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All reviews written by Brian
| 1. T Ride - T Ride | Rating: 10/10
Oh man, oh man, oh man.Without fully realising it, I've been waiting for this melodic rock moment for 17 years.Why? My original CD of T Ride's one and only recording got stolen by some discerning but obviously dishonest rock music lover within months of me buying it.I never replaced it. Don't know why. T Ride arrived o....
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| 2. Foreigner - No End In Sight : The Very Best Of Foreigner | Rating: 9.5/10
Even now, this feels like the first time.So strong is the impact Foreigner made with their debut album on me and a million more rock fans all those years ago.And such is the strength of the band's back catalogue that they've released more compilations than most bands have studio albums. 32 tracks here, including 3 live tr....
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| 3. Chicago - Stone Of Sisyphus | Rating: 9.5/10
The legendary unreleased 22rd album. Shelved in 1993 by a label that didn't know its assets from its liabilities.It has now been released by the rather more enterprising (and clearly more astute) Rhino Records label, with 4 bonus tracks - 3 demos, 2 of tracks that appeared on the album in finished form and 1....
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| 4. Waysted - Save your Prayers - Special Edition | Rating: 9/10
Having reissued 'Save Your Prayers' on CD for the first time in 2004, Majestic Rock Records have now, unapologetically, re-released the reissue with a bonus disc, ostensibly to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the album's debut.
No apology required of course, 'Save Your Prayers' is one of those albums that ....
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| 5. Trevor Rabin - I Can´t Look Away (reissue) | Rating: 9/10
Along with Mark Mancina, Rabin would appear to be Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer's favourite son these last few years, with the 'Armageddon', 'Con Air' and 'National Treasure' soundtracks to his credit.
Way back in 1989, things were different, but the future was forming. Single handed, Rabin had rescued Yes from oblivion, then went on....
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| 6. Touch - Touch | Rating: 9/10
This legendary album has been repackaged in various forms over the years, but never more extensively and yes, lovingly, than this Rock Candy reissue.It's been fully remastered and reloaded with 2 bonus tracks, a 12 page colour booklet and a 3000 word essay, which, I'm delighted to see, has been written by my former Fireworks' Magazine coll....
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| 7. Signal - Loud & Clear | Rating: 9/10
A spontaneous 'Hey!', from the incomparable Mark (before he was Marcy) Free over the first few explosive bars of opener, 'Arms Of A Stranger' suggests that even Free was moved by his band's music. Mining for gold, and striking a rich vein of eighties' melodic rock, Krescendo Records have....
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| 8. Pavlov's Dog - Echo & Boo And Assorted Small Tails | Rating: 9/10
To give it the full title, 'The Adventures Of Echo & Boo And Assorted Small Tails'.The first album of new material for 30 years. Something of an event, despite the lack of fanfare.In the 36 years since the Dog's awesome debut, 'Pampered Menial', and despite the world spinning out from under during the nineties, when the barbarians ....
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| 9. Neurosonic - Drama Queen | Rating: 9/10
Best album I've heard this year, no danger.
Neurosonic is Canadian Wunderkind, Jason Darr. He came to rock via techno / dance. Our gain, their loss.
You can still hear the techno, but thankfully the dance mentality has been jettisoned.
Listening to Darr's self produced solo debut, 'Drama Queen' is like mainlining into....
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| 10. Mr Mister - Pull | Rating: 9/10
Recorded in 1989 at all the classic California studios by musicians and technicians san pareil, 'Pull' was one of the last great melodic rock albums of the eighties. We just didn't know it until now. Released on Richard Page's Little Dume Recordings label (which also released his recent solo album, 'Peculiar Life'</B....
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| 11. Michael Monroe - Sensory Overdrive | Rating: 9/10
Accurately titled "solo" album from erstwhile Hanoi Rocks frontman.While most would remain convinced that the Andy McCoy / Michael Monroe chemistry is unbeatable, this band gets damn close. And what a star studded lineup - Ginger (Wildhearts), Sam (HR) Yaffa, Karl Rockfist (not his real name, apparently) and Steve (Company Of ....
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| 12. Lec Zorn Project - It Began In The Underground | Rating: 9/10
In the manner of Melodic Rock Do-It-Yourself heroes, Michael Riesenbeck, Herbert Sall & Michael Furin (Work Of Art) and Frederic (AOR) Slama, Lec Zorn's dream has eventually been realised with 'It Started In The Underground'.
It's a tribute to Zorn's talent, hard work and determination that a range of accomplished artists in ....
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| 13. Honeymoon Suite - Feel It Again (An Anthology) | Rating: 9/10
As a career retrospective, these two fat volumes will take some beating. Thirty nine songs over two discs, both filled to within a few seconds of their eighty minute capacity. All the hits, from 1984 onwards; a selection from recent releases 'Dreamland' and 'Lemon Tongue' (ostensibly the European and North Ame....
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| 14. Foreigner - Juke Box Heroes | Rating: 9/10
Foreigner played Glasgow earlier this month, on a bill bookending them between Styx and Journey. This dance of the rock dinosaurs through Europe is proving to be extremely popular, and that's interesting, as none of the bands boast the presence of original frontmen, respectively Lou Gramm, Denis Deyoung and Steve Perry. Given that they....
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| 15. Crash Kings - Crash Kings | Rating: 9/10
The Crash Kings debut album should be trumpeted as a triumph of rhythmic simplicity and melodic accessibility.The rhythm is the thing. Instrumentally, vocally. There's only three of them in this band, but it sounds like a small army, all overturning the barricades at the same time. It's not hip hop, it's not slam, and there's a garage band....
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| 16. Cinderella - In Concert | Rating: 9/10
They invented an expression for bands like Cinderella. Nearly Men.Never did a band come so tantalisingly close to greatness.For three albums (and several singles) they were contenders, then ironically, they slid down the greasy pole of fame with 'Still Climbing', their fourth album.Th....
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| 17. Brother Firetribe - Heart Full Of Fire | Rating: 9/10
The word "homage" cannot encapsulate the rush of sensations this album gives you. As an unashamed tribute to the glory days of the AOR/melodic rock genre it works like a dream.It's clear that the band's mainmen - Pekka (Leverage) Ansio Heino, Emppu (Nightwish) Vuorinen and Tomppa Nikulainen spent the time since the debut honing their songw....
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| 18. Backyard Babies - Them XX (Best Of) | Rating: 9/10
It's been well documented that the punk revolution in the late seventies was a glamrock backlash.It's a moot point, but more than any other band in Europe, the 'Babies successfully smashed those two genres together with their debut album 'Diesel & Power' in 1996. Ok, you could equally argue that the Hanoi Rocks had already gone ....
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| 19. Autograph - Sign In Please | Rating: 9/10
Nominating a genuinely classic melodic rock album is unquestionably a subjective process. But even the most objective of fans would have to agree that Autograph's 'Sign In Please' is one of the great debut albums.It's clearly been recognised by those enthusiastic industry veterans a....
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| 20. Tollak - Across The Rubicon | Rating: 8.5/10
You can count the number of high calibre Westcoast rock releases over the last few years on the fingers of one hand. And that's been nothing less than extremely disappointing.We've even seen a dip in quality from the usually reliable old guard, like Joseph Williams and Jay Graydon.Past masters like them seem to be getting commissioned ....
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| 21. TNT - Atlantis | Rating: 8.5/10
We all claim to embrace change, but when it comes to AOR, what we want is more of the same. Only better.Opinion over 'Atlantis' is already polarising. With maybe one guy in favour and everybody else against. Reminds you of Ogden Nash's words, "Progress is a wonderful thing, but I think we've had enough of it now". What ....
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| 22. The Von Hertzen Brothers - Stars Aligned | Rating: 8.5/10
When these guys write and record their songs, there's definitely a movie playing in their heads.'Stars Aligned' has been described as the soundtrack to a dark fairytale. The Brothers Von Hertzen as the Brothers Grimm. The Von Hertzen Brothers are Finland's No.1 rock band with a formidable live reputation. On this, their....
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| 23. Stratovarius - Elements Part 1 (Reissue) | Rating: 8.5/10
Originally released in 2003 and now re-released by Metal Mind with bonus tracks, 'Elements 1' polarizes opinion, even among Stratovarius fans, never mind the wider rock and metal community. Written and produced almost entirely by erstwhile band guitarist, Timo Tolkki, the albums were clearly designed by the band to be their....
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| 24. Stevie Salas - Be What It Is | Rating: 8.5/10
'Be What It Is' is Stevie Salas's latest release, coming some five or so years after his 'Soulblasters Of The Universe' album.Recorded with class musicians like Dave (Pearl Jam) Abruzezze), Richie Kotzen, Matt (G'n'R) Sorum and Brian (Pride& Glory) ....
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| 25. Slaves To Fashion - Slaves To Fashion EP | Rating: 8.5/10
Another set of soundly structured songs from TNAFKAPOB. Yes, it's the Norwegian artists formerly known as Pedestrians Of Blue. Now known by yet another misnomer, Slaves To Fashion. Still, a rose by any other name . . . As POB, they released the critically acclaimed 'Crossing Over' in 2007. It was an outstanding deb....
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| 26. Poets And Pornstars - Poets And Pornstars | Rating: 8.5/10
Considering there's five of them, Poets & Pornstars' don't make a lot of noise, and disappointingly, the band name is just a flight of fancy. Too bad.
This debut album (which grew out of a four song EP) contains an apparently unassuming bunch of songs, driven by spare, dry riffs, fired up by mainman Hal Ozsan's lived in vocals.
It's swam....
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| 27. Notorious - Radio Silence | Rating: 8.5/10
Sean Harris and Robin George (the archetypal nearly man) recorded this album together back in 1985.George's outstanding solo album, 'Dangerous Music' had gone under with its bankrupt record label. Harris had just broken with Diamond Head.Young, ambitious, tenacious, with 'Radio Silence' they aimed to "revolutionise the wor....
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| 28. Martin Page - In The Temple Of The Muse | Rating: 8.5/10
Southampton boy Martin Page is something of a legend in the Melodic Rock world.He's written for and/or played with A list rock musicians John Waite, Robbie (The Band) Robertson, Diane Warren, Bruce Hornsby, Jason Scheff , Richie Zito, Cher, Peter Wolf etc etc. Specifically, he knocked off a couple of worldwide hits in the eighties. Starshi....
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| 29. John M. Keane - Everything Changed | Rating: 8.5/10
You a CSI fan? No, me neither. But for the millions who are, the theme tune will be familiar. It was written by Grammy Award winning John M Keane, formerly one half of the Keane Brothers, a duo who enjoyed considerably more than fifteen minutes in the late seventies. This mainly piano driven solo album confirms Keane to be a gifte....
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| 30. Hanoi Rocks - Twelve Shots On The Rocks (Reissue) | Rating: 8.5/10
No question, these guys knew how to rock.
This is 2003's magnificent comeback album, 'Twelve Shots On The Rocks' reissued with four bonus tracks.
There's a golden glow to the band's hugely influential sound and trashy aesthetic here. The songwriting is right on the money, the performances inspired and the production is jawdr....
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| 31. Burn - Global Warning | Rating: 8.5/10
Legendary UK Melodic Rock band, Burn, best known for their 1993 release 'So Far, So Bad' (5Ks from Dave Reynolds in Kerrang), not forgetting 'Spark To A Flame' (1995), have at long last returned with a new album, 'Global Warning'.
As a consequence of tragic circumstances and life's natural ....
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| 32. April Wine - Roughly Speaking | Rating: 8.5/10
In Canada, where rock music is still something to be valued rather than exploited, enduring rock band April Wine are back on a major label.
'Roughly Speaking' has only 8 tracks and a duration of a mere 25 minutes. The label's thinking? High quality, low price. Presumably to compete with I tunes and the P2P explosion.
Well, as far as the m....
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| 33. After Hours - Against The Grain | Rating: 8.5/10
Stop me if you've heard this one.1992 : Band release excellent second album on an obscure label. Lacking the oxygen of publicity, it stiffs. Band folds.The Present Day : Erstwhile band members meet and decide to give it another go. Many such recent reformations have been ill advised. And considering that After Hours were n....
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| 34. 707 - Greatest Hits Live | Rating: 8.5/10
This eighties' gig was unearthed by the GB Music research team, and what a find.
The 707 lineup for this live set is Kevin Russell, Tod Howarth, Phil Bryant and Jim McClarty and they are in incandescent form. More in a moment.
707 teetered on the edge of breakthrough for several years during the eighties, but never got to make the final ....
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| 35. Work Of Art - Artwork | Rating: 8/10
At last the full length album, trailed for months on My Space by the sublime 'Why Do I?'
Now signed to Frontiers, Work Of Art - Lars (Fanfields) Safsund, Robert Sall and Herman Furin - prove to be more than one trick ponies.
While none of the other eleven tracks are blessed with the immedia....
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| 36. Whiteflame - Tour Bus Diaries | Rating: 8/10
N&S Records may soon see this band stolen away by a major.Like Koritni and Airbourne in Oz, Finnish band Whiteflame are one of a crop of European melodic rock bands who're currently cresting a resurgent wave of interest in the genre.And this band is good. Very good. Capitalising on the critical and popular acclaim of t....
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| 37. Uli Jon Roth - The Best Of | Rating: 8/10
Roth's mix of the classical and the contemporary doesn't always work. It's not an exact science.
When you're attempting to blend volatile substances the chemistry can create a mini masterpiece or just as easily blow up in your face.
This 2 disc set, 'The Best Of Uli Jon Roth' naturally succeeds in hiding some of the uglier creations from vi....
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| 38. Toys of Joy - One of these days (Reissue) | Rating: 8/10
Hard on the heels of Harlot's 'Room With A View' and BJoe's 'Ready To Ride', Denmark's Olafssong's have reissued another two classic AOR albums.
The TOJ album, originally released in 1991, is the better known, and very highly regarded among afficionados.
It's a slick, tasty mix of catchy, sophisticated Wes....
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| 39. Thunderstone - Evolution 4.0 | Rating: 8/10
Finnish band Thunderstone continue to cut a swathe through an overcrowded market, and with 'Evolution 4.0' deliver an album that supersedes both their own benchmark and every other power metal album I've heard these last six months.
The album's title is something of a giveaway. The band have added several layers of heaviosity to their conti....
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| 40. Thunderstone - The Burning (Reissue) | Rating: 8/10
The brainchild of multi talented mainman (writer/guitarist/producer) Nino Laurenne, Thunderstone hit the Power Metal world running with their self titled, Stratovarius influenced 2002 debut.By the time of their critically acclaimed second album, 'The Burning' (2004), the music had become more complex and c....
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| 41. The Poodles - Sweet Trade (New Edition) | Rating: 8/10
As the extended title indicates, this album is a reworked version of the Scandi supergroup's 2007 album release, itself a follow up to the headline grabbing debut, 'Metal Will Stand Tall'. The 'New Edition' tag has been brought about through the addition of 2 new tracks, most notably '<B....
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| 42. The Poodles - Sweet Trade | Rating: 8/10
The Poodles' debut album, 'Metal Will Stand Tall' was essentially a collection of high quality off cuts and out takes, rerecorded with style, invention and a cutting contemporary edge (by Matti Alfonzetti).
It brought this co-operative of veteran rock musicians well into the mainstream spotlight, and gasp, almost had them re....
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| 43. Tesla - Real To Reel | Rating: 8/10
The music you grew up with - the soundtrack of your youth - stays with you forever.
Rock bands are no different. Covers' albums prove it time and time again.
It's an opportunity to cherry pick from the history of rock and roll as it relates to you.
But the problem is this : no matter who you are, your covers are always subject to compariso....
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| 44. Tesla - Forever More | Rating: 8/10
At last, a Tesla album that combines the elemental structure of 'Mechanical Resonance' with the power and gravitas of 'Psychotic Supper'. This is a band absolutely at the top of their game, writing fabulous, hard hitting melodic rock songs, rif....
