Shylock - Rock Buster (AOR Heaven, 2010) Terrible title, terrible artwork.
So far, so bad.
Just as well the band's brand of melodic hard rock is so damn good.
A distillation of Gotthard, Shakra and Bonfire, bold and bottled, ready for mass consumption.
They capture many of those sublime melodic hard rock moments that all of these bands are constantly pursuing.
The band is built around the twin talents of vocalist Matthias Schenk, and guitarman, Johannes Amrhein. Somehow, Schenk has trace elements of Claus (Bonfire) Lessman's DNA in his soul. His voice is distinctive, commanding, warm, but with a rock'n'roll edge. He turns the good stuff into great material and makes the great songs stand out.
The album is full to overflowing with high voltage riffs; inventive, interweaving guitars and more than its fair share of vertiginous choruses and pulse quickening hooks.
'Damn Good' and
'Dawn' are high calibre melodic rock songs, probably the pick of the litter, but the sweetly balladic
'Sunshine Vs Rain' and the powerful, exotic,
'Rose Of Cairo' come close.
A worthy investment.
Loveblast S/T (Independent, www.loveblastrock.com, 2009) I came across this band on CDBaby some time ago. Why a bigger label hasn't picked them up is a mystery to me.
Take your Crash Diets, your Babylon Bombs, your Reckless Loves and especially, The Last Vegas, mash their sound up with Split Enz and this band measures up every time.
Loveblast's glam/sleaze/ rock sound has a strong contemporary feel, with big guitars, busy, buzzing riffs, simple rhythms, pop band harmonies and biting axework.
A cracking, cutting edge production from Electrowerks ensures the band sounds fresh, sharp and ready to rumble.
'Harder & Faster, 'Far Too Long' and
'Hungry' are songs that should propel the band into the upper echelons of modern glam / rock / metal, call it what you will. Despite the contemporary edge, echoes and shades of eighties' hair metal bands emerge occasionally, bubbling to the surface with a Bang Tango like chorus
('Lonely Winter') or an LA Guns guitar'n'gang-vocals combo ('
Things That Bite').
One to watch. Unequivocally.
China - Light Up The Dark (Universal, 2010) With
'Light Up The Dark', China, another legendary name among European rock aficionados, thrust themselves back into hard rock radar range.
This new recording gives you the distinct impression of arena rock having come of age, as written and performed by experienced craftsmen. Yes, simmering below the surface, there remains an underlying urge to punch the air and shout it loud. But maturity and the wisdom it brings encouraged them ultimately to embrace a more satisfying path.
And what an accomplished affair it is.
The songs are muscular, but sleek; the melodies tuneful but sturdy; the playing tough but full of tender moments. There's an elegance running through this music.
On songs like
'Hey Yo', and '
Deadly Sweet' you can see a rich weave of guitar driven melodic rock threading its way through the album.
'Gates of Heaven' and
'Stay' are the blue collar songs of open spaces, of heartache and of human frailty.
That's not to say tracks like '
Girl On My Screen' and
'On My Way' don't clang and clatter with barely suppressed energy, but it's the classic hard rock of the freewheeling
'Lonely Rider' and
'Right Here Right Now' - given a contemporary guitar spin - that really get under your skin.
Hell City Glamours - s/t (Independent, 2009, www.hellcityglamours.com) The band name gets them noticed. You have to look twice to make sure you got it right.
Another rising Oz band, one part Airbourne, one part Hansel and whole lot of themselves, HCG straddle that territory that takes in chunks of Glam, Metal and unvarnished hard rock as originally staked out by Rose Tattoo and The Angels.
They've spent the last 7 years on the hard slog of continual touring . . . supporting headliners like The New York Dolls and Sebastian Bach.
So these are battle hardened songs, subjected to the spotlight of audience scrutiny.
Hanoi Rocks creep in from time to time, joining Aerosmith for the impressive
'Flying Away', and although their band name suggests some trashy musical aesthetic, in the main it's hard and fast, tautly constructed, loosely delivered.
Standout tracks include the classic rock inclined
'High Brow', '
Ready To Fall' a song that resurrects Fogerty's CCR and the strutting
'Right My Wrong', but the album lacks a truly killer cut.
It accumulates to an impressive debut, but they need to upgrade the songwriting a quality a little, if they are to truly breakthrough.
Kevin Lee and The Kings - Dusk Till Dawn (Independent, 2010,
www.kevinleeonline.com)
There are few rock artists with the ability to strike a chord just as often and as heartstoppingly as Kevin Lee. Having pared the Lonesome City Kings down to just the Kings, he's released this mightily impressive 6 track mini album.
I've always thought that Lee suffered from productions and arrangements that were just too polite for his energetic, neo-midwest melodies.
This time the production has a rawer edge, with big booming bass heavy guitars, occasionally sweetened by a twelve string, Big Star jangle.
Lee's clearly perfected his art on opener
'The Other Side' and closer
'Slip Away', both heavy on memorable melody and aurally adhesive hooks.
If Tom Petty had been fed on Clime Fisher and Cheap Trick it would have come out like the aching poprock song
'I Still Believe' and the drivetime-classic-in-the-making
'Next Big Thing'.
Lee's voice, now showing the attractive, careworn wrinkles of time fits the Elvis Costello-like
'I'm Invisible' perfectly, teasing out the nuances in his lyrics, tugging at our heartstrings, reminding us that we've all been in similar situations.
We should hope this develops into a full studio album from Lee.
