First Spin Impressions

[phaffas]

Joe Elliot's Down 'N' Outz - Re-Generation

 

How does the Def Leppard singer with The Quireboys, singing Ian Hunter, Mott The Hoople and associated bands songs sound to ya?.Not many takers I'll wager, but dismiss this one at your own peril and if a good old bit of classic rock takes your fancy, then I suggest you give this one a real shot. Ian Hunter has always been a great songwriter in my books (and many others too, aswell as being a big influence on the Lepps early career), so this little disc came as a very pleasant surprise when I heard it. Some really very good covers of some great songs 'England Rocks' and 'Shouting And Pointing' are both excellent, Mott's 'Storm' storms and has some great guitar (which features strongly throughout the whole record) and generally everyones sounds like their having a right old party. Mr. Elliot even puts in some good vox, proving that his voice isn't completely shot as some have made out.

The 10 track version of this is avaliable free with classic rock magazine last month, or you can buy the full 13 track version for about a fiver if you search around t'internet and I suggest strongly that you do so.

 

Ill prob get this being a def lep nerd and all.. but im kinda sick of this style... first there was the Cybernauts, which was fun, but not something id listen to every day, then the def lep covers album, then a few annoying 70s songs on Sparkle lounge... then this..

[TIM (2)]

SHINING LINE - S/T

 

Really surprised by this one. Stunning songwriting (especially on the earlier tracks) and some big melodies all over this. Is nice to hear singers like Hess trying their hand at AOR, and is also nice to hear vocalists like Robby LeBlanc and Robin Beck belting-out numbers again - like we haven't heard from them in years. The only problem is the production, which is pretty ropey at best and the vocals are particularly inconsistently produced. Robin Beck sounds amazing and her tune is mixed perfectly. Harry Hess is almost indecipherable and his voice is lost in the mush. Well worth getting though...

 

Any highlight tracks? I like heavier songs with decent guitar solos - anything that fits the bill?

 

Not really mate, is very AOR-ish. There are solo's but because of the production it doesn't sound all that slick/polished. If you like pretty lite and ultra-melodic stuff and don't mind a shoddy production/mix then snap it up, otherwise pass...

[Glen]

SHINING LINE - S/T

 

Really surprised by this one. Stunning songwriting (especially on the earlier tracks) and some big melodies all over this. Is nice to hear singers like Hess trying their hand at AOR, and is also nice to hear vocalists like Robby LeBlanc and Robin Beck belting-out numbers again - like we haven't heard from them in years. The only problem is the production, which is pretty ropey at best and the vocals are particularly inconsistently produced. Robin Beck sounds amazing and her tune is mixed perfectly. Harry Hess is almost indecipherable and his voice is lost in the mush. Well worth getting though...

 

Any highlight tracks? I like heavier songs with decent guitar solos - anything that fits the bill?

 

Not really mate, is very AOR-ish. There are solo's but because of the production it doesn't sound all that slick/polished. If you like pretty lite and ultra-melodic stuff and don't mind a shoddy production/mix then snap it up, otherwise pass...

 

The opening track is pretty rocking, and some decent solos too.

 

The album opens well, but ends poorly, too many fillers twoards the end.

 

The first two tracks are great tho and 2 of my favs this year.

[TIM (2)]

HELLYEAH - Stampede

 

Forgotten I'd actually pre-ordered this album about 1 year ago when it was first supposed to be released, so was a big surprise to find this dropping through the mail. Not a good surprise either. Most complaints about the first album centred on the lack of intensity of the music, and the same applies here. There is some groove, a few heavier sections, but mostly it's laid-back southern-tinged Metal with lazy lyrical-themes dominating. Seriously, who buys this stuff in 2010? Modern peers like Lamb of God and Five Finger Death Punch kick dirt in their face both technically and song-wise, and even Vinnie Paul's performance is workmanlike and lacking any flamboyance. Oh and the guitar-tone is just irritating. The press release says it's the perfect encompaniment to beers n' bbq summer parties, but back in the real-world it's scary that decent musicians are reduced to releasing music like this.

 

 

 

AVENGED SEVENFOLD - Nightmare

 

Nothing surprising on offer here from a band who've become pretty big without ever really making a 'great' album. Some big crunching thrashy-type numbers, plenty of acoustics and ballads here (way too many), killer vocals and some particularly amazing solo'ing. The title-track is probably the highlight with it's crushing verses and hooky chorus, and overall this is more varied and raw-sounding than their last disc, but they still can't write an album's worth of quality material. The good songs are killer but the fillers are horrible. Well worth buying though for the solo'ing and few big songs.