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| 45. Terra Nova - Come Alive | Rating: 8/10
"Right" said Fred, "Frontiers want another 'Living It Up'."So they did their best - Fred Hendrix, Ron Hendrix, Gesuino Derosas and Lars Beuving. The result is 'Come Alive', but more accurately it really should be titled 'Coming Of Age'.On this new album, (Fred) Hendrix - writer, producer, vocalist - tak....
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| 46. Taz Taylor Band - Welcome To America | Rating: 8/10
Understandably, as he was raised on a regular intake of Rainbow, UFO and MSG, Taz Taylor couldn't help growing up a guitar hero. He's perhaps not quite reached god status yet, but an upward trajectory is guaranteed by 'Welcome To America'.
And this is without unveiling his secret weapon . . . Graham Bonnet. For yes, it is he ....
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| 47. Sun Domingo - Songs For End Times | Rating: 8/10
The relatively unknown Sun Domingo have toured with Marillion and Pineapple Thief . Clearly, they're associating with all the right people.Steve Hogarth contributes guest vocals and Bruce (PT) Soord produced. The estimable Adrian Belew, something of a legend in Progrock circles also offers a guest appearance on one track, as does John Wesl....
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| 48. Stryper - Murder By Pride | Rating: 8/10
The reincarnation of Stryper is complete.It's no reinvention, nobody expected or wanted that. What we have is a band who've rediscovered the heartfelt, finely tuned, perfectly weighted, carefully measured metal of their past. Metal that's just bursting with skyscraping vocals, muscular performances and towering hooks.Stryper inspir....
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| 49. Stratovarius - Elements Part 2 (Reissue) | Rating: 8/10
No question, some albums are well worth resurrecting.As with 'Elements Part 1', those metal afficionados, Metalmind Productions, have given this stylish release a remastering, and rereleased it on a gold, limited edition disc. <B style="mso-bidi-font-weight....
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| 50. Stevie Salas - The Essential . . . The Sun And The Earth | Rating: 8/10
Never heard of Steve Salas?Shurely shome mishtake. Musical director for American Idol, led Mick Jagger's and Rod Stewart's tour bands (not at the same time, sadly). Played on and produced Was Not Was's worldwide hit 'Walk The Dinosaur'. Wrote the score for the phenomenal <B style="ms....
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| 51. Starz - Come Out At Night | Rating: 8/10
Starz now appear to be one of many bands clogging up the highway from the past, making for that destination they call 'comeback'.
In Starz case, things are different. Here's a band who never really made it like they should have. Great albums? Yes, no question. Great singles? Yes, check out Billboard in the late seventies. Respect? No question....
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| 52. Stage Dolls - Always | Rating: 8/10
Sounding much like a band out of time but never out of fashion, the Stage Dolls come back yet again with a clutch of finely wrought melodic rock songs.That they are carefully crafted and exquisitely assembled is never enough of course. Thankfully, mainman Torsten Flakne hasn't run out of magic dust just yet, and he's given this new album a....
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| 53. Sparzanza - Folie A Cinq | Rating: 8/10
A 'Folie A Cinq' is a psychotic delusion shared by five interconnected people.Let me tell you, I can take any amount of this delusion.On their fifth album now, Swedish metal/rock band, Sparzanza knocked me out with their fourth effort, 'In Voodoo Veritas' (2009).It was "Hard, fast, loud, tuneful. When the last track f....
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| 54. Sonata Arctica - Unia | Rating: 8/10
In Finnish, 'Unia' means 'dreams'.
Nobody likes change. Especially fans, and generally speaking, most critics.
All of us claim to embrace change, but in reality we just want more of the same old sound, only better.
Sonata Arctica are a band who challenge our fixed ideas and our reluctance to keep an open mind.
Over sev....
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| 55. Slave To The System - Slave To The System | Rating: 8/10
I can think of few who look less like a rock musician than Kelly Gray. In his picture on the back cover of this release from his new band, Slave To The System, he looks like some Dickensian character who finds himself caught in the headlights of a time machine.
But there are few rock musicians who can write a song and play guitar like Gray....
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| 56. Saga - Remember When (The Very Best Of Saga) | Rating: 8/10
Cleverly conceived and packaged, this double disc set cherry picks the band's classic material from their live SPV albums 'Detours' and 'Chapters Live', and marries this to the best of their four studio albums on the same label.
Naturally, the emphasis is on the tracks from those four SPV releases, '....
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| 57. Poets Of The Fall - Alchemy Vol 1 | Rating: 8/10
Essentially, The grandly titled 'Alchemy Volume 1' is a selection of tracks from multi award winning Poets Of The Fall's 4 album back catalogue. These are laid out in chronological order, thus allowing you to observe how the band's sound has developed over an 8 year period.There are also 2 new tracks bookending the old stuff, plus a....
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| 58. Poets & Pornstars - Poets & Pornstars | Rating: 8/10
A year on, Poets & Pornstars self titled debut album gets a welcome relaunch. In the circumstances it's worth taking another look, especially for those who missed it first time round. The album comes with a fabulously provocative cover, encapsulating the band's musical mix of swampy, sensual, soulful, sle....
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| 59. Pedestrians Of Blue - Crossing Over | Rating: 8/10
Best debut album I've heard this year, no danger.
The only thing pedestrian about Norway's own POB is the funereal keyboard intro to the first track. 'Crossing Over' they've fashioned a hard melodic rock sound that flirts, often outrageously, with Progrock and melodic metal, frequently embracing these other sub genres with ....
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| 60. Pavlov´s Dog - Lost In America | Rating: 8/10
This is Pavlov's Dog's 1990 album, remastered and reissued with 8 bonus tracks.
By then, only David Surkamp and Douglas Rayburn remained of the original band.
They wrote all the songs here and co-produced.
By 1990, the band's sound had mutated into much more of a commercial beast. Few traces of the band's uniquely quirky progressive rock....
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| 61. Pavlov's Dog - Live And Unleashed | Rating: 8/10
Thousands of European Dog lovers flocked to the band's live gigs in 2009.'Pavlov's Dog, Live And Unleashed' is a record of those events. David Surkamp, whose death had been greatly exaggerated, leads the 7 piece lineup - a unique guitar, mellotron, violin and percussion ensemble - through triumphant presentations of son....
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| 62. Nothing More - The Few Not Fleeting | Rating: 8/10
Like many bands you hear for the first time, turns out they've been around for quite a while.And so it is with Nothing More. This is the band's fifth studio release if you include last year's 'Waiting On Rain' EP - the nothing short of wonderful title track is included here. Constant line up changes haven't undermined the stab....
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| 63. Moritz - City Streets | Rating: 8/10
Thanks to a rising tide of public demand, Moritz's eighties' recordings have now been reissued (and digitally remastered) on CD. This Brit rock band's music clearly mainlined into the mood of North American AOR and caught a ride on its ascendant star. They had the music, they had an audience and they had a market ripe for exploita....
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| 64. Million $ Reload - Anthems Of A Degeneration | Rating: 8/10
I love this album.For many reasons.The fact they are British is interesting but irrelevant. If you're good you're good. Your nationality doesn't matter.This band is great.'Anthems Of A Degeneration' is more than just a swaggering, post Glamrock, post AC/DC, post G'n'R blitz of high voltage hard rock, where Bam and Andy M....
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| 65. Mark Sweeney - All In | Rating: 8/10
I love this new Mark Sweeney release.I thought his debut solo album was an anodyne affair, taking too long to go nowhere. All change. 'All In' bears the stamp of someone who knows exactly what he is doing, knows exactly what he wants and knows exactly how to get there. Pitched somewhere between rock, pop and AOR, ....
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| 66. Magnum - The Visitation | Rating: 8/10
I saw Magnum play the Garage in Glasgow maybe six years back. I remember thinking "These guys have still got it". Tony Clarkin smiled to himself a few times during the gig, so he must have been thinking the same thing. 'The Visitation' confirms 6 years later, they have it still.It is the sound of a band - whose ambitions once ....
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| 67. Lynn Allen - Nine | Rating: 8/10
About a hundred years ago, I wrote reviews for a magazine called Hard RoxX, in the UK.The legendary Kelv Helrazer would contribute occasionally, and it was through him constantly banging on about Lynn Allen that I gained an introduction to the band. Huge in Iowa and other parts of the American Midwest (and obviously in the Hel....
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| 68. Life / Robin George - Cocoon / Crying Diamonds / Dangerous Music Live 85 (Reissue) | Rating: 8/10
Arguably, he's the inventor of technical AOR. And with the help of UK label Angel Air, producer, writer and performer Robin George has remastered and reissued three albums from his considerable (and often confusing) back catalogue.First, the band Life. Formed with vocalist Nick Tart (who eventually joined Diamond Head), this was essentiall....
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| 69. Leverage - Circus Colossus | Rating: 8/10
There's no denying the emotional intent of instrumental opener 'Rise'.It's powerfully neo classical, with all the sweet cinematic attraction of a seasonal soundtrack. Released in November, it shows perfect timing.<SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: A....
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| 70. Lava - Symphonic Journey | Rating: 8/10
Leaving a lengthy gap between albums is not unknown, but it is a risky business, fame can disappear like snow off a dike.Norway's Lava turned this challenge into a triumph in 2003.1989's chart topping 'Rhythm Of Love' appeared to be their swansong. But 14 years later, they released a career defining magnum opus, 'Polarity'</B....
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| 71. Last Autumn's Dream - Saturn Skyline | Rating: 8/10
LAD's fourth album starts out like the previous two releases. An uneasy (and sometimes ugly) pop / rock hybrid, struggling to find a sure identity.
Then suddenly on the third track, 'Pages' it transforms itself totally, completely, into edgy but utterly marvellous contemporary pop music, with a few old school touches to mak....
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| 72. Korn - See You On The Other Side | Rating: 8/10
Shock horror. The nu melodic Korn. Issue driven rap metal with good tunes.
Must be the band's new production team, The Matrix - Lauren Christy, Scott Spock and Graeme Edwards.
Artists among the The Matrix's less distinguished but highly successful production credits include Hilary Duff, Britney Spears and Busted.
A potential credibility g....
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| 73. Kamelot - One Cold Winter´s Night | Rating: 8/10
Kamelot's prodigious new release, a double CD and DVD set entitled 'One Cold Winter Night' is a genuine joy. Recorded live in OSLO last February, it radiates copious amounts of heat and light, enough to keep any winter's night at bay.
It would be an exaggeration to say that Kamelot have cornered the symphonic rock market, b....
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| 74. Johnny Crash - Unfinished Business | Rating: 8/10
Languishing in some record company vault (do they all have vaults?) for the last 15 years, Johnny Crash's second and hitherto unreleased album finally blinks and walks out into the light. Respect to those enthusiastic afficionados at Oz's SunCity Records. This isn't one of those lost-and-now-found recordings that makes you r....
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| 75. JK Northrup - Wired In My Skin | Rating: 8/10
Yet another of Hard Rock's famous names, but one that's never really had the credit it deserves.
The hard rock swirl of Northrup's past life, as a solo performer, as a member of King Kobra, XYZ and as one half of the Shortino/Northrup alliance, seems to have coalesced around this outstanding new album, 'Wired In My Skin'.
T....
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| 76. Jettblack - Get Your Hands Dirty | Rating: 8/10
You have to cut through a faint haze of hairspray and a thin veneer of glitz and glam to get there, but once you reach the music at Jettblack's core - a contemporary slant on classic rock that raucously subverts the glamrock aesthetic - you'll be glad you made the effort.It's no surprise to learn they've been supporting bands like Airbourn....
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| 77. Hybrid Ice - Minds Eye | Rating: 8/10
In a Lazarus type scenario, this legendary band are back with a cracking new batch of songs.We all know that "legendary" status is often bestowed on bands and albums unjustifiably. The passage of time clouds the truth and nostalgia colours our memory. With this band, the status is deserved. I still play their second album, 'No Rules....
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| 78. Houston - Houston | Rating: 8/10
We reviewed the single 'Hold On', a trailer for the full album, last year.We said: "'Hold On' is an AOR lightning strike, trapped in the amber of eighties' FM Radio. It's what good soft rock is all about, losing the love, the dream. The sound of summer and a life just out of reach. Roll on the full album." And here it is.<....
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| 79. Helloween - 7 Sinners | Rating: 8/10
In one way at least, Helloween are like a million other metal and rock bands - they've accumulated plenty of baggage over the years, and it's frequently dragged the music down. But there's a real sense of renewal with '7 Sinners'. All that accumulated weight has been thrown overboard, and the band have again risen to ....
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| 80. Harem Scarem - Human Nature | Rating: 8/10
With every new release since 'Mood Swings' (1993), Harem Scarem fans have been hoping for 'Mood Swings 2'.
Many were understandably hooked by this seminal melodic rock album and its more AOR inclined predecessor, and became progressively alienated by the band's subsequent direction. From 'Voice Of Reason' (....
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| 81. Hanoi Rocks - This One's For Rock'N'Roll (Best Of Hanoi Rocks 1980-2008) | Rating: 8/10
A 2 CD retrospective from the criminally underrated - and often overlooked - Hanoi Rocks, one of the very best rock bands to come out of Europe, and a major influence on the emergent LA Rock scene of the early eighties. In vocalist, Michael Monroe and guitarist, Andy McCoy, Hanoi Rocks had one of those rare pairings where the whol....
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| 82. H.E.A.T. - Heat | Rating: 8/10
Totally and absolutely untainted by any kind of contemporary influence, except maybe rising production values, Sweden's Heat have successfully plunder the eighties on this, their eponymous debut album.Released on Peter Stormare's ....
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| 83. Gun - Swagger | Rating: 8/10
The first five steamrollering tracks will have you begging for mercy.Such is the power of this opening salvo from Glasgow band Gun, and their third album 'Swagger', now reissued by the eternally enterprising UK label, Cherry Red, with a fabulous eight bonus tracks. At its heart, Gun ....
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| 84. Gun - Popkiller | Rating: 8/10
A marriage made in Govan, Toby (Little Angels) Jepson and a reformed (but only slightly reshaped) Gun (minus Mark Rankin of course), with the Gizzi brothers, Giulliano and Dante, remaining at the core. In one of those twists of fate, Glasgow's Gun became famous for a cover version - in this case Cameo's 'Word Up' - rather than ....
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| 85. Goddess Shiva - Goddess Shiva | Rating: 8/10
This is a fun, we-loved-every-minute-making-it kind of album.
It's the product of a recently resurrected bluesrock power trio, initially planned some years ago by Mat Sinner (b/v), Armin (Rage) Sabol (g/v) and Martin (Leaves Eyes) Schmidt (d).
There's only so much manoeuvring space within heavy metal's musical strictures, especially when ....
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| 86. Gary Schutt - Loss 4 Words | Rating: 8/10
An all instrumental guitar album with a punny title, one that (just) fits with the guitarist's surname. Lots of tracks with weird / zany - but eminently descriptive - titles like 'Baby Dinosaur', 'Chinese Firedrill' and <B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: ....
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| 87. Five Finger Death Punch - War Is The Answer | Rating: 8/10
Being something of an AOR wimp at heart, I didn't really want to like this.I could argue that they battered me into submission. But they didn't. They seduced me.You could argue that 5FDP's intense, blackly dramatic mix of thrash, classic rock, numetal and chart aimed contemporary rock could easily have ended in tears. You could equally....
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| 88. Filter - The Very Best Things: 1995 - 2008 | Rating: 8/10
The compilation quickly pulls us under with openers 'Hey Man Nice Shot' (the breakthrough single) and 'Welcome To The Fold', as melodic, hard edged and as accessible as industrial rock/metal is ever likely to get.Filter's mainman, Richard Patrick was on....
