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Seventh Key - Live In Atlanta
(Locomotive Records) By: Joe Florez |
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With two albums
under his belt, bass player Billy Greer thought it was time to
pump out a live disc. The band comprises of Mike Slamer who
has also worked with Joe Lynn Turner in the past and former
Kansas singer Steve Walsh. What you get here are upbeat tempo
AOR songs that have a retro feel with a modern sound and
performance. “The Sun Will Rise” is just bursting with vibrant
guitar licks and lush harmony vocals during the chorus. The
fans are rather quiet during the performance. So much so that
you can hear a pin drop until the end when they clap. By the
sound of things my best guess is that they were performing in
front of a few hundred people at best, but is an older crowd.
“An Ocean |
| Away”
delivers some great chorus lines that will have the average
fan joining in on the fun. “It Should have been You” is
keyboard intensive adding this cool and atmospheric feeling
while the music is slowed down. Not exactly a ballad, but
there is still some punch and excitement in the song . The
solo is filled with emotion and power that is cool to hear.
“Forsaken” gets a bit more sentimental as Bill gets his
brother to join the stage and sing an acoustic version of this
song. As usual in the genre of AOR/Rock, you get a batch full
of up-tempos, mid-rangers and ballads. Well, with this you get
three new studio cuts and “Remember You Well” features the
only collaboration between Bill and ex-Kansas member Kerry
Livgren. There is also a DVD of this very performance as well
with exclusive videos and interviews if the CD isn’t enough. I
wouldn’t pop this in every night, but if I heard it I would
soak in the retro sound for all its worth.
www.locomotiverecords.com |
www.billygreer.com |
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Spock’s Beard - Spock’s Beard (Inside
Out Music) By: Joe Florez |
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I have to admit, I
have never been a true fan of the band at all. I may like a
batch full of songs at most and that’s it. I was pretty bored
with the last two records and wasn’t too excited to review
this one, but what the hell. I throw this in and hit the first
of many long songs. “On A Perfect Day” is everything I
expected from the group. It’s slow, boring and predictable to
an extent. In my eyes it’s formulaic and very dated sounding.
I will hand it to drummer/singer Nick D’Virgilio. He has
become quite the singer as of late. He has taken over for Neal
Morse for the past three albums now. The keyboard work from
the tremendous performer Ryo Okumoto is great, but very 70’s
sounding and doesn’t do much |
to
ignite much hope for me to like this. I will hang in there and
see if anything will grab me. “Skeletons At The Feast” perked
up my ears with the quickness. This instrumental is lively and
entertaining. The drumming is solid, the ivory keys still have
the vintage sound, but move much faster and is quite pleasing
to the aural senses. The bass licks rock and groove and the
guitars are filled with rhythm and melody. This was the best
six and a half minute vocal free track I have heard in a long,
long time. “Is This Love” is by far the quickest tune on here,
but rocks hard like I have never heard them before. One of the
best tracks on here is the nicely layered eleven minute plus
“With Your Kiss” which is a perfect blend of past meets
present. Soulful singing with a modern prog rock feel and
throw back ivory keyboard work to a degree. It's mellow, but
has enough energy to keep this thing from dying. “Hearafter”
is a passionate and sensitive ballad that shows everyone that
Nick does have the chops to be behind the mic. “Here’s A Man”
offers a bit of light jazz to the mix which only spices things
up a bit.
I came out of this experience liking this band and record more
than I expected. There are some songs on here that don’t do
much for me, but there’s enough on here to keep me satisfied
as well as the fans. This is one fine effort put out by this
long standing band.
www.insideoutmusic.com |
www.spocksbeard.com |
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Stolen Babies - There Be Squabbles Ahead
(The End Records) Review by Ryan Bartek |
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When it comes to The
End, there is no concise way to pigeonhole a single release
except for the fact that "yeah, this is definitely a T.E.R.
band." Stolen Babies sound like an amalgam of many of the
roster to an extent (i.e. Giant Squid, Subterranean
Masquerade, Unexpect, etc) but grab their own unique
spotlight. This is the type of act P.T. Barnum would have a
field day with by opening up for General Tom Thumb's
celebrated appearance in every awe-struck town. Stolen Babies
are a goth carnival, rock and roll, prog freak of nature. The
album packaging of Crab Scrambly only adds to the Tim Burton-esque
visual nature of it all. Throw in the beautiful front lady
Dominique Persi with her |
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expertise in all accordion-related matters, and you get the a
suitably weird outburst that should no doubt be touring with
Rasputina and Golgo Bordello. If this band gets any kind of
renowned status, expect them to bring all those old cartoon-goth
younglings left in the wake of Coal Chamber and Cradle Of
Filth under their sultry wing.
