These three are all limited releases, tasters for full albums, 'coming soon'.
All are different but classy, sharing the common denominators of good songwriting, quality performances and an almost tangible hunger for success.
Lip Service are a new, exciting British band, bringing together clean shaven NWOBHM riffola and eighties US hair metal in a car crash of raw, shiny, hard bodied metal.
The band are clearly influenced by the glam inclined stadium pop metal of bands of the past like
Poison and
Cinderella, with vocalist Dave Fielding's cut glass rasp a ringer for Tom Keifer's cawing croon.
Of the two tracks on display, the swaggering, high rolling '
Late Night Love Affair' is the pick. Despite
'Love Gone Done Me Bad's tongue twisting alliteration and sideways reference to several
Cinderella song titles, it sometimes veers a little too close to Status Quo like boogie for its own safety and sanity. Still, good song, and together with the first track shows loads of promise.
Kenjiro too are British. A trio who place emphasis on power and melody.
There are clear comparisons with Houston's Kings X. Thick cut riffs, wiry leady guitarwork and solid, hard driving rhythms underline the band's twin harmony vocals.
Kenjiro however, eschew Kings X's distracting forays into progrock territory and their sometimes overly complicated arrangements. What Kenjiro do well is replicate the Beatlesque harmony choruses and punchy hooks, these sit well atop each of the three songs' bass heavy, rock guitar framework.
Pride of place goes to third track
'Squeeze Play', a song that starts out sounding like a close relation of the Knack's 'My Sharona' before mutating into a hulking, hard rock bruiser, though it loses steam a little toward the end.
One to watch.
Six strong Finnish melodic metal contenders
Morian are soon to release the superbly titled, full length album,
'Sentinels Of The Sun'.
'
Away From The Sun' is the first single release, and as a sample of the finished product, queues will be forming already. Densely constructed, beautifully crafted, epic in scale and poignantly melodic, this song should be enough to create an irresistible momentum once the album hits the streets.
MP3 clips are now available on the band's website: www.morianband.com .
Ratings:
MORIAN: 7/10
KENJIRO: 6.5/10
LIPSERVICE: 6/10
Written by
Brian Wednesday, May 9, 2007
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