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| 89. Fair Warning - Aura | Rating: 8/10
To be honest, I thought the band was treading water with the last couple of albums, and in fact with 2007's 'Brothers Keeper' thought they were drowning not waving. Now that they are a confirmed fourpiece - Ule Ritgen, Tommy Heart, CC Behrens and Helge Engelke - they seem once again comfortable inside the Fair Warning skin. They'....
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| 90. Face Face - Bridge To Nowhere | Rating: 8/10
Face Face are back after an eleven years absence. (I'm discounting the band's alter ego, Purple Cross and the 2000 release, 'Eyes Of The Mirror'). Let me assure you, it was worth the wait.
This is an intelligent, thoughtful album with an apparently endless array of potent hooks and memorable tunes, all of which hit every spot and tick every....
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| 91. Eye - 2 Hearts | Rating: 8/10
Another young, extremely promising AOR band from Sweden.And the label, Blue Topaz clearly think they're onto something, rush releasing these tracks ahead of a full album. '2 Hearts' is self evidently modelled on the Blue Tears blueprint, with finishing touches added by Phantoms Oper....
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| 92. Europe - Secret Society | Rating: 8/10
Europe's 'comeback' album, 'Start From The Dark', was released in 2004 to mixed reactions and mixed reviews. Why?
Because for all those bands clogging up the road back from obscurity, the choice is a simple one. Take the pieces of silver and resurrect past glories (a route that seldom leads to its desired destination), or m....
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| 93. Epitaph - Remember The Daze | Rating: 8/10
35 years and a million miles from the heavy progressive rock of their debut album, German band, Epitaph have reformed, 25 years after the last studio album 'Danger Man'.
Lineup for 'Remember The Daze' has founder members, Cliff Jackson and Bernd Kolbe on board, plus Achim Poret and Heinz Glass, who'd joined t....
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| 94. Epitaph - Dancing With Ghosts | Rating: 8/10
It's not quite as immediate as 2007's outstanding comeback release 'Remember the Daze'. You'll need to work at this one to get something back. Then again, easy triumphs are never the most rewarding. As was 'RTD', the band is still mainman Cliff Jackson, vocals, guitars, production, co-writes (and occasional solo effort); B....
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| 95. Enuff Z'nuff - Dissonance | Rating: 8/10
EZN's world spun out from under them when their label, Atco dropped them after only 2 albums, including the criminally undermarketed 'Strength'.But these guys - Chip Znuff and Donnie Vie - are survivors, so they climbed back on, signed for Arista, and wrote and recorded their third release, 'Animals With Human Intelligence'. Znuff's claim ....
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| 96. Electric Boys - Now Dig This . . . Best Of | Rating: 8/10
Funk metal, psychedelic rock, call it what you will. Three albums and it was all over. Better to burn out than to fade away. Rising from the ashes etc etc, Swedish cult funksters, Electric Boys - Connie Bloom, Andy Christell, Franco Santunione and Niclas Sigevall are reportedly recording a new album.To celebrate that decidedly....
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| 97. Drive, She Said - The Best Of And More | Rating: 8/10
Who would have thought that a UK festival, celebrating music that was popular 25 years ago would have this much influence.Galvanised by audience response to their appearance at Firefest 2009, Mark Mangold and Al Fritsch have kick started Drive She Said, delivering 4 new recordings and 13 handpicked tracks from their back catalogue.&nbs....
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| 98. Def Leppard - Pyromania & Adrenalize Deluxe Editions (Reissues) | Rating: 8/10
'Pyromania' and 'Adrenalize' bookended Def Leppard's career defining magnum opus, 'Hysteria'. Now, on the brink of headlining the UK's massive Download Festival, the band have reissued deluxe editions of these....
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| 99. Cycle Of Pain - S/T | Rating: 8/10
John (JD) Deservio, Black Label Society's bassman has wanted to record this band for some years now. 25 years to be precise.An impressive, enduring career, most notably as Zakk Wylde's sideman, occupied the time between.Such was the potency of the music and the chemistry of the band that guest musicians queued for a place at the table.....
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| 100. Cry Wolf - Twenty Ten | Rating: 8/10
Back in the late eighties, Cry Wolf were as much a part of the LA rock scene as Poison, Motley Crue and LA Guns.But they only managed one album, 'Crunch', released in 1990. This was a harder, darker affair than the products of their peer group and categorically distanced them from hair and glam rock. Armed with a set of songs pr....
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| 101. Cherri Bomb - Stark | Rating: 8/10
'Stark' is the outstanding debut from all female rock band, Cherri Bomb.The band name - not, claim the band, named for the Runaways' hit but for the book, 'Cherry Bomb', subtitled, 'The Ultimate Guide to becoming A Better Flirt, a Hotter Girlfriend and to Living Life Like A Rockstar'.That should all be a breeze for these girls. ....
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| 102. Cheap Trick - Rockford | Rating: 8/10
When you know that Rockford is Cheap Trick's home town, then the band's return to their roots is a message writ large all over this new release.
'Rockford' just resonates with kinetic energy and powerful tunes. Jack Douglas, Steve Albini and Linda (Concrete Blonde) Perry had a hand in the production, with Perry contributing....
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| 103. Cheap Trick - Silver | Rating: 8/10
Another Cheap Trick reissue from SPV, rereleased in the wake of the success of this year's studio release, 'Rockford'. And why not.
We expect too much from our heroes. Great album after great album (one a year please). Exciting and sonically sound live albums (these don't have to be so frequent, thanks).
Cheap Trick are one of my heroes.....
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| 104. Charlie - Kitchens Of Distinction | Rating: 8/10
Some eighties' bands reform and record, and you wonder why they bothered.Brit band Charlie are the latest ageing outfit to complete the journey on the long road back from semi legendary obscurity. There's a bit of poetic license going on of course, as 'Kitchens Of Distinction' is almost entirely the work of Mainman Terry Tho....
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| 105. Carmen Gray - Welcome To Grayland | Rating: 8/10
On Carmen Gray's second full album, 'Welcome To Grayland' the first five tracks are world class contemporary melodic rock.Until you get to track six you swear you're in album-of-the-year territory.It doesn't go pear shaped after that, far from it - the remaining material is still pretty damn ....
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| 106. Cannata - Mysterium Magnum | Rating: 8/10
Released on his own imprint, 'Mysterium Magnum' announces the return of legendary Arcangel man Jeff Cannata after a four year absence.
It's a powerful, thoughtful album, pulsing with slow motion hooks, peppered with majestic AOR moments and enjoying a frequent switch of emphasis to the acceptable face of progressive rock.....
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| 107. Brother Firetribe - Breakout | Rating: 8/10
This is a reissued, retitled version of BF's well received but naffly titled debut album 'False Metal' (2006).It is now more appropriately titled 'Breakout', and has been reissued by Spinefarm / Universal in the UK to capitalise on the momentum gained by the recent follow up album, 'Heart Full Of Fire'.The original....
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| 108. Bonfire - Branded | Rating: 8/10
'Branded' unfolds in a tantalisingly suspenseful way. Less turns out to be more on this slow-growing but powerful set of songs.The glory days are gone now, as they are for almost every melodic rock band who hit it big in the eighties, but class outfits like Bonfire have a hard core of fans for whom 'Branded' will re....
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| 109. Blue Tears - Dancin´ On The Backstreets | Rating: 8/10
In melodic rock circles, Blue Tears were immortalised by their one and, until recently only album, released back in 1990. A stunning debut, with three or four gems that may now sound dated, but continue vividly to evoke the era that defined melodic rock.
'Mad, Bad And Dangerous To Know', a more than full album of remastered....
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| 110. Black Country Communion - Black Country Communion | Rating: 8/10
Black Country Communion - Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, Derek Sherinian and Jason Bonham each have a lengthy pedigree that encompasses Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Dream Theater. These are four immense talents, with four immense egos. The trick was bringing in Kevin (Caveman) Shirley to shape and sharpen the supergroup's col....
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| 111. Beautiful Sin - The Unexpected | Rating: 8/10
This album has a long history. A four year gestation period that guaranteed the birth of a fully formed and fleshed out melodic rock/metal hybrid of gargantuan proportions.
Early reviews have not been particularly kind. Ignore them. This album has everything. Soaring melodies; compact choruses; urgent, driving keyboards; dynamic, rough hewn....
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| 112. Barefoot Servants - Barefoot Servants 2, Expanded Edition | Rating: 8/10
Several thousand light years after 1994's 'Barefoot Servants' came 'Barefoot Servants 2'. Proving that not only had they no sense of urgency, they had no imagination when it came to album titles.Clearly, they channelled all their energy and creativity into this studio recording. Actually, 'BS2' was release....
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| 113. Apocalyptica - 7th Symphony | Rating: 8/10
7th album from Finnish "cello metal" band, Apocalyptica.How many cellos does it take to make a heavy metal album?Well, 4 actually.Okay, you already know that : 4 cellos, drums, no guitars, no bass. Two points to make for the uninitiated:If you're thinking 4 cellos are an unlikely metal vehicle, then thin....
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| 114. Angeline - Confessions | Rating: 8/10
If you think the new Treat album's got a lot of immense choruses, then listen to 'Confessions'. And let's namecheck a few other bands just to set the mood here. Gun, circa "Gallus", Harem Scarem when they got Rubberised and 'Pull' era Winger are three more - this Swedish band's first full length studio album is just brimming over wi....
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| 115. Amplifier - Octopus | Rating: 8/10
Amplifier's third release - a double CD - is a grand experiment with songs, sounds and music, beginning with 'The Runner'. A slick assemblage of electronic sounds matched to the thump of running feet. Speeding up, slowing down, tiring, losing breathe, till eventually crossing the line to the thunderous acclaim of a 'Day In The Life' lik....
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| 116. Alkemyst - A Meeting In The Mist | Rating: 8/10
Alkemyst are a criminally underrated French Power Metal/Progrock band, often overlooked by print mags and webzines. On first release in 2003, 'Meeting In The Mist' sneaked in under the radar of most industry observers.Deservedly then, Metal Mind have reissued the album, with three bonus tracks - two live and a Radio Edit of standout....
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| 117. Alessi - Just Like That | Rating: 8/10
Destined to have seventies' worldwide hit single, 'Oh Lori' mentioned in any and every piece written about them, Alessi are back again with a slickly constructed slice of pop tinged AOR/Westcoast rock.
Ten million albums sold and still counting, the brothers Billy and Bobby show on 'Just Like That' - a triump....
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| 118. Air Raid - Air Raid | Rating: 8/10
And so, another forgotten AOR album is unearthed, dusted down, polished up, and dragged out into the light.
Blinking, glinting, stretching its muscles after 27 years suspended in aspic, 'Air Raid' proves to be a genuine find, a veritable nugget of solid gold AOR, containing some genuine touches of genius, and yes, the occasional flaw.
The ....
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| 119. A.C.T - Silence | Rating: 8/10
On their fourth album now, A.C.T. have blossomed into one of the most interesting prog/pop/rock/pomp bands on the European scene. Even that clumsy description seems inadequate. The music is indefinable, arguably unique and certainly satisfying.
You can hear Jellyfish, Queen, Valentine . . . eighties pomp percolated through seventies rock an....
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| 120. Y&T - Incorrect Species | Rating: 7.5/10
Fabulous 2 disc reissue, taking the band's 1995 release 'Musically Incorrect' and 1997 release 'Endangered Species' and pairing them up in one excellent package. Disc one, 'Musically Incorrect' polari....
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| 121. Whitecross - Nineteen Eighty Seven | Rating: 7.5/10
Now there was a band.At its core, one of the greatest rock/metal vocalists of all time in the incomparable Scott Wenzel, plus mighty metal axeman, Rex Carroll. They released a dozen or so albums, probably peaking with 'High Gear' in 1992, though 'Equili....
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| 122. Uriah Heep - The Definitive Spitfire Collection | Rating: 7.5/10
Here's an example of how a small, enterprising UK label can mine an artist's back catalogue, inventively and fruitfully. The most successful period in the enduring Uriah Heep's career may well have been over 30 years ago, but the three albums released in the 90s, 'Sea Of Light', 'Spellbinder Live' and 'Sonic ....
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| 123. Tokyo Blade - Thousand Men Strong | Rating: 7.5/10
Resurrecting NWOBHM from the dead is a neat trick.Recently reformed genre legends, Tokyo Blade have achieved just that with 'Thousand Men Strong' - the "real" third album - coming some 26 years after 'Night Of The Blade'.Whether the music's seismic riffs, complimentary axework and raw, primal power will have same impact o....
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| 124. The Poodles - Metal Will Stand Tall | Rating: 7.5/10
The Poodles took fourth place in Sweden's scramble to find a suitable entry for the recent Eurovision Song Contest. Hardly an auspicious beginning for this newly formed band, but when you consider that they were ridiculed by the press just for entering, the band's final placing demonstrates that the average Swedish TV viewer took an entirely d....
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| 125. Shooting Star - Circles | Rating: 7.5/10
There are still plenty of bands from the past clogging up the rock highway, searching for a route into the present.
A few of those bands are leaking oil and belching smoke, clearly making one last desperate effort before being shipped off to the knacker's yard.
Others seem to have been suspended in aspic all these years, and now scrub up s....
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| 126. Rock Sugar - Reimaginator | Rating: 7.5/10
The real surprise here is that it's never been done before.Like all great ideas, the premise is very simple, though the execution takes skill - the boring, unsexy qualities that no one likes to talk about, like professionalism and musicianship. Take a bunch of high profile pop / poprock hits from the eighties, and join them at the hip ....
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| 127. Robin George - Dangerous Music | Rating: 7.5/10
One of British melodic rock / AOR's unsung heroes, Robin George at last gets his criminally underrated debut, 'Dangerous Music' (1985) reissued. By Angel Air Records.The archetypal nearly man, George lost out to Viv Campbell on the Def Leppard gig, joined a reformed Lin Lizzy just prior to Lynott's untimely death and had the misfort....
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| 128. Reissue - Unstoppable | Rating: 7.5/10
Young Swedish band, Reissue belie their years with this seven track sampler, just bursting at the seams with red blooded old school rock.It's an exhilarating, self assured set of songs, full of roaring riffs and soaring choruses with an underlying Southern Rock groove.Ragged edged, but achingly beautiful 'Am I To Blame' climaxes....
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| 129. Prism - Small Change & Beat Street (Double CD set) | Rating: 7.5/10
If an alien landed and seemed curious about eighties' melodic rock, as he probably would, play him this. There can be few albums that encapsulate that sound so succinctly, so completely as 'Small Change' and 'Beat Street'.
This double CD set is great value. Credit to ATM Records for putting it together.
'<....
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| 130. Poets Of The Fall - Revolution Roulette | Rating: 7.5/10
Clearly now comfortable inside their own skin, with this, their third offering, 'Revolution Roulette', Poets Of The Fall have delivered an extremely personal and at times, truly magnificent piece of work. It's largely introspective. There are no grand gestures, no nods to the past, excep....
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| 131. Phenomena - Psychofantasy | Rating: 7.5/10
A trio of Phenomena albums was released in the years 1985 through 1991. All were the brainchild of Tom Galley, brother of Mel (Trapeze), and all were project albums featuring the good and the great in British hard rock eg Glenn Hughes, Scott Gorham, Max Bacon and John Wetton.
All three releases made waves but hardly made history. Yet, for so....
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| 132. Night Ranger - 7 Wishes | Rating: 7.5/10
Night Ranger's second album 'Midnight Madness' epitomised the rise of radio friendly rock in the early eighties, yielding up hit singles in 'Sister Christian' and 'You Can Still Rock In America'. And surprisingly, these are songs that took a position on morality and star spangled patriotism, s....
