songs actually sound like they were recorded in the same sessions, and even more suggestive is that 2-3 songs are on each album, and hardly sound re-recorded. Great, emotive modern melodic rock... really like these guys and their ear for a good hook. Looking forward to the new album this year, but nervous about a new lead singer.

[Geoff]

Audrey Horne - s/t ; Seen this on a few sites advertised with the new releases. No disrespect to the band but I feel that is my duty as a fan of good music to advise people, DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF SHIT! Seriously, this was terrible. There were a couple of rocking sort of tracks at the start, all quite bland and only the ballad 'Sail away' was okay, but then it just gets f*cking stupid. Track after track is just the worst, most bland type of modern, mellow, bland crap I have heard all year. Really hated this CD... not sure of their intentions with this. Can't imagine anyone here would like this at all.

 

Short Stack - 'Stack is the new black' ; any Aussie reading this now may just want to stab me on suspicion alone. To clear the air, I honestly had no idea what they really sounded like but I was just really curious to see what this was all about. Man, this is a disgrace. Don't even know how to describe it. Amazingly poor vocalist, beyond below average musicianship and a total disregard for decent song writing. I'm not fan of My Chemical Romance, but think of a band 100 times WORSE than MCR, with a disgusting vocalist and no song writing skills. And you pretty much have these guys. Awful. Totally deserve the critisism they get heaped upon them.

[Glen]

Audrey Horne - s/t ; Seen this on a few sites advertised with the new releases. No disrespect to the band but I feel that is my duty as a fan of good music to advise people, DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF SHIT! Seriously, this was terrible. There were a couple of rocking sort of tracks at the start, all quite bland and only the ballad 'Sail away' was okay, but then it just gets f*cking stupid. Track after track is just the worst, most bland type of modern, mellow, bland crap I have heard all year. Really hated this CD... not sure of their intentions with this. Can't imagine anyone here would like this at all.

 

Short Stack - 'Stack is the new black' ; any Aussie reading this now may just want to stab me on suspicion alone. To clear the air, I honestly had no idea what they really sounded like but I was just really curious to see what this was all about. Man, this is a disgrace. Don't even know how to describe it. Amazingly poor vocalist, beyond below average musicianship and a total disregard for decent song writing. I'm not fan of My Chemical Romance, but think of a band 100 times WORSE than MCR, with a disgusting vocalist and no song writing skills. And you pretty much have these guys. Awful. Totally deserve the critisism they get heaped upon them.

 

 

That must have been an enjoyable 90 mins lol!

[heaven&hell]

Reckless Love - s/t

 

I like this one. Some big cheesy hair metal anthems. There seemd to be a couple of clunkers in there towards the end - some sort of experimental pop of some sort, but on the whole i thought it was pretty good. Based on 1-2 listens it seems to be a combination of the cheesyness of wigwam, the pop sensibilities of the Trixter debut, and glorious yet cliche hair metal of early Danger Danger (ie first 2 albums). It's not all as chessy as Beautiful Bomb, but i think by releasing that song as the single they have bascially typecast themselves now.

 

Trixter, D2 and Wig Wam. Sounds like I'd love it.

[JamesEagle]

Tradia - From The Basement

 

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

[Jez]

Tradia - From The Basement

 

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

 

The debut 'Trade Winds' is much much better.

[Geoff]

Audrey Horne - s/t ; Seen this on a few sites advertised with the new releases. No disrespect to the band but I feel that is my duty as a fan of good music to advise people, DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF SHIT! Seriously, this was terrible. There were a couple of rocking sort of tracks at the start, all quite bland and only the ballad 'Sail away' was okay, but then it just gets f*cking stupid. Track after track is just the worst, most bland type of modern, mellow, bland crap I have heard all year. Really hated this CD... not sure of their intentions with this. Can't imagine anyone here would like this at all.

 

Short Stack - 'Stack is the new black' ; any Aussie reading this now may just want to stab me on suspicion alone. To clear the air, I honestly had no idea what they really sounded like but I was just really curious to see what this was all about. Man, this is a disgrace. Don't even know how to describe it. Amazingly poor vocalist, beyond below average musicianship and a total disregard for decent song writing. I'm not fan of My Chemical Romance, but think of a band 100 times WORSE than MCR, with a disgusting vocalist and no song writing skills. And you pretty much have these guys. Awful. Totally deserve the critisism they get heaped upon them.

 

 

That must have been an enjoyable 90 mins lol!

Haha. Thankfully I was doing something else at the time. Yuck. Just shuddering thinking of those 2 albums.

[JamesEagle]

Tradia - From The Basement

 

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

 

The debut 'Trade Winds' is much much better.

 

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