www.stolenbabiestheband.com/ |
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Sunstorm - Sunstorm (Locomotive
Records) By: Joe Florez |
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The story behind
this project is interesting. This debut slab of AOR is
actually signed to Frontiers Music out of Italy and licensed
to Locomotive for worldwide distro. Now, the president and
manager of Frontiers are great friends and back in the day
they swapped tapes and one of them had a demo of unreleased
songs by Mr. Turner that was given to him by a journalist and
it was supposed to be for his second solo record. That never
came about. When the guys signed Joe to their label, one of
them asked about those songs and a call was made to Jim
Peterik (ex-Survivor/Pride Of Lions) to hook up and now those
songs among others see the light for the first time in 2006.
All I have to say is that if you love |
| melodic
music in the 80’s vein like myself, then you will absolutely
drool over this. JLT may be a little older, but his voice has
never dulled or diminished. In fact, it shines better than
ever. “Keep Tonight” is reminiscent of the decadent eighties
where songs that were keyboard heavy and loaded to the hilt
with catchy rhythms, dominated the radio airwaves. Sure it may
sound dated, but this was innocent fun that also showcased a
little bit of talent. Just check out the solo on here. It’s
vibrant and packed with positive energy. It’s simple, fun and
addicting if you were from that era. “Fame And Fortune” offers
riffs that sound like were lifted up by Bon Jovi and used as
B-Sides. Everyone sounds so alive while playing their
instruments. This one has more oomph and is actually a bit
heavier than the opener. To shake things up just a little
“Heart Over Mind” is a power ballad that delivers the goods as
one would expect from the AOR genre. Not many people can write
good music in this field, but JLT never lets the fans down.
There are a few ballads on here, but they don’t bog the disc
down as a whole with sappy lyrics or ultra cheesy
compositions. Pound for pound, this disc goes the distance
delivering the goods without a single dud. Some folks may say
that we are all living in the past and refuse to grow with the
times, but the fact of the matter is that to be honest,
material like this being culled in studios is quite frankly
better than what is being offered in the metal circuit because
they are all ripping each other off and the scene is in a
stagnant phase right now as far as I’m concerned. The
production is top notch and meets the requirements of the new
millennium and this is just flat out enjoyable. Dig in if you
are a product of the 80’s era.
www.locomotiverecords.com |
www.joelynnturner.com |
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The Esoteric - Subverter (Prosthetic)
Review by Ryan Bartek |
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This is the follow
up to The Esoteric's crushing 2005 debut With the Sureness of
Sleepwalking. Subverter is not as slick and brutal as its
predecessor, but a fairly solid offering regardless. Where the
debut was a progressive death-math-metalcore fusion with
massively stomping production that at times hit the low-end
murk of pure transcendental doom, this is a more (for lack of
a better term) "rock and roll" approach that will inevitably
drag in the more mainstream metalcore folk. That is to say
that it's far easier to digest and angled primarily on the
riffs themselves, where as before it was more a potshot of
finely tuned havoc. I was disappointed by this move to make a
more general, accessible record, |
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especially that The Esoteric features guys from Coalesce and
Today is the Day. Yet it stands on its own merit and it's own
technical ability and its decision to sample a little of
everything. Yet there is not any firm direction that
definitely stands out, and Subverter inevitably becomes
another above-average but lost-in-the-trend mire.
www.prostheticrecords.com |
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Various Artists – Gigantour 2005 (SPV/Steamhammer)
Review by Richard Tomsett |
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This double CD
release documents some of the performances given during the
first ever Gigantour – Dave Mustaine's answer to Ozzfest –
which toured last year, apparently aiming to promote talented
bands to a wide variety of metal fans. As I understand it, all
the bands on the tour were picked by Mustaine himself on the
merit of their music. First thing to note, then, is Dave's
occasionally slightly dodgy tastes, though of course the
majority of bands on offer here are far less dubious than a
lot of those at the aforementioned fest of Ozz. Dream Theatre
start the first CD with a pair of newer tracks: "Panic Attack"
from Octavarium and the magnificent "The Glass Prison",
proving just why they are one of the most revered |
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progressive metal bands around at the moment. Predictably
flawless execution and a good mix help to make the remainder
of CD1 rather disappointing after the final notes of
"..Prison" fade. Anthrax's "Caught in a Mosh" ups the energy
but sounds a little messy after Dream Theatre's perfection,
and something about the guitar sound doesn't convince me.