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| 133. Miss Crazy - Miss Crazy II | Rating: 7.5/10
Describing a sound as an amalgam of seventies glam rock, North American sleaze bands and eighties pop metal maybe doesn't sound too promising. But San Francisco's Miss Crazy are much more than the sum of these parts. When glam rock, teetering on its stacked heels, ran out of dreams and direction in the late seventies, it survived ....
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| 134. Miss Crazy - Miss Crazy | Rating: 7.5/10
We all read label PR blurbs with a huge pinch of salt handy, don't we? Metal Mayhem's claims for new "melodic hair metal" band Miss Crazy brackets them with Cinderella, AC/DC and Aerosmith. Yeah, right.
But, shock horror, this time the claim is pretty close to the mark. 'Miss Crazy' turns out to be a debut album of conside....
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| 135. Million Dollar Beggars - Million Dollar Beggars | Rating: 7.5/10
A cleaned up car crash between Hanoi Rocks and The Backyard Babies.A just about averted head on collision between the LA bands of the mid eighties. A sleazier version of Wigwam. A poppier version of The Poodles. Million Dollar Beggars are all of the above. A talented, energetic and highly melodic rock band ploughing their own ....
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| 136. Michael Bormann - Capture The Moment | Rating: 7.5/10
Michael Bormann is something of an enigma.He's a gifted songwriter and a talented producer. Unfortunately, his work with his primary mouthpiece, Jaded Heart, has always sounded blatantly derivative. Too blatant to be interpreted as tribute.Yes, I know the "everybody's influenced by someone" argument, I've used it myself, but you've got....
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| 137. M&R Rush - Keep On Rockin | Rating: 7.5/10
This is a huge improvement over 'Thrill Of The Chase'.
With this new release, unimaginatively titled 'Keep On Rockin', M&R Rush hit their stride impressively, combining the athletic grace of a long distance runner with the explosive energy of an Olympic sprinter.
There's a love of the melodic rock genre and ....
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| 138. Kingbaby - Whole Lotta Easy | Rating: 7.5/10
Once upon a time, Lance Bulen played guitar with melodic rock band, Baton Rouge. The legendary songwriter/producer, Jack Ponti, produced the band, and while he said great things of vocalist, Kelly Keeling, he has since dismissed Bulen's playing as "having as much soul as cardboard".
But what we didn't know is this : Bulen has one of the mos....
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| 139. Killing Joke - Absolute Dissent | Rating: 7.5/10
This double CD release from British rock metal legends, Killing Joke, blows in like a post punk, industrial rock whirlwind. Armed with 12 unsurprisingly tuneful, blistering slices of disaffection and rage, the band have just released their thirteenth album, 'Absolute Dissent'. The original line up - Jaz Coleman, Paul Fergus....
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| 140. Journey - Revelation | Rating: 7.5/10
Arguably, 'Revelation' is the sound of Journey trying to reinvent the wheel in the sky. As in "Perry broke it and we've been trying to fix it ever since".It's a full blown tilt at turning back time. Dog eared copies of the 'Raised On Radio' and 'Escape' songbooks have clearly been thumbed through vigorously. I will....
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| 141. Herman Frank - Loyal To None | Rating: 7.5/10
We all have our favourite albums. The recordings we welcome like old friends.For me, the Victory 'Best Of.', from a few years back, is firmly in that category. Not least because of Herman Frank's elegantly tailored, razor clawed axework. 'Loyal To None' is Frank's "solo" debut. Solo ....
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| 142. Heed - The Call | Rating: 7.5/10
The disaffected and disenfranchised always seem drawn to the cacophonic sound of Metallica and Megadeath. And if we're honest, either openly or secretly, we all have some kind of admiration for the attitude and aggression inherent in their brand of rock music.
Personally, I just couldn't get the lack of a decent melody. I can forgive a ban....
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| 143. Epitaph - Outside The Law | Rating: 7.5/10
Stop me if you've heard this one:It could be any year. 1974, USA: Band records killer third album. Tapes get lost. Truncated album gets released to massive critical and popular acclaim. Label declares itself bankrupt. Album goes down with the label. Band disbands for legal reasons.Another flickering flame extinguished (well, not qu....
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| 144. Elias Viljanen - E:Vil : Fire Hearted | Rating: 7.5/10
Do you remember the really good stuff on Joe Satriani's 'The Extremist'?No ideas above its station. No faux ethnic influences. No fret melting wankery. Just full on, white boy guitar rock with great melodies, ranging from the eloquently lyrical to the heartstoppingly visceral.Using that release as the benchmark, '<STRO....
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| 145. Elegy - Reissues: Primal Instinct ; Manifestation Of Fear; Principles Of Pain (Reissue) | Rating: 7.5/10
Three more skilfully remastered, limited edition, digipack reissues from Metal Mind Productions. 'Primal Instinct', 'Manifestation Of Fear' and 'Principles Of Pain'. Progressive power metal was n....
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| 146. Doc Holliday - Doc Holliday | Rating: 7.5/10
Doc Holliday were never quite as high profile as several other seventies' and eighties' Southern Rock bands, though their hard driving, guitar'n'moonshine fuelled sound was just as tasty, just as genuine and indeed, just as intoxicating.The selection of 'Colonel' Tom Allom (Judas Priest, Nantucket) to produce the band's self titled debut a....
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| 147. Dark Moor - Tarot | Rating: 7.5/10
Five albums in, Dark Moor's unique brand of symphonic rock has surely come of age.
'Tarot' is measured, melodic, mature. It matches naggingly familiar neo-classical references to hot, rollicking metal choruses and choirs with skill and no little aplomb.
Throughout, the band show a confident grasp of orchestral pace and po....
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| 148. Damage Control - Damage Control | Rating: 7.5/10
It's like the blues, but it's not the blues. It's like melodic rock, but it's not melodic rock etc etc.
The lineup tells you pretty well all you need to know.
Pete Way, Robin George, Chris Slade and Spike, the man with only one name.
A generation ago, white boy blues, a sound informed by rock, sounded real, authentic, honest.
Over time i....
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| 149. Brunorock - War Maniacs | Rating: 7.5/10
Ex Dark Sky man, Bruno Kraler, aka BrunoRock, has released a superb second studio album, unfortunately titled 'War Maniacs'. That alone will be enough to put most people off.They'll miss a treat. Shrewdly, Kraler has surrounded himself with tried and tested musicians / songwriters, and it pays off big time.Alessandro ....
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| 150. Arcangels - Living In A Dream | Rating: 7.5/10
This band's back story and that of the individual members could fill this review many times over. But you don't need me for that, just go online. The two most important facts you will learn are these : Stevie Ray Vaughn is the common denominator in the genesis of the band. And two, it's not blues, it's rock.Okay, Southern rock....
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| 151. Andreas Aleman - This Is Life | Rating: 7.5/10
Quality Westcoast rock material seldom adorns these pages.There have been a few exceptions - Adahl and Lava for example - and I'd hoped to add the JaR 'Scene 29' album to that short list.But I found Graydon's and Goodrum's effort to be a largely lifeless affair, high in technical expertise but low on passion and good tunes.<B s....
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| 152. Airbourne - Runnin Wild | Rating: 7.5/10
My God, this is the real deal.
The unbroken line that reaches back from Rose Tattoo and The Angels has caught up with present day rock'n'roll. In fact, new Oz band Airbourne make latter day AC/DC, architects of some of the greatest hard rock anthems of all time, sound like a spent force.
Produced by Bob Marlette, 'Runnin' Wild'</....
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| 153. Zero Nine - IX | Rating: 7/10
You can't keep a good band down. Then : In 1987, due to a distinct lack of universal acclaim and having achieved something less than global popularity, Finnish melodic rock band, Zero Nine folded their tent and limped off into the sunset. And that immediately after releasing the wonderful 'Intrigue' album.Older, wiser, ....
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| 154. Zebra - No Tellin Lies / 3 V (2 on 1) | Rating: 7/10
Some bands just don't get the breaks.
Such was the fate of New Orleans' band, Zebra, which featured the unique vocal and songwriting talents of guitarist, Randy Jackson, who went on to form China Rain, post Zebra.
Felix Hanneman on bass and Guy Gelso on drums rounded out the trio, all heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Rush an....
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| 155. Violent Divine - In Harm's Way | Rating: 7/10
Not to be confused with Vision Divine.This second album from Violent Divine,'In Harm's Way' is produced and mixed by Hammerfall guitarist, Pontus Norgren, ex of The Poodles, Talisman, Zan Clan, with connections to many other bands of note. The publicity of course focuses on the Hamme....
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| 156. Vinci - Vinci | Rating: 7/10
The now defunct Long Island Records released this debut album in 1995. The brainchild of Tom Blendinger - songs, guitars, production - it created a few ripples among diehard eighties' Luddites, but was overwhelmed by the tidal wave of grunge rock.There are occasions when a heavily accented vocalist can totally spoil a good song, a good....
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| 157. Wigwam - Live In Tokyo | Rating: 7/10
Over the din of a suitably noisy (and select) crowd, an excitable Tokyo MC introduces Norway's finest glamrock band, Weega. Er, Weega?
Ah, Wigwam, okay, gotcha.
But seriously, clearly and understandably cashing in on the band's fifteen minutes (yes, I know it could be longer, but why take the risk), VME Records have released this live rec....
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| 158. Whitesnake - Live....In The Shadow Of The Blues | Rating: 7/10
I'm not sure if the world is really interested in yet another live album from David Coverdale's Whitesnake. Loud sighs will probably greet the news that it's also a two disc set.
However, it did prove interesting to hear how his illustrious new band line-up dealt with the Whitesnake back catalogue. Reb Beach, Doug Aldrich, Tommy Aldridge, T....
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| 159. Wednesday 13 - Fang Bang | Rating: 7/10
If not a lovingly crafted homage to Alice Cooper, then at the very least, Wednesday 13's 'Fang Bang' is a slickly constructed album of mascara smeared glam rock, cleverly dirtied down to give it additional streed cred by mixing desk maestro, Bob Marlette.
Many European bands like Hardcore Superstar, Lovex and to an extent, ....
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| 160. Valentine - Androgenius | Rating: 7/10
Robbie Valentine's last handful of releases have, bar one, been Japan only affairs.Japanese rock fans clearly believe you can never have enough of a good thing.Europe has remained largely cold to Valentine's grandiose, highly derivative music - a variant of the sound of more famous bands like Queen and Sparks, with the bombast ramped u....
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| 161. Uriah Heep - Between Two Worlds | Rating: 7/10
This shotgun marriage of two previous Heep albums, released by enterprising German label, Membran Music, works surprisingly well.
'Between Two Worlds' takes Heep's 19th and 20th studio releases, 'Sea Of Light' (1995) and 'Sonic Origami' (1998), shuffles the tracks and deals them out onto two ....
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| 162. Trixie - Shelter | Rating: 7/10
The ubiquitous Ronnie Borchert is back with his band, Trixie, and a new album, 'Shelter'.
Fitting somewhere among past product from Def Leppard, Poison, Cinderella and EZN, 'Shelter's shrewdly pitched amalgam of sleaze metal and arena rock doesn't have an original stylistic bone in its body. But what it has....
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| 163. The Order - Metal Casino | Rating: 7/10
Despite the cheesy title, The Order have moved up a gear with their second album, 'Metal Casino'. The recording's self assured swagger and uncompromising melodic hard rock style, sound and content unequivocally place the band up there with Krokus, Victory and Shakra.
It's a killer blend of pumping rock anthems and surprisi....
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| 164. The Last Vegas - Whatever Gets You Off | Rating: 7/10
Opening and title track 'Whatever gets You Off' will vividly remind you of Cinderella's explosion onto the music scene with singles 'Shake Me' and 'Nobody's Fool'. A band whose greatness took the wrong direction for popular success. It's glam, it's rock, it's garage, its production sound....
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| 165. The 69 Eyes - Back In Blood | Rating: 7/10
This is the milestone album for The 69 Eyes. The one where they shucked off the black capes, the fake fangs and departed their Transylvania-of-the-mind for good.It was a sound that was energized by the shadowy, soul sucking twilight zone that surrounded the eighties' LA sleaze rock scene. But it became hogtied by its own format. <....
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| 166. The 69 Eyes - Angels | Rating: 7/10
Finland's 69 Eyes seem to have been hovering just outside the radar range of mainstream rock for years now. Unbelievably, this is the band's ninth studio album.
Maybe the lack of a genuinely unique identity has kept fame and recognition at bay (though it hasn't proved an obstacle for many less talented bands).
Over the years (the debut was....
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| 167. Tempestt - Bring ´Em On | Rating: 7/10
Few bands in the last few years have made me sit up and take notice like this band have.
Brazil's not especially known in the rest of the world as a breeding ground for rock bands of any persuasion. So for this progressive/hard rock band to sound so accomplished, so damn surefooted came as a huge, but very welcome surprise.
Though judging....
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| 168. T Clemente Band - Illusions | Rating: 7/10
When you hear some of the stuff on major labels that passes for rock, you despair.So many of the majors hitch themselves to rickety, no-talent bandwagons in a desperate attempt to connect with the next big thing. Yet, multi talented bands like the unglamourously titled T.Clemente Band have to release independently.Outstand....
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| 169. Sybilla - The Invisible Sandglass | Rating: 7/10
Sybilla's sound runs the gamut of rock and metal, fusing together apparently random elements from the melodic metal, AOR and progrock spectrums.
You would think this would result in a bizarre, self conscious mess. And yes, there are times when it seems to be hurtling toward a major derailment, but the strength of the songwriting and the confi....
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| 170. Sword - Metalized | Rating: 7/10
Canadian metal band, Sword's marriage of NWOBHM and anthemic metal translated well in the studio.Arguably, their sound was the acceptable face of heavy metal. No thrash, no extremes. Certainly, the band's 1986 debut album will ring true with any Rainbow or Black Sabbath fan, but equally, anyone who's simply a fan of well executed heavy roc....
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| 171. Susperia - Predominance / Vindication (Reissue) | Rating: 7/10
The Metal Mind label is nothing if not prolific, digging out stuff from the not too distant past that maybe didn't get a fair shake first time round. Then they give it the MM Reissue Treatment.First up, Susperia, with 'Predominance / Vindication'. In this case they've married the band's first and second releases together into on....
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| 172. Supernal Endgame - Touch The Sky - Volume 1 | Rating: 7/10
Let's be clear, 'Touch The Sky' is essentially a Christian praise album. If that's alien to your personal persuasion, then look away now. The simplistic (and occasionally grating) lyrics will just make matters worse.Purely from a progrock perspective, this is a disappointing approach. Why? Because it will close a lot of doors to....
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| 173. Sully Erna - Avalon | Rating: 7/10
Godsmack frontman and songwriter, Sully Erna has released his first solo album. 'Avalon' is a monumental piece of rock music, heavily influenced by the music of the East, Far and Middle. And yes, there's a strong Led Zeppelin feel to several of these tracks, as well as a clear bloodline leading back to his day job. Arguably....
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| 174. Stratus - Throwing Shapes | Rating: 7/10
Stratus, the band that was already a partially formed Praying Mantis, featured the Troy brothers, as you might expect, with a pre Uriah Heep Bernie Shaw on vocals, which you might not.Despite 1984's relatively primitive recording technology, 'Throwing Shapes' sounds remarkably clean and remarkabl....
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| 175. Steve Grimmett Band - Personal Crisis | Rating: 7/10
No fake objectivity here. I love Steve Grimmett's voice. There, I've said it. As the old cliché goes, he could sing the phonebook and I'd be happy.
No political correctness here. If Grimmett had looked anything like Coverdale he would be a household name instead of a cult figure.
No Lionsheart here either. Now known as the Steve Grimmett....