[heaven&hell]

Bombay Black - Mercy

I finally broke down and got this one after reading soooo many good reviews but I have to say it's my least fav of their releases after one spin. I did like the first half but there are some very average songs here and prefer what they did on the next three releases.

 

Goodbye Thrill - Outragous

After one spin I don't think this is as stellar as the debut but just the debut the songs and melodies get under your skin and make you want to play it again and again. Fav tune so far is the title track.

 

Asphalt Valentine - Strip Rock N Roll

A cool new southern sleazy band from Atlanta that put on a good show live. The cd has some cool tunes and is worth seeking out if you like this style of rock and IMO these guys has some potential plus their cool guys to hang and talk to as we did at DRF after their set. They are currently touring with Mama Kin.

[Dead Planet]

Bombay Black - Mercy

I finally broke down and got this one after reading soooo many good reviews but I have to say it's my least fav of their releases after one spin. I did like the first half but there are some very average songs here and prefer what they did on the next three releases.

 

You may want to give this one a few more spins as I didn't care much for it at first either but it turned out that it grew on me over time and I like it as much as their other releases today...

[heaven&hell]

Bombay Black - Mercy

I finally broke down and got this one after reading soooo many good reviews but I have to say it's my least fav of their releases after one spin. I did like the first half but there are some very average songs here and prefer what they did on the next three releases.

 

You may want to give this one a few more spins as I didn't care much for it at first either but it turned out that it grew on me over time and I like it as much as their other releases today...

 

I plan on spinning a few more times but first spin left me cold for the most part.

[heaven&hell]

Bombay Black - Mercy

I finally broke down and got this one after reading soooo many good reviews but I have to say it's my least fav of their releases after one spin. I did like the first half but there are some very average songs here and prefer what they did on the next three releases.

 

Goodbye Thrill - Outragous

After one spin I don't think this is as stellar as the debut but just the debut the songs and melodies get under your skin and make you want to play it again and again. Fav tune so far is the title track.

 

Asphalt Valentine - Strip Rock N Roll

A cool new southern sleazy band from Atlanta that put on a good show live. The cd has some cool tunes and is worth seeking out if you like this style of rock and IMO these guys has some potential plus their cool guys to hang and talk to as we did at DRF after their set. They are currently touring with Mama Kin.

 

The Goodbye Thrill seems to get better with each spin. These melodies just get stuck in my head.

[Geoff]

Bombay Black - Mercy

I finally broke down and got this one after reading soooo many good reviews but I have to say it's my least fav of their releases after one spin. I did like the first half but there are some very average songs here and prefer what they did on the next three releases.

 

You may want to give this one a few more spins as I didn't care much for it at first either but it turned out that it grew on me over time and I like it as much as their other releases today...

 

I plan on spinning a few more times but first spin left me cold for the most part.

Craziness. In hindsight I'm not blown away by any of their releases, but I did think the debut crucified the rest, just personally.

 

Foreigner - 'Unnusual heat' ; odd disc. It's very straight forward, very harmless. Well played, strong vocals (lead and backing), good choruses... it's all good and fine, but there's just nothing special at all about it. Every song I recall was good enough, but nothing blew me away. It's a keeper for sure, but I could have done with a more intensity, to borrow from Tim above.

[phaffas]

 

Goodbye Thrill - Outragous

After one spin I don't think this is as stellar as the debut but just the debut the songs and melodies get under your skin and make you want to play it again and again. Fav tune so far is the title track.

 

When did this come out?

[heaven&hell]

 

Goodbye Thrill - Outragous

After one spin I don't think this is as stellar as the debut but just the debut the songs and melodies get under your skin and make you want to play it again and again. Fav tune so far is the title track.

 

When did this come out?

 

It hasn't officially yet(at least I don't think it has) but was able to buy a copy directly from the label at Dakota Rock Fest. I know Keepsakes came out in May I think but not sure if this one is out yet or not.

[Fat Freddy]

Got some promos from Retroactive Records this week...

 

Vision - VISION 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION and MOUNTAIN IN THE SKY - Vision was an early 80s Christian AOR/pop rock band that featured two members of Lynrd Skynrd (Billy Powell/keyboards and Leon Wilkinson/bass) in the lineup. With that kinda pedigree I was hoping for something a little more rockin' than this. If you're lookin for Lynrd Skynrd style Southern rock on these albums look elsewhere. This is glossy lite-rock in the vein of Night Ranger (at their wimpiest), Styx (at their sappiest), '80s Kansas (at their most commercial), Mastedon, etc. Which is fine if you like that sorta thing I guess, but it's way too lite-n-fluffy for me. Basically, this was a church worship band that had access to Keytars, skinny ties and Marshall stacks. Of course, since this is a Christian band the lyrics are entirely "Go-Go-God!" praise anthems, which don't bother me none, but those of you who are put off by that (yes, I'm looking at you, Geoff) can safely avoid these two discs.