Ditto for "I am the Law". I've never heard "Life of Agony"
before and on the basis of these two tracks I wouldn't go out
of my way to listen to them again. Good performances of
mediocre material. The last I remember hearing from Dry Kill
Logic was a rather bog-standard nu-metal track on a magazine
cover about five years ago, perhaps longer... anyway, I
assumed they had gone the way of most of their peers, and
frankly I wish they had listening to what they have on offer
here. Robbed of any power by a bad mix and some sloppy
playing, their songs incorporate more metalcore influences (as
is the fashion these days) but are still basically dull nu-metal
with a constipated singer. Bobaflex are an improvement,
playing a more individual take on -core and hip-hop influenced
'metal', with two vocalists, the odd good riff, and a decent
performance helping them to stand out (if that kind of thing's
your bag). So far, not so good, but on we must go to CD2...
First up Megadeth with an interesting selection of songs,
excluding all the classics and opting for songs from "Cryptic
Writings", "Youthanasia" and latest album "The System Has
Failed". I enjoy all three tracks and the performances are
excellent, though of course the song choice ("She-Wolf", "A
Tout Le Monde" and "Kick The Chair") will not please everyone.
Fear Factory suffer from the same
single-guitar-in-the-centre-of-the-mix problem as Dry Kill
Logic, leaving post-reunion tracks "Transgression" and the
wonderfully cheesy "Archetype" rather flaccid. Not entirely
tight guitar work and at times amateur sounding vocals don't
help matters. Nevermore blew me away at Wacken and sound as
fierce and brutal here, the quality of their material and
playing making them the obvious highlight of this CD. Though
occasionally not watertight and with a slightly muddy second
guitar, they still manage to sound awesome, the vicious "Born"
and fantastic "Enemies of Reality" further proving how
essential this band is. I assumed Symphony X would appear
thoroughly wet after this, but I was pleasantly surprised to
find that "Inferno (Unleash the Fire)" packs a punch and the
expected perfect performance still managed to sound gritty.
The question I ask myself, then, is who would want to buy
this? People who went to the gigs and want a reminder,
perhaps, or avid fans collecting everything their favourite
band ever does. The inconsistency of the line-up and
recordings is annoying, and while I commend Mustaine's idea
for an alternative to Ozzfest, I hope that he chooses a more
appropriate line-up in future (this year's seemed to be
better, though I don't know Sanctity of The Smashup...).
Interesting, then, but far from essential.
www.spv.de |
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Whitesnake – Live… in the Shadow of the Blues
(SPV) Review by Frank Allain |
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It’s funny how
things come around… I first saw Whitesnake live back in 1994
as a wide-eyed teenager, making my first few tentative steps
into the heady world of rock and metal. It was my first
‘proper’ gig and it was when mainman David Coverdale and co.
were touring the ‘Greatest Hits’ release. Good as the show
was, one couldn’t help but feel that there was something of a
‘farewell’ vibe about the whole affair, a relatively muted
meeting of old friends acknowledging that their era had
passed. I felt I was witnessing the end of something – after
all, best-of albums are rarely the sign of a band in the
ascent and given the climate of post-grunge, hair-rock
extermination and the fact that metal was a dirty word, it |
really
looked like Coverdale was all set to throw in the towel. His
interviews at the time were guarded and the old icons of the
80s like himself had been well and truly dashed from their
pedestals by Cobain, Cornell et al.
Fast forward to 2006 and it is a very, very different story.
The corpse of grunge has been exhumed, raped and buried in a
shallow grave by the embarrassment of ‘nu metal’, itself
already a shameful memory for those who sang its praises in
the dark days of the late nineties. If the popular press is to
be believed, ‘true’ metal is back. Solos are ‘in’. Iron Maiden
are the kings of all they survey. And, somewhere along the
line, Whitesnake have rediscovered how to rock as hard as they
ever have during their 30-odd year career. ‘Live… in the
Shadow of the Blues’ is a celebration of the return to form
that Coverdale and his troops have recently enjoyed, being as
it is a raucous, blissfully energetic run through of the
‘Snakes considerable back catalogue. Much of this I suspect is
down to the recruitment of guitarist Doug Aldrich (ex-Dio,
Lion etc.) – Coverdale has spent the best part of the last
twenty years searching for the perfect replacement for John
Sykes (considered by many the finest axeman to grace the band
and co-responsible for writing many of their biggest eighties
hits) and, in my opinion, with Aldrich he has at last found
him. Coverdale’s excitement at having at last uncovered a
writing and riffing partner to match Sykes is palpable and
this energy flows through this double-CD document.