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| 176. Steevi Jaimz - My Private Hell | Rating: 7/10
Steevi Jaimz doesn't have one of rock's great voices, but then again neither does Ozzy Osbourne, and look what happened to him. What he can do though, is deliver a rock song with lusty, ragged edged bravado. The Tigertailz story and all the ugly details have been well documented. Suffice to say, Jaimz is back, this time with Swedi....
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| 177. Sparzanza - In Voodoo Veritas | Rating: 7/10
Hard, fast, loud, tuneful. When the last track fades you'll check your body for bruises.Not quite stoner rock, on 'In Voodoo Veritas', Sparzanza have lifted their huge, heavy rock mothership out of the sludge and the grime and made it fly. And on several handpicked tracks, it soars. ....
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| 178. Skillet - Comatose | Rating: 7/10
Ten years after their self titled debut, the two men, two women Christian pop rock band, Skillet, have released their seventh album, 'Comatose'.
The band's sound has mutated through various forms down the years, changing shape almost at will, morphing from the alt rock of their early career to the stadium sized contemporary....
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| 179. Silverlane - My Inner Demon | Rating: 7/10
Arguably, 'My Inner Demon' should come with a sticker, assuring us that "no risks were taken in the making of this power metal album".But in fairness, to brand it "lowest common denominator" Power Metal would be an injustice. 'My Inner Demon' will appea....
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| 180. Robin George - Crying Diamonds | Rating: 7/10
Essentially this is a reissue of Robin George's punnily titled 2001 album 'Rock Of Ageists', with a new name.
It's as good now as it was then. Rethink.it's better now than it was then, thanks to three additional tracks, one of which, 'Cocoon' was lifted from his 'Bluesongs' album.
In the ....
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| 181. Riot - Army Of One | Rating: 7/10
After several years' absence, Riot have returned with something rather special.
Following the John Sykes' example, 'Army Of One' is carefully designed and tailored to fit Japanese melodic hard rock tastes, but it has the distinct advantage of sounding pretty damn good in either hemisphere.
Mark Reale's busy, inventive a....
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| 182. Richard Page - Peculiar Life | Rating: 7/10
We all have favourite songs, don't we?Maybe from a favourite artist or maybe from a long lost band or album. Songs that have stayed with us, come what may. For me, one such song is 'Don't Hold Back Your Love', written by Richard Page (and others).I first heard it performed by Oz's Daryl Braithwaite on his 'Ri....
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| 183. Rhino Bucket - The Hardest Town | Rating: 7/10
Anyone familiar with the dry, shimmering, guitar driven heat of AC/DC and The Angels will be familiar with Rhino Bucket.An economic rock band, who can wring out the last few drops of sweat from a bone dry riff.It's a blueprint avidly devoured and digested by new kids on the block, like Koritni and Airbourne. But these old....
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| 184. REO Speedwagon - Find Your Own Way Home | Rating: 7/10
It's eleven years since the 'comeback' release, 'Building The Perfect Bridge', an album so anodyne, so anaemic that fans were rushing in with arena size defibrillators in the forlorn hope of resuscitating a once great stadium rock band.
Well out of Intensive Care now, REO Speedwagon have found that for seventies/eighties ba....
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| 185. Reckless Love - Cool Edition | Rating: 7/10
Reckless Love's debut last year caused something of a storm, picking up plaudits in the press and being acclaimed by fans of the genre. Building on the back of that initial success, the label has reissued the debut - the 'Cool Edition' - beefing it up with the addition of 5 bonus tracks.More on them in a moment. F....
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| 186. Raine Maida - The Hunters Lullaby | Rating: 7/10
Solo album from former Our Lady Peace frontman, Raine Maida.'The Hunters' Lullaby' is a singular departure from OLP's carefully sculpted, post grunge hard rock and was clearly a labour of love for this highly talented vocalist and songwriter.Out are the nasal, high pitched vocal mannerisms. O....
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| 187. Queensrÿche - American Soldier | Rating: 7/10
'American Soldier' chronicles US military involvement in 20th and 21st century conflicts.So, worthy addition to the cannon, or misguided concept album?Only you can judge. Credit to the band for taking on the challenge. Maybe they needed such a challenge to get the creative juices flowing again. <....
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| 188. Pride of Lions - Live In Belgium | Rating: 7/10
Do you like your live albums to be warts'n all, bum note live?
Or do you prefer them to be cleaned up via post gig cosmetic surgery - a nip here, a tuck there?
If it's the latter, you'll love 'Live In Belgium'. Jim Peterik has orchestrated some skilful vocal, instrumental and crowd noise overdubs in the studio, turning 'Live In B....
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| 189. Pendragon - Pure | Rating: 7/10
I've never subscribed to the "heard one progrock band and you've heard them all" sentiment, but there's a sizeable grain of truth rattling about in that aphorism.And it's a somewhat tired observation that if you've heard Pink Floyd, you've also heard Pendragon. Nevertheless, it was a relief and a delight when '<B style="mso-bi....
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| 190. Nine-T-Nine - Keep The Flame Alive | Rating: 7/10
There are only two types of music. Good and bad.But the only music that really touches me there is AOR.And I don't mean any old AOR, just the good stuff. Pure, undiluted, hardcore. The stuff you can mainline and stay high on all day.There are bands who've adulterated the mix, cutting it with a contemporary spin. And it works. There....
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| 191. Masterstroke - Apocalypse | Rating: 7/10
Be prepared to carry out some swift mental adjustments to accommodate vocalist/guitarist Niko Rauhala's guttural, vowel mangling howls and snarls. Vaguely recalling OTT fellow countryman, Lordi, he whispers, he chants, he hams it up (and down). Anything that's worth doing he overdoes. He lives each lyric like an actor zooming in and out of the....
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| 192. Magellan - Innocent God | Rating: 7/10
The sinister cover art reminds me of Derek Van Armin's 'Just Killing Time'. But that's another story.
Sounds like Trent Gardner's been listening to a lot of Procol Harum and Trevor Rabin's ultimate Yes release 'Talk'. And maybe Kansas.
This is undoubtedly Magellan's most accessible, most immediate (in relative terms) release, and is all the ....
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| 193. Mad Max - White Sands | Rating: 7/10
Here's a band who've really got their act together. A year after 'Nights In White Rock', we've got 'White Sands'. See a theme developing here?
Yes, the refreshingly Christian lyrical direction continues with this new release, but don't let that put you off. Sure, we'd all rather be hearing about sex, drugs an....
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| 194. Loverboy - Just Getting Started | Rating: 7/10
Fresh material and a brand new recording from Canadian legends. Fabulous.
Or is it?
How many recent reformations have proved to be a disappointment?
The bad news here is an absence of anything groundbreaking, but maybe that was too much to expect.
The good news is that the passage of time has done nothing to diminish the band's positio....
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| 195. Lordi - Deadache | Rating: 7/10
Undiluted by originality, Lordi's fourth release roars through the greasepaint with another well crafted collection of eminently tuneful cartoon metal.Winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Finland with a record number of points in 2006 seems to have been no credibility killer. We all know it's just for fun, right? Those who ....
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| 196. Lizzy Borden - Master Of Disguise | Rating: 7/10
This package was designed to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Lizzy Borden's 'Master Of Disguise' album and comes in an appropriately lavish package, bundled with two DVDs.
Borden is yet another of metal's unsung talents, often casually and carelessly listed under the "hair metal band, too close to Alice Cooper to be cool".....
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| 197. Little Caesar - Redemption | Rating: 7/10
Little Caesar released two criminally underrated albums in the early nineties.One produced by Bob Rock and the other by Howard Benson.And maybe that's why they failed to penetrate public consciousness.The band's soulful hard rock, caught in the slipstream of R'n'B, sounded over produced in the hands of these two famed studio techni....
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| 198. Lightseekers - Flying Free | Rating: 7/10
Gus Monsanto, voice of Timmo Tolki's new band, Revolution Renaissance and of the recent Takara album is also the voice of new French band, Lightseekers.Hired gun Monsanto is a passable vocalist with a strong, distinctive voice. He doesn't nail every note, and his shrill rasp in the higher registers will not be to everyone's taste.Putti....
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| 199. Last Autumn's Dream - Dreamcatcher | Rating: 7/10
One of the unwritten rules for melodic rock bands in Japan is that the opening track on your album should be an instrumental. It's not mandatory, but you'd be wise to comply.Not just any old instrumental you understand, but one with an epic sweep and ideally, a strong sense of the classical. We'll come back to this subject in a moment.....
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| 200. Kissin Dynamite - Steel Of Swabia | Rating: 7/10
'Steel Of Swabia' is the epitome of immediacy. It's brimful of easily assimilated choruses and is liberally peppered with heart stopping hooks.Few tracks exceed 4 minutes. An astute approach. KD's songs get in quick, make their not inconsiderable mark and get out again, leaving us wanting more. Every time.Any simil....
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| 201. Kingdom Come - Magnified | Rating: 7/10
Lenny Wolf's rock band brand name, Kingdom Come, is alive and extremely well, thank you. Over twenty years and 12 albums Wolf has developed into an astute, skilful producer.Ally to this his flair for writing an hypnotic tune, underscored by the occasional monster riff, and the result for hard rock fans is never less than satis....
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| 202. Killing Joke - In Excelsis (EP) | Rating: 7/10
Post punk industrialists, Killing Joke are one of those bands that (a) seem to have been around forever (32 years actually) and (b) everyone has heard of but few have heard. The original band - Jaz Coleman, Geordie Walker, Youth and Paul Ferguson recently reformed, and wrote and recorded an album of new material.'In Excelsis' is ....
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| 203. Ken's Dojo - Reincarnation | Rating: 7/10
"Solo" album from renowned European musician & producer, Ken Ingwersen, whose CV, primarily as guitarist includes Ken (Uriah Heep) Hensley, Evenrude, Rags, Speed, Jack In The Box and Street Legal.He's also well known for producing TNT's groundbreaking 'Transistor' album, a release that polarised opinion amongst fans. Since....
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| 204. Kaos Krew - Devour | Rating: 7/10
The only disappointment here is the abysmal band name. It's like some rap artists' dumb attempt to sound cool.
But the music? That's something else altogether.
This Finnish three piece is led by Ulf Skog - songwriter, guitarist, keyboard player, programmer, producer and mixer. Impressed? You should be, he does them all better than most.....
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| 205. Jettblack - Slip It On | Rating: 7/10
It's a somewhat tenuous connection, but, what connects JettBlack with the Italia 1990 World Cup Tournament?More later. Hard on the heels of JettBlack's accomplished second album, 'Get Your Hands Dirty', comes this cracking 5 track EP.Clearly designed to maintain the upward trajectory of the band's profile, it makes ....
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| 206. Hungry Heart - Ticket To Paradise | Rating: 7/10
For what it's worth, I thought the debut from Italian melodic rock band, Hungry Heart was uninspired and dismally dull. Too much wannabe and not enough honesty.It's all very well being obsessively eighties in your musical worldview, but all too often, slavish addiction translates into copycats and clichés. Consequently, I....
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| 207. House of Games - Rise And Shine | Rating: 7/10
Estonian band HOG's melodic rock can't help but pick up the odd contemporary rock mannerism, with sporadic low slung chords scattered among the stuttering riffs, and an occasionally organic production touch blurring the usually well defined edges.
But in the main, this is unarguably eighties in attitude and tone. Keyboards soar and sigh alt....
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| 208. Hollywood Undead - American Tragedy | Rating: 7/10
'American Tragedy' is the new album from rock rappers, Hollywood Undead, the follow up to the 2009 debut 'Swan Song'. The message is in the band name, right?Hollywood as vampire, sucking the life from all those unlucky enough to stray into its path.And these are the stories, unfolding in s....
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| 209. Helloween - Live In Sao Paulo | Rating: 7/10
Actually the full title of this double CD set is: 'Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy World Tour 2005/2006, Live On Three Continents / Live In Sao Paulo'. Try asking for that in your local megastore.
It tells the story though. The source album was welcomed by critics and fans alike, worldwide, and subsequently led to a 1....
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| 210. Heavy Pettin - Prodigal Sons | Rating: 7/10
The legendary Scottish melodic hard rock band, Heavy Pettin laid down a veritable plethora of tracks throughout their career that, for one reason or another (none good), got left on the cutting room floor.
The 13 tracks here are the result of a well judged (and exacting) sift through that material. There are some absolutely killer tracks here....
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| 211. Harlot - Room With A View (Re-issue) | Rating: 7/10
1989 was a significant year in the history of AOR, with Strangeways, Danger Danger, Giant and Diving For Pearls all delivering career defining albums. They weren't the only ones. The year is rich in melodic rock releases, perhaps moreso than any other year during the eighties.
Despite the fact that AOR had a lower profile in Europe at the ....
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| 212. Gamma Ray - Heading For Tomorrow / Sigh No More (2CD Set, Reissue) | Rating: 7/10
Gamma Ray's first and second albums from '90 and '91, now reissued as a double CD set, with 3 bonus tracks each.There was a real freshness to the debut, indicating that head honcho, Kai Hansen felt liberated by his departure from Helloween. He displays a real affection for his chosen subject and a renewed vigour in pursuing his songwriting....
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| 213. For My Pain - Fallen | Rating: 7/10
You like Nightwish, Charon, Reflexion and Eternal Tears of Sorrow.?You'd like a band made up of members from each?Well yes, of course you would. For My Pain is Juha (Reflexion) Kylmanen on vocals, Tuomas (Nightwish) Holopainen on keyboards, Lauri (Charon) Tuohimaa on guitar, Altti (ETofS)Vetelainen on bass, Olli-Pekka (ETo....
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| 214. Firenote - Firenote | Rating: 7/10
More Finnish metallers.And that's good news indeed.This time it's metal dressed up in extremely attractive AOR stylings. It never gets overly macho or aggressive. There's often a keyboard fill or frill to soften a metallised riff, or a sweetening hook to temper an ironclad verse.It's metal with a marshmallow centre. A....
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| 215. Fireflight - Unbreakable | Rating: 7/10
We like to pigeonhole music. It makes it easier to get our opinions across.But the problem is this: music just keeps on changing.A seismic shift comes along every ten years or so, but in between times the changes are, gradual, incremental. Some bands (or their producer) are tuned in to the subtleties of these changes.And so it is w....
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| 216. Fairyland - The Fall Of An Empire | Rating: 7/10
The unfortunately titled French band, Fairyland put a slightly different slant on power / symphonic metal.
It doesn't have the sharp cutting edge of their fellow countrymen, Manigance, nor the taut, tight execution of so many of the technically proficient bands currently inhabiting the genre.
But in among the high velocity bpms, there's a ....
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| 217. Entwine - Painstained | Rating: 7/10
Dark, sleekly metallised hard rock. Melodic metal with Gothic overtones.Call it what you will, one thing is clear, there's a lot more optimism in the Finnish metal psyche nowadays. Maybe it's the result of seeing the international success enjoyed by HIM and 69 Eyes, but, judging by Entwine's sixth studio album, the suffocating blanket ....
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| 218. Desmond Child And Rouge - Runners In The Night | Rating: 7/10
Another beautifully remastered and presented reissue from Rock Candy, wrapped up in an informative, entertaining essay from Dave Reynolds. Nobody reading this needs any introduction to Desmond Child."Wonderfully creative and a definite visionary", was how one of his three female partners in Rouge described him....
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| 219. Deacon Street - II | Rating: 7/10
I'm not normally a fan of these "multi-musician" projects. They seldom work, if only because they lack cohesion and continuity. A welcome exception is this second Deacon Street album, which sees the cast list expand and the names get bigger, giving all us reviewers the opportunity to pull out the usual clichés . . . "veritable Who's Who of AOR....
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| 220. David Surkamp - Dancing On The Edge Of A Teacup | Rating: 7/10
Solo album from the voice of Pavlov's Dog, David Surkamp.
