Pain of Salvation - Road Salt One
Still in heavy rotation and I'm still working on a full review.
 
Sabaton - Coat Of Arms
Excellent Heavy Metal. Already warming up for the Copenhagen concert in September.
 
Vanden Plas - The Seraphic Clockwork
High quality Progressive Metal and I guess it goes with the genre, but the album really grows on repeated listens. Great atmosphere, challenging music, strong melodies.
 
Stan Bush - Dream The Dream
If you like Stan Bush this is a sure buy. There are no big surprises just pure and good melodic rock but the album fails to live up to the fantastic "In This Life". The new version of "The Touch" has a James bond feel to it and is excellent. Mads, you've got to hear it.
 
Eric Clayton - The Collective Journals (Book + Music)
Contrary to legend this book easily digested. An open, thoughtful, often moving and deeply engrossing read about one man's fight to survive and hold everything together. The journal answers many questions and amazingly I have found that the unveiling of the man behind the mask does not demystify Saviour Machine's music, nor does it make it loose any of its magic, on the contrary.
 
Mary Kovarik - Secrets of the Heart
Excellent baby music.
 
Asia - Asia
Pretty good AOR.
 
Manowar - Hell On Earth V (DVD)
I finally splashed out for this DVD and as I hoped I feature prominently in the audience of the main feature. What I did not expect was for the otherwise brilliant Hell On Earth series to stumble here. There are many many great moments throughout the main feature but the ending segment which shows the band on their 2007 German tour, playing the entire last half of Gods of War is sadly a bit of an anticlimax to me. I was at three of those shows and the magical feeling  of those concerts is only momentarily captured on the DVD.The playback choirs are too apparent and too much focus is on the vikings instead of the band. Gods of War, the song, is completely ruined by off-stage footage but fortunately the rest of the songs focus on what actually happened on the stage. I've only watched DVD 1 so far so I'll hopefully have a full review up when I get through the whole thing.
 
Lec Zorn Project - It began in the underground
Pretty good melodic rock. I had expected a bit more but maybe it will blossom in time.
 
Masterplan - Time To Be King
Very good album. A big step up since MK II but not quite as appealing as the debut yet, still growing though. It's just great to hear Jorn Lande singing in Masterplan again. Welcome home!
 
 
CD purchases of the month
Sabaton - Coat of Arms
Treat - Dreamhunter
The Lec Zorn Project - It began in the underground
Valensia - Gaia
Valensia - Gaia II
Asia - Asia
Asia - Alpha
Saigon Kick - Water

Written by Steen
Thursday, July 8, 2010