The band hit the ground running with a furious ‘Bad Boys’
(from their eponymous 1987 album) and from then on, wheel out
song after song from every era of their career. The sound on
the CD is surprisingly raw and stripped down – this is no
overpolished ‘live in the studio’ offering – thrusting you
straight into the action. The drums pound, riffs bite and
Coverdale is as ludicrous as ever, howling, purring and
growling in his trademark fashion, simultaneously as camp as
Christmas and more macho than the Macho Man Randy Savage
himself. This release will win the band precious few new fans
– indeed, those who consider them a ridiculous, big-haired
circus of an act are unlikely to change their opinions – but
for Whitesnake appreciators, this CD is an exciting
opportunity to experience a grittier, harder edge to the band.
Aldrich nails Sykes’s solos but also brings a touch of gnarly
aggression to the playing which filters through to the rest of
the band – I can’t ever remember Tommy Aldridge using his
double-bass technique as much as he does here – whilst second
guitarist Reb Beach adds a sense of refined, fluid
technicality to the playing that offers a perfect counterpoint
to Aldrich’s blues-based fury.
Across two CDs, we are treated to the full spectrum of
Whitesnake’s material – the lighters-in-the-air ballad ‘Is
This Love’, the chest-beating pomp of ‘Crying in the Rain’,
sleaze personified in ‘Slide it In’ and of course, the
monolithic ‘Still of the Night’. Disc 2 sports a selection of
lesser-known tunes and a few treats for the old-guard in the
shape of classics from the late Seventies/early Eighties
including ‘Burn’ (from Coverdale’s Deep Purple days), a
Hammond-tastic ‘Walking in the Shadow of the Blues’ and the
excellent ‘Don’t Break My Heart Again’. It’s good to see that
they are as at home cranking out the blues as they are rocking
out in pyrotechnical fashion and indeed, highlights the
earthy, honest roots of a band all too often caught up and
mislabelled as glam-tinged hair-metal fluff. Possibly of most
interest to the faithful are four new studio tracks included
at the tail end of the second disc, a taster of the first
Whitesnake studio album since 1990 (due out next year). The
material is promising – ‘Ready to Rock’ is so Zeppelin it
hurts, ‘If You Want Me (I’ll Come Running) is down-tuned,
heavy and hook-laden, ‘I Want You’ a classic ballad and ‘Dog’,
well, is a bit rubbish actually but it’s good to see that,
even in his late fifties, Dave is still up for howling like a
wolf when the mood suits him.
So, there’s a lot here and for the Whitesnake fan, it’s a
great opportunity to encounter the Whitesnake live experience
in 2006 in the comfort of your own home. For a band so adrift
in the nineties, it’s great to see former glories restored
and, of all the outfits peddling this type of music these
days, ‘Live… in the Shadow of the Blues’ ably demonstrates
that few can touch Coverdale and his boys on their night.
Tight, raw, passionate and well-played versions of classic
rock songs. There’s little more you could ask for really –
apart from that new album of course.
www.spv.de |
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Wolf - The Black Flame (Prosthetic
Records) Review by Ryan Bartek |
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With a name like
Wolf, and simply gazing at the cover art, you should know what
to expect. Here we have, not surprisingly, classic oldschool
melodic thrash with denim demon band members posing in a
fog-heavy swamp and castle, human skull ever in hand. This
takes you right back to 1985 for a cross-pollination between
Mercyful Fate, Kreator, and Raven. They are pretty technical
though, and the songs are hook-oriented and fully developed.
The singer Niklas Stalvind actually sounds exactly like King
Diamond when he belts out those multi-layered shrieks. The
ultra-80's style vocals are closer to Hammerfall than most
anything. There is no doubting the King Diamond worship on
this one. I wonder |
| if when
they play they have a crazy slick Iron Maiden-styled stage
design? Probably not, as I'm assuming this is straight
lets-get-drunk-in-our-denim-and-howl-at-the-moon fun time for
the whole crew. Anyone into this type of shit will get a kick
out of it easily. I myself will just throw on that
oh-so-special "Don't Break The Oath" vinyl...
www.wolf.nu |
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