On the magnificent 'Dancing On The Edge Of A Teacup', Surkamp is ably supported by longtime friend Billy Costello on drums and keys and by his wife Sara on bass.
As ever, Surkamp's music is unclassifiable. It soars through the pigeon holes, stopping momentarily at a select few, then....
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| 221. Cobra - First Strike | Rating: 7/10
More nearly men. Could've, should've etc etc.Of the band formed by Mandy (Krokus, Asia, Gotthard) Mayer in 1983, vocalist Jimi Jamison went on to make the bigtime via Survivor a year later, on the seminal 'Vital Signs', but 'First Strike', Cobra's....
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| 222. Chris Laney - Only Come Out At Night | Rating: 7/10
As with much of Laney's work as a producer, his second album is informed by the rock giants of the past, like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Def Leppard.And transparently, he's heavily influenced too by the flashy, trashy aesthetic of seventies' Glamrock. It takes skill and vision to bundle all this together into one coh....
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| 223. Casanova - Casanova (Re-release) | Rating: 7/10
If you can overlook Voss's vocal histrionics, you'll be impressed by this powerful and explosive debut from Casanova, originally released in 1991, presented as a deluxe reissue with 7 bonus tracks, by the enterprising Divebomb Records.Where some bands took time to grow into something great, Casanova were born with it. And tellingly, the ba....
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| 224. Carmen Gray - The Portrait Of Carmen Gray | Rating: 7/10
This is Carmen Gray, of whom great things are expected. Thus they are signed to a major label.
Imagine Led Zeppelin doing contemporary pop - good, hard edged tunes set to designer label riffola, underpinned by sweeping keyboard swells and synth strings.
The production sounds like it's had the gross domestic product of a small South American....
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| 225. Cannata - My Back Pages | Rating: 7/10
As a student of the popular music of the sixties and seventies, I know this:There was just as much dross being released in the name of pop and rock then as there is today.But I also know this: the good stuff was truly magnificent. Seminal, groundbreaking, classic. And more influential than any other era. Among the artists....
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| 226. Breed 77 - Un Encuentro | Rating: 7/10
In an unusual but imaginative (and brave) move, Rock's best kept secret, Breed 77 have released an album of the Spanish language versions of the "hits" from the first three albums. The result is 'Un Encuentro' (An Encounter).
This Gibraltarian, multi lingual band's unique and flamboyant fusion of rock, metal and flamenco mi....
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| 227. Breed 77 - En Mi Sangre (In My Blood) | Rating: 7/10
Breed 77 are natives of Gibraltar, one of the last surviving British territories. Their homeland isn't known as a hotbed of cutting edge hard rock, but this band's unique and flamboyant fusion of rock, metal and flamenco is crossing more and more international borders with each new album.
The band's previous two releases 'Breed 77'....
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| 228. Bonfire - The Rauber | Rating: 7/10
Challenged by celebrated German director, PW Polittz, to build an album of songs around Fredrich Schiller's avant garde play 'Die Rauber' (The Robber), Bonfire clearly rose to the occasion, sounding rejuvenated and, shock horror, even relevant once mo....
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| 229. Bigelf - Cheat The Gallows | Rating: 7/10
'Cheat The Gallows' is the work of a band whose music has moved past derivative and onto a more challenging vision. A recording with the musical sweep and grand ambition to deconstruct the rock'n'pop of the sixties and the seventies, then reconstruct these two decades of music with full on 21st century, state of the art studio sonics.<B....
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| 230. Babylon Bombs - Doin´ You Nasty´ | Rating: 7/10
Sometimes it's all about gaining leverage and momentum. Wisely, Sweden's Babylon Bombs have acted quickly to build on the positive critical reaction to last year's debut album 'Cracked, Bruised & Wide Open'. Putting aside the title's crude sexual innuendo, it was a decent debut.
Looking like they should be on Perris Records....
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| 231. Alex Falcone - Aphasia | Rating: 7/10
Alex Falcone shows that even with a receding hairline, you can be cool, you can be hip. You can record a cracking melodic rock album.With a little help from your friends.The credibility factor doesn't come much better than this - James (HOL) Christian, Doogie (Malmsteen/Rainbow) White and Kee (Europe) Marcello all make major contributi....
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| 232. AgentZ - Stick To Your Guns | Rating: 7/10
It's an unalterable law of physics: the longer an eighties' melodic rock album is unavailable on CD, the greater its legend (and the more the LP changes hands for on Ebay).
One such is Agentz' 1986 release 'Stick To Your Guns', now digitally remastered and released on CD for the first time, thanks to the endeavours of Jose ....
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| 233. Agents Of Mercy - The Fading Ghosts Of Twilight | Rating: 7/10
Agent Fox told me that it would take a while for this album to take hold.He failed to add that when it did, it would grab you with the grip of a drowning man.Such is the latent power of 'The Fading Ghosts of Twilight'. Yes, it's Roine (Flowerkings/ Kaipa/ Transatlantic) Stolt, plus Nad (Infaun) Sylvan plus other Pro....
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| 234. 8-IS - Frame Of Us | Rating: 7/10
This is unashamed, unadulterated Eighties' AOR.I'm generally not a big fan of copycat sounds unless something new is added. But occasionally, such is a band's burning, passionate love of the genre that the music they produce sounds fresh, new and invigorating. And so it is with the head scratchingly named 8-IS and their c....
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| 235. 7th Heaven - USA-UK | Rating: 7/10
A puzzlingly titled new album from perennial "why the hell haven't this band made it" band, 7th Heaven. The answer to the perennial question is easily answered of course - they're just not fashionable. There are few bands better at what they do - top quality eighties style AOR - but outside of an admittedly sizeable cot....
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| 236. Underwhelmed - Reveal | Rating: 6.5/10
When Underwhelmed run through a hall of mirrors, they glimpse distorted reflections of Nickelback, 7 Mary 3, 3 Doors Down or any other band with a number in their name, looking back at them.Thus their brand of contemporary rock, as demonstrated on 'Reveal' is shaped in that image. But the truth is this : the band's DNA is deep....
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| 237. Trapt - Only Through The Pain | Rating: 6.5/10
This is formula contemporary rock.Fortunately there's a difference between those bands, desperate for success, who flounder about trying vainly to put all the elements of the formula together, and those bands who bring an accomplished, slick, streamlined version to the table. Trapt's 3rd album is once again brimful ....
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| 238. Tobruk - Wild On The Run | Rating: 6.5/10
Another legendary name, another bunch of nearly men.
There were just too many ifs, too few lucky breaks and some bad decisions.
The old story. Talent is not enough.
Back in 1981, much gigging, a demo and an appearance on The Friday Rock Show, (a radio institution in the UK) led to Neat Records releasing Tobruk's first single, 'W....
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| 239. Tara's Secret - Vertigo | Rating: 6.5/10
I confess to having preconceived ideas about this release from Brit Rockband, Tara's Secret.The band name and the album title conspired to paint (in my head at least) a very AOR picture.The reality is something different.'Vertigo' is feisty, swaggering, melodic hard rock, taking its lead ....
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| 240. Sturm und Drang - Learning To Rock | Rating: 6.5/10
As you listen to 'Learning To Rock', you can almost hear Finnish youngsters Sturm Und Drang accelerating up the learning curve and launching into orbit around planet rock. Fast learners indeed.
This material is what you might expect from an established rock band, with shades and echoes of bands like The Scorpions and Stratov....
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| 241. Stingray - Revisited Remastered (Reissue) | Rating: 6.5/10
Okay, I admit I may have led a sheltered life. I hadn't heard of Stingray.One of the great things about rock music is this: If you keep looking, if you keep casting your net, you're bound to catch a real prize now and again. And so it is with Stingray. Another band who fit firmly into the "wrong place, wrong time" category.<BR....
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| 242. Saidian - Phoenix | Rating: 6.5/10
Your heart sinks when you hear the first strains of an instrumental 'Intro'. De rigeur for the Japanese market, of course. I appreciate it's a common signature, clearly spelling out the style of music to follow, but it's overdone to death now.
Fortunately, the 'Intro' to 'Phoenix' is mercifully short (and t....
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| 243. Rick Cua - Won't Fade Away | Rating: 6.5/10
I have an admission to make. Rick Cua's 'Times Ten' (1995) is one of my all time greats. I still play it often.
The legendary Cua was bassist with US rock band, The Outlaws. In the eighties he found God and from there on he followed his faith and a solo career.
'Won't Fade Away' is his 12th studio album, his first in....
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| 244. Reckless Love - Reckless Love | Rating: 6.5/10
Reckless Love was formed by ex Crash Diet vocalist, Ollie, and it shows.That said, the album starts out much poppier, probably closer to Wigwam with a definite influence from sixties' Chinn&Chapman bands like The Sweet, before riding off tangentially on a much heavier, harder beast.Then returning, suitably chaste, like they feel gu....
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| 245. Private Line - Evel Knievel Factor | Rating: 6.5/10
Radiating glam rock & pop metal, transmitting on the same wavelength as Wigwam and to some extent, The Poodles, Private Line are the latest NBTs to release a well received album.
There's so much energy emanating from 'Evel Knievel Factor', that you can feel this recording as much as you can hear it.
This is hi-energy, hig....
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| 246. Pretty Little Suicide - Pretty Little Suicide | Rating: 6.5/10
Be sensible now, start at track 1 and listen sequentially through to track 5.Seems obvious I know, but track 5, 'Pretty Little Suicide' is immense, and the visceral thrill it creates works better as a climactic close to this EP. As I write, Pretty Little Suicide are playing Rocklahoma, headlined by Motley Crue and Whitesnake. ....
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| 247. Pavlov´s Dog - Has Anyone Here Seen Siegfried? | Rating: 6.5/10
Pavlov's Dog's second release 'At The Sound Of The Bell' (1976) received a bit of a pawing from the critics, a major setback given the success of the debut 'Pampered Menial' (1975).
Third album 'Has Anyone Here seen Siegfried?' (1977) was dropped by the band's label.
It has now been reissue....
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| 248. Optimystical - Optimystical | Rating: 6.5/10
'Optimystical' is (Robin) Vagh's latest project. I remember him saying some months ago that he was just putting this new album "out there" to see what happens.Good to see then that it quickly found a home with Avenue Of Allies. Let's get a few preconceptions out the way first.It's not metal. It's not cutting edge. I....
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| 249. No Second Troy - Narcotic | Rating: 6.5/10
No doubt this will attract "What's this review doing on the RevelationZ website?" type comments. Suggesting 1. NST are not worthy or, 2. We should close our mind to anything not overtly metal.
Not that I need to justify its inclusion, but, not to put too fine a point on it... this is Melodic Rock for the here and now. Yes, you can hear the....
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| 250. Newman - Decade | Rating: 6.5/10
Five albums in ten years is a respectable release rate.In Steve Newman's case at least, it has ensured that every two years or so the result is a quality product.Now, every artist you speak to will always admit that they'd love to go back and change some aspect of their recorded material. Whether that's means altering an arrangement, t....
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| 251. Naughty Boys - R U Naughty Enough | Rating: 6.5/10
Terrible band name. Terrible album title.Neither reflect the band's impressively melodic hard rock style. You'll have seen the comparisons to White Lion. Accurate. Big, soaring guitars, an earthy, nasally vocalist and some cracking tunes. The band have been around for quite some time, without ever making the breakthrou....
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| 252. Moritz - Undivided | Rating: 6.5/10
Arguably, the shallow lyrical themes of the eighties, awash with sentimentality and simplistic storylines just aren't enough for the here and now. The world's changed dramatically in the last 25 years and is an entirely different place.But equally, there's an argument that says the recent resurgence in the popularity of AOR is a backlash a....
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| 253. Lightspeed - Waves | Rating: 6.5/10
Rod Chappell, bassman and one of three lead vocalists here is ex Zon. Now there's a name to conjure with, as the cliché goes. For Chappell at least, immortality amongst the prog/pomp cognoscenti is assured.
He's carrying on that hard won but firmly established pomp/ prog / AOR tradition in Canada's best kept secret, Lightspeed.
Saga, Pink....
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| 254. Krokus - Hellraiser | Rating: 6.5/10
You've got to be much more than an AC/DC ripoff to last 27 years in the rock music business.
Maybe Krokus's beefy rifferama is racing down the same highway to hell as our antipodean cousins, but the band can always be relied upon to cook up a feast of meaty, thick cut melodic hard rock.
Twin guitarists, Mandy Meier and Dominique Favez ens....
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| 255. Kottak - Rock & Roll Forever | Rating: 6.5/10
Yes, it is he. James Kottak, ex of Kingdom Come, Warrant and The Scorpions.With those bands he drummed, but here, in Dave Grohl like fashion, he plays guitar and sings. That is where the Grohl comparison ends, I hasten to add.And I should also make it clear that Kottak shares vocal and guitar duties with the highly talented Jimmy R....
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| 256. Kip Winger - From The Moon To The Sun | Rating: 6.5/10
New album from the always interesting Kip Winger.Tragedy moved into Winger's life some years back and it's clear that his eventual return to writing and performing was something of a cathartic process.Consequently, Winger the solo artist has moved on a million miles from the poprock debut of Winger the band. There's depth ....
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| 257. Kevin Lee - Flip The Switch | Rating: 6.5/10
On his third solo album now, Kevin Lee appears to have put his days with the Lonesome city Kings well behind him.
What he brings is the iconic status bestowed on him by Dave Reynolds, Kerrang, arbiter of all things good about melodic rock back in the eighties and nineties. But I was never really convinced by Lee. To me, his powerpop was alwa....
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| 258. Ken Hensley - Blood On The Highway | Rating: 6.5/10
Greek tragedy set to music, rock opera, call it what you will, Ken (Uriah Heep) Hensley's autobiographical long player tells the story of Uriah Heep and his post Heep solo work with songs full of energy, emotion, extreme highs and debilitating lows.
Hensley's dressed his songs in seventies' style arrangements and brought in guest vocalists Jo....
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| 259. Highway Chile - Keeper Of The Earth | Rating: 6.5/10
Edging their way through busy traffic on the road back from 80s obscurity come Dutch legends and wrinkly rockers, Highway Chile. That would be a Hendrix reference, not a major route through South America. It's interesting to note that when HC imploded in 1984, the components left intact were used to assemble the equally legendary ....
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| 260. Harlequin - Waking The Jester | Rating: 6.5/10
A "name" band will always attract attention.
Canadian band Harlequin may not have been world beaters, but they were contenders.
The band's first three studio albums, 'Victim Of A Song', 'Love Crimes' and 'One False Move', released 1979 through 1982 created enough waves among AOR aficionado....
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| 261. Downes/Hughes - Roads Of Destiny | Rating: 6.5/10
Downes and Hughes have always seemed an unlikely pairing.
Reflecting that notion, Membran Music have matched up Geoff Downes and The New Dance Orchestra's 'Collection' CD with the Downes/Hughes 'Worktapes' CD in this neat, 2 CD digipack offering, titled 'Roads Of Destiny'.
The 'C....
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| 262. Crash Karma - Crash Karma | Rating: 6.5/10
"Supergroup" is a tag normally attached to projects formed from members of high profile rock bands.It's arguable if I Mother Earth, Our Lady Peace and The Tea Party ever quite reached the level of fame to qualify.Still, this coming together of talent is a considerable force to be reckoned with.Crash Karma is Edwin Ghazal (IME), Mik....
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| 263. China - The Very Best Of | Rating: 6.5/10
A 13 track 'Very Best Of.', plus 3 new songs from a band who always had their eyes on the prize, but whose fifteen minutes eluded them. Considering they've had more vocalists than the Vienna Boys' Choir, this is a surprisingly cohesive collection of hard rock highlights from a band who, in 1992, dropped out of radar range, mi....