 

Rex Carroll Band - THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW - Rex Carroll was the guitarist for the '80s Christian hard rock band Whitecross and now he's moved on to a solo career as a blues rocker. I was never a huge fan of Whitecross and I know next to nothing about the blues, but I gotta admit this solo debut is quite excellent, reminds me a lot of the Jeff Healey Band (you may remember them from the epic film "Road House"). This guy can shred! The guitar work is very cool and Rex's vocals have the perfect whiskey-soaked vibe to complement his killer guitar licks. I'm likin' this one a lot and it will definitely get more spins today.

[Jeff]

Asphalt Valentine

Pretty much the same sentiments as Wes wrote above. Good southern sleazy rock about sex, drugs, rock n roll. There isn't anything that blew me away as so good I had to hit rewind the first time through BUT I think there was only one track that I didn't care for. As Wes said, cool guys to hang with at DRF and VERY energetic on stage with a minimal crowd to play for, which I appreciated. I'll be copying most of this to my MP3 player and checking out any future releases.

[Fat Freddy]

My Silent Wake/The Drowning - BLACK LIGHTS & SILENT ROADS - Yaaaaaaawwwwwn. This is a "split" album featuring four tracks each by two British doom/death metal bands. I dont' mind a bit of dooooooom metal now and again but this stuff is a bit too slow, sludgy, downbeat and funereal for me. (one of My Silent Wake's tracks goes on for an absolutely excruciating twenty three and a half minutes!) If I didn't have the insert with me I honestly wouldn't have known where one band's half of this split ended and the other one began.

 

Both of these bands are of the Christian persuasion, by the way, but you wouldn't know by listening to them since the lyrics all sound like "Moooooaaaaaaaan, grooooooaaaaaaan, whiiiiiiiiiine......WOOOOOOOARRRRRRRRGH!!!!" Geez, I didn't think Christian rockers were allowed to be this depressed. These two bands should sit down and have a chat with the sunny happy California Jesus lovin' guys of Vision (who I mentioned a few posts ago), they'd fix'em right up and turn those frowns upside down!

 

Either way, thus far Rex Carroll's CD is the best out of this newest batch I got to review....

[KIVELRECORDS]

 

Goodbye Thrill - Outragous

After one spin I don't think this is as stellar as the debut but just the debut the songs and melodies get under your skin and make you want to play it again and again. Fav tune so far is the title track.

 

When did this come out?

 

Goodbye Thrill "Outrageous" , It is out and in stock. :-) You can snag your copy at www.kivelrecords.com Also in stock is the bands release, KEEPSAKES. Which is a cd AND dvd combo set. Contains, 45 minute acoustic set of the band in concert(MTV Unplugged style) 15 minutes of candid footage of the band back stage, in the studio and on the road. Plus an edtited video for the song LET ME SLEEP. So an hour worth of video, plus a cd of acoustic tracks, two unreleased tunes and a Beau Hill remix version of RAINY DAYS. All for $12. Buy two titles, get the third half price.

 

I have to see Marco from THRILL this week. So i can have him sign it for you if you want.

 

Hope this helped :-)

 

John

[JamesEagle]

Medicine Wheel - First Things First

 

Patchy, but a few tracks I like. 'Runaway Train' was pretty good, with some nice guitar. Standout tracks though were 'My Own Little World' and 'Flying Blind', both seemed really good. 'Pain' was probably my least favourite, sounded like a hint of grunge in that track, although I could be mistaken and maybe I didn't have the car stereo up loud enough.

[heaven&hell]

Medicine Wheel - First Things First

 

Patchy, but a few tracks I like. 'Runaway Train' was pretty good, with some nice guitar. Standout tracks though were 'My Own Little World' and 'Flying Blind', both seemed really good. 'Pain' was probably my least favourite, sounded like a hint of grunge in that track, although I could be mistaken and maybe I didn't have the car stereo up loud enough.

 

 

Love this disc.

[Jeff]

Dirty Looks - I.C.U.

Without even taking a listen I was a little down on this because it is 10 songs of which 3 are covers and one is a live track. I don't care much for covers and live tracks are ok but I would rather see a band live than listen to live music. Anyway, this is a bit heavier than previous DL material but not so much that I didn't feel like it was Dirty Looks. They stick with the typical Dirty Looks chorus of sing the same catchy phrase 3 times then move on. There was only one track I found instantly catchy (Only Friend) but I can tell the others will grow on me and I'll end up liking most of the new stuff. As for the covers, well, they put a DL touch to them and of course the AC/DC cover would work on any DL release but I would rather have had more new stuff. I'll give this more spins in the coming days. I think I'll come to enjoy this one overall.

[Chris]

I would like to thank everyone who gave a review of a CD in this thread, even a small one. I discovered alot of new music, some I never gave a shit about. Thanks everyone.

[heaven&hell]

Jorn - Dio

Being a massive RJD fan I stayed away from this for about a month after it's release due to it just being to soon to listen to someone else sing Ronnie's songs but after finally giving this a chance I have to say it's damn good. Sure Jorn isn't in the same class as Ronnie but he does do a hell of a job on these tunes IMO with some being great and the rest being very good. My favs are "Invisible", "Night People" and "Sunset Superman". Kudos for Jorn for picking some lesser known Dio songs such as the three I just mentioned plus "Lord of the Last Day", "Shame on the Night" and "Push". The new song "Song for Ronnie James" is good and I appreciate what he was trying to do with the song titles in the lyrics but I wouldn't call is a great song and really compares in comparison to the Dio songs. Overall though I wouldn't Jorn doing a part two to this and add in some more Dio solo tunes with Rainbow and Sabbath songs.

 

Black Label Society - Order of the Black

I didn't buy the last BLS disc "Shot to Hell" but I had been a first day buyer on all of the other releases from the debut up through "Mafia". I kind of had lost interest over the last 5 years but decided to give this one a chance. There's no reinvention of the wheel or anything since it sounds like BLS but it's a damn good Metal disc and reminds me of a mix between the classic "Stronger than Death" and "1919 Eternal" releases. Fav songs so far are the heavy as hell "Crazy Horse, "Overlord", "Parade of the Dead" and "War of Heaven". Also like the ballads "Darkest Days", "Time Waits for No One" and the ballad/outro "January". My only complaint is that with 13 tracks(one of which is an instrumental) there's 4 ballads. That is way to many IMO and reminds me a little of what Ozzy started doing since No More Tears. The ballad are good and all but with 13 songs I'd rather only have 2 ballads max. The final verdict is that if you're a BLS fan you'll love this if you're not you probably will hate it or if you have never given them a chance but love classic Sabbath than you would probably dig this.

[JamesEagle]

Silent Witness - Thrills

The band makes a reasonable sound and the vocalist is pretty good, but I'm not grabbed by this one at all. A couple of reasonable tunes, but nothing special. Some pretty awful lyrics too. As if "1000 times forever" isn't a bad enough lyric, the second track includes the line, "she strikes like lightning twice". What the **** does that even mean? Just complete nonsense! Quite average imo.

[heaven&hell]

Silent Witness - Thrills

The band makes a reasonable sound and the vocalist is pretty good, but I'm not grabbed by this one at all. A couple of reasonable tunes, but nothing special. Some pretty awful lyrics too. As if "1000 times forever" isn't a bad enough lyric, the second track includes the line, "she strikes like lightning twice". What the **** does that even mean? Just complete nonsense! Quite average imo.

 

I haven't heard that one but I have the self titled disc with Robert Mason on vocals and it's pretty good.

[Geoff]

Silent Witness - Thrills

The band makes a reasonable sound and the vocalist is pretty good, but I'm not grabbed by this one at all. A couple of reasonable tunes, but nothing special. Some pretty awful lyrics too. As if "1000 times forever" isn't a bad enough lyric, the second track includes the line, "she strikes like lightning twice". What the **** does that even mean? Just complete nonsense! Quite average imo.

 

I haven't heard that one but I have the self titled disc with Robert Mason on vocals and it's pretty good.

I like 'em both, but the one with Mason is awesome.

[heaven&hell]

Silent Witness - Thrills

The band makes a reasonable sound and the vocalist is pretty good, but I'm not grabbed by this one at all. A couple of reasonable tunes, but nothing special. Some pretty awful lyrics too. As if "1000 times forever" isn't a bad enough lyric, the second track includes the line, "she strikes like lightning twice". What the **** does that even mean? Just complete nonsense! Quite average imo.

 

I haven't heard that one but I have the self titled disc with Robert Mason on vocals and it's pretty good.

I like 'em both, but the one with Mason is awesome.

 

I would say that maybe half the disc is awesome and the other half is just okay and overall is pretty good. But Mason sounds great as always.

[Jez]

Loved the first Silent Witness, wasn't bowled over by the second one. Will have to get them both out again as I haven't played them in ages.