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| 264. Billy Klippert - Naked And The Simple Truth | Rating: 6.5/10
It always worries me when an album is named for one of the tracks featured. It suggests that this is the only really decent track on the album. And that's where it wants to direct our attention. More on that later.
Third place in Canadian Idol isn't exactly the most convincing, attention grabbing headline on your CV. Especially when you wa....
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| 265. Bert Heerink - Better Yet... | Rating: 6.5/10
This is an interesting and entertaining solo album from ex Vandenberg frontman, Bert Heerink, the vocalist who - by me, at least - will always be fondly remembered for the worldwide rock smash, 'Burning Heart', back in the eighties. In the intervening period, Heerink has forged a successful music career in his native countr....
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| 266. Ari Koivunen - Fuel For The Fire | Rating: 6.5/10
Want to hear the best AOR song you'll hear all year? Right next to one of the best melodic metal tracks you'll hear all year?
Want to hear songs written by Nino (Thunderstone) Laurenne (he also produced), Timo (Stratovarius) Tolkki, Tony (Sonata Arctica) Kakko and Marco (Nightwish/Tarot) Hietala, all on the same album?
The metal song: <str....
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| 267. Archrival - In The Face Of Danger (Reissue) | Rating: 6.5/10
This is better than you might expect.Once you negotiate your way past the dreadful, "jokey" front cover cartoon artwork, and get up close and personal with the band's very accessible hard rock, you'll find that 'In The Face Of Danger' is a rewarding listen. This is classy, no frills, melodic hard rock that occasionally ventures ....
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| 268. Wild Frontier - Bite The Bullet | Rating: 6/10
Four years after their last release, Wild Frontier are back with a brand new album 'Bite The Bullet'. Unfortunately this new release comes largely unencumbered by fresh melodies and in great part unfettered by new song ideas. Or at least that is your initial impression.
The band's sound isn't a million miles away from other....
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| 269. Wicked Sensation - Crystallised | Rating: 6/10
'Crystallised' is this band's third album in 9 years. Vocalist Robert Soeterboeck is back after a one album absence and Fernando (Victory) Garcia is out.The fast-becoming-a-legend, Dennis Ward plays bass and produces.It's on Metal Heaven, a label with an eye for a good rock band.All the signs are there.So is it any good?....
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| 270. Whiteflame - Yesterday's News | Rating: 6/10
Boasting a killer production, the Major Leiden studio team percolate new Finnish band, Whiteflame's heavy, eighties' flavoured hard rock debut 'Yesterday's News' through an assortment of contemporary filters, from techno to sleaze, from lo-fi to the highest of hi-fis. The album is so well constructed. Every nut and bolt is s....
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| 271. White - White | Rating: 6/10
Few drummers write songs. And not many of them do it well.
Ex Yes man, Alan White, is clearly one of those exceptions.
His band...Geoff Downes, Karl Haug, Steve Boyce, Kevin Currie...consists of unknowns and one household name. Downes compliments the band's sound beautifully, either with Hammond organ underpinning or twinkling keyboard fills....
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| 272. Uniklubi - Keha | Rating: 6/10
Singing in their native language, Uniklubi spare us the clumsy and often unintentionally hilarious lyrics foisted on us by some ambitious but misguided European bands. Instead, the passion and purpose in the voice of frontman, Jussi, is evident without us having to understand a word he's singing.
On this, their second full studio album, th....
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| 273. UFO - UFO 1 | Rating: 6/10
An inauspicious start from this enduring rock band, who're probably best remembered for a couple of notable live albums and their loony tunes relationship with on/off band member, guitarist Michael Schenker. 'UFO 1' debuted more than a generation ago, in 1971.Instrumental opener, 'Unidentified Flying O....
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| 274. TRW - Rivers Of Paradise | Rating: 6/10
Given that the members of TRW - Michael Thompson, John Robinson and Mark Williamson - are all ex MTB or Bridge Too Far, our reasonable expectation is an album of soft rockin' westcoast music.
A pleasant surprise then that many of these tracks have a dynamic, gutsy feel, with several songs constructed and performed within a robust guitar fra....
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| 275. Syrym - Syrym | Rating: 6/10
Syrym are a born again Babylon AD. A late eighties, early nineties band whose brand of fiery, bluesy MHR cut against the grain of the corporate rock which became prevalent during this period.The word "Syrym" is a perversion of the word "serum", as in blood serum.A twist in the blood, as it were. It suits this hard bodied, densely const....
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| 276. Sturm und Drang - Rock 'n' Roll Children | Rating: 6/10
Second album from child prodigies, Sturm Und Drang.The debut stood out, not just in terms of precocious musicianship and performance, but because of producer (and one time Per Gessle songwriting collaborator) Mats (MP) Persson's contributions to the material. This time round, teenage vocalist / guitarist / songwriter, Andre Linman has co-w....
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| 277. Spin - Stiletto | Rating: 6/10
A handful of these tracks - all plundered from buried treasure in long forgotten vaults (aren't they all) - appeared on the Double Dealer album (1999) on Escape Music.Why? Because they were written by vocalist David Steele and guitarist Kenny Geatros, who were members of both bands.These are the original recordings of those songs.&....
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| 278. Shineth - 11 Out Of 10 | Rating: 6/10
So Much Scandinavian AOR heavily references British pop. The Move, ELO, Badfinger and of course The Beatles are all influences. The same is true for so many US punk/pop/rock bands like Weezer and The Fountains Of Wayne.
Shineth is part of the new wave of Scandinavian AOR. All of the above can be heard in the band's songs, yet you wouldn't ....
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| 279. Satellite - Nostalgia | Rating: 6/10
Worshipping at the feet of Genesis and Marillion is all very well (though that amounts to a lot of feet). You have to bring something new and original to the table.Wojtek Szadowski, Satellite's mainman - composer, keyboards, drums, producer - fattens up his traditional progrock stylings with lashings of rock, and occasionally ladles in....
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| 280. Roadfever - Wheels On fire | Rating: 6/10
Roadfever's 'Wheels On Fire'(Suisa) is a very pleasant surprise. Given the band name, I surmised we had yet another bunch of Foghat wannabes on our hands.And have we? Well, yes. But for all the right reasons. Lots of road songs.<B style="mso-bid....
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| 281. Reflexion - Dead For The Past, Blind For Tomorrow | Rating: 6/10
This is Finnish goth metal men Reflexion's clumsily titled second album, a follow up to 2006's 'Out Of The Dark'. Such is the style of the music that the dark and downbeat tone remains. It's all artifice of course. This is essentially pop metal dressed from head to toe in black. A fashion stateme....
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| 282. Reflexion - Out Of The Dark | Rating: 6/10
Another new contemporary rock band tilting at fame. Finnish band Reflexion's sound isn't a million miles away from that of Carmen Gray and Poets Of The Fall. All three clearly influenced by the post grunge Top Forty success of many Northern American rock bands.
In this case, Reflexion's heavily produced and darkly textured music has a slick....
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| 283. Redeem - 999 | Rating: 6/10
A modern day arena rock band, who apparently - judging by opener, 'Lost' - explore no new territory and aim at no new targets.Redeem are content to ape current giants like the Killers, Coldplay and the Kings Of Leon. That said, the hushed, ominous vocals tones that announce the opening of the album's standout track, 'Promises....
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| 284. Push - Strange World | Rating: 6/10
Another eighties' AOR album rescued from oblivion.This time the hard work's been done by fledgling label, AOR Blvd, co-founded by one of the genre's misspelled legends, Kelv Hellrazer.I had the pleasure of working with Kelv on Hard RoxX magazine in the UK, in the late nineties, and there's not much this guy doesn't know about the music....
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| 285. Point One - Unlucky Stars | Rating: 6/10
Derivative it might be . . . you can hear NIN, G'n'R, Metallica, Radiohead, and a well formed punk ethic, all sliced 'n diced and spread around 'Unlucky Stars' like a serial killer's calling card. In between times, Point One flesh this album out with a densely constructed, sonically solid slab of highly melodic hard rock/ nu m....
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| 286. Pantommind - Lunasense | Rating: 6/10
If you're a fan of contemporary prog rock & metal, this is one to track down with single minded determination.Robert Amirian's high toned vocals - Jon Anderson meets James Labrie - and the energetic, tuneful vocal melodies are two of the best things about this second Pantommind release from mainman Peter Christ.'Lunasense' is not p....
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| 287. Newman - The Art Of Balance | Rating: 6/10
It's a curse on British AOR / melodic rock bands that they are only rated if they can be easily compared to one or more US giants of the past. Such as been the fate of Newman.But with 'The Art Of Balance', after 7 studio albums, you can clearly hear an artist who's found his groove, his niche, writing and delivering con....
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| 288. Morian - Sentinels Of The Sun | Rating: 6/10
Cool title. Cool album.
Finland is quickly becoming a byword for quality metal. Finnish band Morian are clearly willing and able participants in this fast forming tradition.
The advance single 'Away From The Sun' which we described on the site some weeks ago as "densely constructed, beautifully crafted, epic in scale and p....
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| 289. Michael Paige - It Is What It Was | Rating: 6/10
Revered bass guitarist, Michael Paige has played with such high profile names as Stevie Salas, Nile Rogers and Sass Jordan, but his tenure with melodic rock band , Crown Of Thorns will always loom largest on his CV.And of course, in that band, it was Jean Beauvoir who always dominated the headlines.But now, Paige has stepped forward, o....
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| 290. Maxxwell - All In | Rating: 6/10
Second album from Swiss band, Maxwell, another strong link in an unending chain of talented rock bands dating back to the seventies, bands that include Gotthard, Shakra and Krokus. A less gracious person might call them wannabes, but what 'All In' lacks in originality, it makes up for in passion and strutting, swaggering hard ....
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| 291. Mary´s Creek - Some Kind Of Hate | Rating: 6/10
A promising debut from Sweden's Mary's Creek, who desperately want to be Kings X, but are perfectly happy to stir more straightforward melodic rock-isms into the mix.
Clearly influenced as much by hard rock's illustrious past - there are faint echoes of Deep Purple and Whitesnake here - as by contemporary rock's low slung stylings, Mary's Cre....
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| 292. Manigance - L´Ombre Et La Lumiere | Rating: 6/10
Nowadays, the Power Metal terrain is well mapped. Discovering new territory is becoming more and more difficult.
Manigance did exactly that with their 2002 album 'Ange Ou Demon', but arguably, 2004's 'D'un Autre Sang' saw the band conceding ground to some of the new kids on the block.
Thankfully, guitar....
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| 293. Lovex - Pretend Or Surrender | Rating: 6/10
Designer Gothic poprock from talented Finnish band Lovex.You can't help but feel this album was the result of purely commercial decisions.That said, it's been assembled with flair, imagination and production values that could settle third world debt. On the occasions when it's ordinary, it's truly ordinary. But when it's good, it s....
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| 294. Lordi - The Arockalypse | Rating: 6/10
Eurovision glory - a blessing or a curse? Time alone will tell. What is clear is this: One, it will lead directly to the sale of a truckload of albums for Lordi, and two, God help us, it'll lead to a million imitators.
That song, 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' is taken from 'The Arockalypse', the band's latest r....
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| 295. Labyrinth - 6 Days To Nowhere | Rating: 6/10
Labyrinth's sound has unquestionably matured over these last few years.
The overreach evident on previous albums has been replaced by a musical ambition that's well within their grasp. No stress, no strain, no cracks (well, only a couple). A band firmly in control, confident, making sure-footed strides.
Hurtling headlong into a song, one ste....
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| 296. Kjetilby - Unrequited Love | Rating: 6/10
Shock horror. Norwegian engineering Manager records quality AOR/melodic rock album. Recorded with.wait for this lineup: Morty (TNT) Black on bass; Steinar (Stage Dolls) Krokstad on drums; Trond Hustad, sometime additional player with The Stage Dolls on Keyboards and Blonde On Blonde's Bente Smaavik on backing vocals.  ....
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| 297. John Parr - Man In Motion | Rating: 6/10
In the mid eighties, Brit John Parr's star rose with dizzying speed in the USA.
He wrote and performed with Tina Turner, Bryan Adams, The Beach Boys and Blue Oyster Cult.
He toured with Toto, produced with Mutt Lange, wrote with David Foster. Fame was very much the name of the game.
It culminated in worldwide hit, 'St.Elmo's Fire'</....
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| 298. Jesse Damon - Rebel Within | Rating: 6/10
Once again it's good to see a rock artist cruising down the busy highway that leads back from the eighties, almost casually showing that there's still plenty of energy, power and songwriting ideas under the hood.
Ex Silent Rage man, Jesse Damon, has just released his fourth solo album and like his debut, this one is produced and co-written by....
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| 299. Impulsia - Expressions | Rating: 6/10
Something of a supergroup formed by Swede, Uno Sjostrum.Ex Candlemas, Johan Langquist on vocals and keyboards.Marcus (Royal Hunt) Jidell on guitars.The late Marcus (Talisman) Jacob, bass and Tomas (GKR/Electric Boys) Broman, drums, with guests, Robin Beck, James Christian, Pandora, Pontus Norgren (who also does a fabulous engineeri....
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| 300. House of Mirrors - Desolation | Rating: 6/10
House Of Mirrors' debut album 'Nightflight To Paradise' was a satisfying slice of eighties' styled commercial melodic rock.
'Desolation', the follow up, is a much harder and heavier affair, frequently crossing the line into metal territory. At least it is for the first three tracks. As with any house of m....
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| 301. Honeymoon Suite - Clifton Hill | Rating: 6/10
After a million or so plays on my MP3 player (okay, slight exaggeration.but only slight) of Honeymoon Suite's recent double CD Best Of, I was convinced the band's glory days were behind them. I didn't really expect 'Clifton Hill' to measure up.Well, it ....
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| 302. HEAT - Freedom Rock | Rating: 6/10
Maybe because the level of expectation is unfeasibly (and unfairly) high, 'Freedom Rock' comes as something of a disappointment.If this had been the debut, HEAT would not have attracted the same attention.This follow up suffers from second album syndrome. Not enough truly strong songs and no killer cuts. Same old story, a lifeti....
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| 303. Hansel - Never say Die | Rating: 6/10
On the back of last year's 4 track EP, 'Mission To Rock' Oz band Hansel have now released their first full length studio album, titled 'Never Say Die', which suggests they've had cause to take a much more defensive position.The EP's tight, hard edged, in-your-face glamrock was a great start for the band, getting them noticed,....
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| 304. George Lynch's Souls Of We - Let The Truth Be Known | Rating: 6/10
Attention spans being what they are today (still with me?), a 14 track album risks losing the listener well before its closing moments.A neat, concise, conforming 11 track, 45 minute album is about all can handle nowadays. Still, I'd be hard pushed to select the best 11 on 'Let The Truth Be Known'. This is the....
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| 305. George Lynch - Scorpion Tales | Rating: 6/10
This is an unusual slant on the tribute album.Guitarist extraordinaire, George Lynch, ex of Dokken and Lynch Mob has recorded 12 of the Scorpions' best known / loved tracks, with him playing all guitar parts and with a variety of vocalists at the mike. Kelly (Hurricane/Foreigner) Hansen overdoes opening track, 'Rock You Lik....
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| 306. Gary Wright - Connected | Rating: 6/10
Light years on from the seminal 'The Dream Weaver', ex Spooky Tooth legend, Gary Wright has recorded and released another sweet slice of smooth, funky, melodicentric rock. No reason or desire to disguise the synths and the programming, yet somehow they don't sound dated here, largely because of Wright's arrangement a....
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| 307. Gary Schutt - Contingency Plan | Rating: 6/10
Jef Scott Soto cohort Schutt has been releasing quality solo material for some time now. We reviewed his 'Loss 4 Words' release back in 2008.But this new recording left me dazed and confused.Surprisingly, it's all vocal tracks, whereas 'L4W' was basically an instrumental album, and a classy affair it w....
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| 308. Gary Hoey - Utopia | Rating: 6/10
Hoey's vocalising was uniformly well received on his last release, 'American Made' (2006), so he's upped the ante on his new album, 'Utopia', with the majority of tracks utilising Hoey's husky voice. I first came across Hoey in the melodic rock band, Heavy Bones. Their debut, along with Tall Stories' debut, were my m....
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| 309. Faithealer - Welcome To The Edge Of The World | Rating: 6/10
Faithealer's mainmen are Ivan (Balance of Power/Pride) Gunn on keyboards and Jason (SIN) Marks on vocals. Several more ex Pride men round out the band. 25 years ago this would have been a monster release.But this is 2011. And while it's true that AOR and Melodic Rock have continued to flourish in downsized form, below the ....
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| 310. Elegy - Lost | Rating: 6/10
This is one of a number of remastered reissues on Poland's prolific, enterprising rock and metal label, Metal Mind Productions. The opening and title track is an outstanding composition.But it's only enjoyable up to the point that Hovinga's shrill, grating vocal performance intrudes. This is not helped by a clumsy mix that mak....
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| 311. Dream Police - Dream Police (Reissue) | Rating: 6/10
Trond Holter is living proof that you can't keep a good guitarist down. Having worked his passage with Evenrude, Return and Dream Police, he's now finding success (as Teeny) with Glamrock sensations, Wigwam. That success has generated interest in his previous life.Consequently, the 'Dream Police' album that first sa....
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| 312. Dragonland - Astronomy | Rating: 6/10
There are so many symphonic metal bands with their noses pressed up against the glittering shop window of fame. Few will be allowed entry. Based on their first three albums, Dragonland (not to be confused with any other Dragon prefixed band) seem caught in the doorway, lacking that final push to get inside.
At first, their fourth album '<stro....
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| 313. Downhere - Wide Eyed And Mystified | Rating: 6/10
Canadian Christian poprock band Downhere deserve to be heard irrespective of your standpoint on religion in music.
'Wide Eyed And Mystified', an encapsulation of their own Christian perspective after taking some time away for reflection, is the band's third and clearly strongest album to date.
The band's musical palette....
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| 314. Dominici - O3 A Trilogy Part 2 | Rating: 6/10
Dominici's music could be broadly described as progrock with long, lucid melodic rock moments. And is all the better for venturing outside the restrictive confines of contemporary progressive rock (which is ironic, considering how liberal and liberating progrock was once viewed as being).
Album opener 'Monster' is a real a....
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| 315. Dark Sky - Empty Faces | Rating: 6/10
In the course of four albums, Dark Sky's music has moved progressively from well written, well executed melodic rock to a harder and heavier variant, strongly influenced by producer Markus (Vandenplas) Teske and his first love, power metal. Consequently, on 'Empty Faces' the band's trademark melodic flair has to put up much more o....
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| 316. Crystal Ball - Virtual Empire (Reissue) | Rating: 6/10
'Virtual Empire', Crystal Ball's third album, originally released on Nuclear Blast in 2002, has been carefully remastered and reissued in numbered gold discs by those Polish metal maniacs, MetalMind Productions. This is one of those albums that you have to inhabit for a while before you....
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| 317. Crooked X - Crooked X | Rating: 6/10
Unfeasibly young, unfeasibly talented. Unfeasibly derivative.Wunderkinds Crooked X prove that if you're good enough, you're old enough. Nurtured and produced by the legendary Spencer Proffer, who's run his own Media / PR company for many years with business partner, Doc McGhee, Crooked X the band and Crooked X the album are ma....
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| 318. Chris Thompson - Backtrack 1980-1994 | Rating: 6/10
Chris Thompson's career could fill this review. But you can get that on the 'net.Briefly, to provide some perspective for those rock fans who lead a sheltered life, Thompson was the voice of Manfred Mann's Earthband, back in the seventies, enjoying worldwide hits with 'Davy's On The Road Again' and 'Blinded By The Light'.....
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| 319. CC Rock - EP | Rating: 6/10
More pop than rock, Patrick (T'Bell) Tibell's latest project, CC Rock is an interesting mix of eighties' AOR and commercial pop.
There are a lot of echoes resonating here, from modern day Casanova to eighties' pop duo, Boy Meets Girl, with riffs lifted from bands as varied as The Mission and Van Halen.
Producer, Tibell (who also provided vo....
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| 320. Brother Firetribe - Live At The Apollo | Rating: 6/10
Recorded on the 'Heart Full Of Fire' tour in April 2009, 'Live At The Apollo' combines the tracks from that album plus picks from the debut, 'False Metal/ Breakout'. Programming, bass and drums dominate, with the guitars a bit far down in the mix. Considering it's a relatively small venue though (the Apollo Cl....
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| 321. Bronz - Carried By The Storm | Rating: 6/10
Carried by the storm indeed.After drifting aimlessly for the last 25 years, Bronz's unfinished and therefore unreleased second album has been reconstructed from the original master tapes.And voila, yet another 'long lost AOR masterpiece' is finally exposed to public scrutiny. In all too familiar story (stop me if you've he....
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| 322. Bonfire - Double X | Rating: 6/10
I may have been in a minority of one, but I thought 'Free' was one of Bonfire's better albums in recent years.
It acknowledged the band's illustrious past while immersing several toes in contemporary musical waters. In turn, that pushed the band into developing their songs that bit more and trying out new ideas. Some worke....
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| 323. Beaucoup - Then And Now | Rating: 6/10
Now there was a band.Born in Cleveland in the early eighties, Beaucoup's fate was a disappointingly familiar litany of label turmoil, management changes and ill judged decisions. Essentially a retrospective, 'Then & Now' includes 5 tracks from the band's debut album <B style="mso....
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| 324. Assassin - Assassin | Rating: 6/10
I just love the fact that eighties' melodic rock gems continue to be unearthed.Ok, most are rough diamonds, in need of studio polish, but many of them sparkle and shine just the same.One such band was San Diego's Assassin, founded by Guitar Trader workmates, Thom Beebe and Vinnie Cavarra. They lasted 2 short years, 1983-85, implodi....
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| 325. Amoral - Show Your Colours | Rating: 6/10
One of an increasing number of bands known individually and collectively as "Finnish Metallers". As in "Finnish metallers, Amoral..." Clearly, Finland is fertile ground for "Metallers". If only they all sounded as good as Amoral. Signing on with Amoral has taken new vocalist, Ari Koivunen another long step away from reality sh....
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| 326. 8084 - The Last Great Train | Rating: 6/10
Eight Oh Eight Four's debut album was produced back in 1987 by Hirsh (New England) Gardner, whose burgeoning reputation as a producer led to him being the first choice call for many up and coming bands on the USA's North Eastern seaboard around that time. Three albums later the band have the confidence and the nous to produce themselves. That ....
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| 327. Shining Line - Shining Line | Rating: 5.5/10
Armed with a determination to leave no melodic rock cliché left unturned, Pierpaolo and Amos Monti - the musicians behind this project - clearly headed into the studio brandishing a dog eared copy of the Bon Jovi songbook, obviously convinced they could come up with something original.The only surprise then is that it turned out as good as....
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| 328. Scorpions - Humanity - Hour 1 | Rating: 5.5/10
You can see what Producers/ co-writers Desmond Child and James Michael were aiming for right from the opening track.
A 'Face The Heat' for the post grunge generation.
Unfortunately neither have Bruce Fairbairn's touch or feel for the organics of producing.
Great tunes, great sonics and great performances, especially from....
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| 329. Poets Of The Fall - Carnival Of Rust | Rating: 5.5/10
Heavily influenced by contemporary US pop and rock (and huge in Finland), the Poets of The Fall have released their follow up to 2005's patchy 'Signs Of Life'.
'Carnival Of Rust' sees the band accelerating up a steep learning curve.
Sometimes you wish there was more plot and more content. Nothing is obviously elaborate. Songs spin around sim....
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| 330. Marty Friedman - Exhibit A, Live In Europe | Rating: 5.5/10
One of the things I like most about guitar instrumental albums is the track titles.Clearly, these lyrical expressions of the music contained therein need to be sufficiently eloquent to convey the writer's thoughts, mood and general emotional state when he did the writing. Or at least, that's the objective. Here we have 'Str....
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| 331. Mark Sweeney - Slow Food | Rating: 5.5/10
Interesting, a solo album from Crystal Ball frontman, Mark Sweeney.
Though if you read the sleeve notes you'd easily believe that the ubiquitous Michael Bormann deserves all the credit. Bormann produces, writes and plays most of the instruments, but surprisingly, that's all totally transparent.
No sub Bon Jovi stadium rock here. The album s....
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| 332. Lunatica - Edge Of Infinity | Rating: 5.5/10
For two albums now, Lunatica have been firmly entrenched in the symphonic rock sub genre that includes Nightwish, Edenbridge and a small number of lower profile European bands.
Accordingly, 'Edge Of Infinity' is clearly an attempt to widen the band's appeal and grab some of the market captured by Evanescence (14 million a....
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| 333. Linehouse - Take One | Rating: 5.5/10
Sweden's obsession with AOR has given birth to yet another iteration of the genre with 'Take One'.Linehouse are Niklas Dernebo on vocals and Jonas Ohlund on everything else . . . guitars, keyboards etc etc.A quick bit of history first. On the strength of a 3 track demo, Bjorn (Baltimoore) Lodin took a hand in the production of this....
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| 334. Fair Warning - Brothers Keeper | Rating: 5.5/10
'Brothers Keeper' follows the formula established on 'Go' & 'Four'. It's a formula that lacks the chemistry created on the band's first two albums, 'Fair Warning' and 'Rainmaker'.
Admittedly, 'Go' and 'Four' were chock full....
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| 335. Brett Walker - Spirit Junky | Rating: 5.5/10
Walker's is an enduring name in the melodic rock world.
His wonderful 'Waiting For Love', co-written with Jeff Paris for Alias has made him practically immortal.
Unfortunately his own releases have been thin on the ground over the years, limiting his fame as a recording artists to modest proportions.
Yet, Walker has prove....
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| 336. B-Joe - Ready To Ride | Rating: 5.5/10
Another of the small number of bands who adorned the Olafssongs' label was B-Joe.
'Ready To Ride' was the band's second album, released in 1993.
The band name is something of a giveaway, as their music is clearly modelled on the early period, faux Western rock of New Jersey's finest.
Doesn't make them bad people of course. ....
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| 337. Slamer - Nowhere Land | Rating: 5/10
Even the most casual of melodic rock fan would be impressed to learn that the main constituents of Slamer are : Mike (City Boy/Streets/Steelhouse Lane) Slamer; Terry (Strangeways/The Sign) Brock and Billy (Kansas/The Sign) Greer.
But despite the fact that 'Nowhere Land' is the recipient of almost universal critical acclaim ....
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| 338. Sinner - Mask Of Sanity | Rating: 5/10
Sinner's new album 'Mask Of Sanity' is a shade heavier and considerably more melodic than 2003's ungrammatically titled 'There Will Be Execution'. But the talk of the band "going back to their roots" is clearly exaggerated.
Unless of course that claim translates to ripping off Thin Lizzy bigtime. In that cas....
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| 339. Shortino - Chasing My Dream | Rating: 5/10
I can understand. In the absence of any quality Coverdale or Whitesnake product recently, somebody had to fill the void.Paul Shortino, ex of Rough Cutt and Quiet Riot has one of the great rock voices. His 'Back On Track' album with JK Northrup is a criminally underrated (and largely overlooked) h....
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| 340. Long distance Calling - Satellite Bay | Rating: 5/10
An (almost) all instrumental affair from this cosmopolitan neo-prog rock band.
With 'Satellite Bay' it's all about the groove. Tracks like 'Fire In The Mountain' and 'Jungfernflug' (me neither) are filled with colourful, ambient swirls of guitars, bass heavy loops and frequent percussive punc....
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| 341. Kottak - Attack | Rating: 5/10
On this, the third Kottak album, James (Kingdom Come/Scorpions) Kottak is again joined by renowned producer/guitarist, Tommy Henriksen (now back in Alice Cooper's band, by the way). Kottak the band - rounded out by Price Vernon, Johnny Lucas and Francis Ruiz on bass, rhythm guitar and drums respectively - once again fits itself sq....
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| 342. Kelly Keagy - I´m Alive | Rating: 5/10
Five years after the rather good Time Passes, the solo Kelly Keagy is back with a new album, I'm Alive.
"Solo" doesn't mean solo of course, it means Keagy has Jim Peterik and Reb Beach around him, with guest appearances from Tommy Denander, Michael Lardie, and Bruce Gaitsch among others, ra....
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| 343. John Waite - Downtown Journey Of A Heart | Rating: 5/10
What's that sound? Dead horses being flogged? Or maybe it's barrels being scraped?
If that's your initial reaction to John Waite's "new" release, 'Downtown', it's understandable.
Almost bereft of new material, Waite seems to be turning the "re-imagining" of his back catalogue into an art form.
Only two new songs on 'Downtown</str....
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| 344. Frozen Rain - Frozen Rain | Rating: 5/10
There can be few AOR fans who are unaware of Kurt Vereeke's labour of love.It seems like he's been writing and recording the 'Frozen Rain' album since records began.Credit to the guy for living his dream.and for pulling in names like Tommy Denander and Daniel Flores in the process. For a blow by blow history, check ....
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| 345. Frederiksen/Denander - Baptism By Fire | Rating: 5/10
Shouldn't that be 'Baptism Of Fire'?
Whatever, the band name's a bit of a giveaway here. Yes, it's Fergie Frederiksen, who will forever be known by the suffix, "ex Toto", and the ubiquitous Tommy Denander, clearly going for some kind of world record in album appearances.
As you might expect, there are a few high profile gues....
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| 346. American Angel - Vanity | Rating: 5/10
Another band clogging up the highway from the past, queuing at the off ramp marked 'comeback'.
Only Rocco Fury's left at the wheel. The remaining passengers from the original band were jettisoned many miles ago.
Okay, enough of the dodgy metaphors.
At times 'Vanity' sounds just too generic to qualify as an American An....
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| 347. Altaria - The Fallen Empire | Rating: 5/10
Young band, mature sound, ridiculous lyrics, stunning production.
These impressions are quickly and emphatically underlined as you move through the first four tracks. Then, like a thief in the night, an unwelcome but unavoidable sense of sameness creeps in and steals away that flawed but colourful bloom. More in a moment.
This is Finnis....
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| 348. Saga - The Human Condition | Rating: 4/10
To say that Michael Sadler's departure and Rob Moratti's arrival add up to a significant change for Saga could be construed as simply stating the obvious.But it's more than that.More than any other member, the vocalist defines the band's sound. He makes it identifiable. His voice is the hook on which recognition of the band is hung.<BR....
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| 349. Heartlyne - No Retreat No Surrender (Reissue) | Rating: 4/10
This earlier, AOR styled iteration of Soul Doctor recorded 'No Retreat, No Surrender' in 1987. It was never released.As in Soul Doctor, the central core of the band was vocalist, Tommy Heart and guitarman, Chris Lyne, thus the band name. So, when the public demand to release the material began to....
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| 350. Hartless - Full Circle | Rating: 4/10
Artist and musician, Greg Hart was the architect of eighties' AOR band, Moritz's finest forty minutes, now cast in CD for the first time (see review elsewhere). Recognition for Hart as a songwriter came when Geoff Downes invited him to write for Asia's 'Aqua' album. As a result he's since written collaboratively with such luminari....
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| 351. Frontline - Circles | Rating: 4/10
After a run of decent albums, Frontline have lost their way. They've ended up in that Purgatory where bands responsible for underwritten, overproduced albums go to serve their penance.
The underwriting is on the wall from the off.
Opener 'No One' is a desperate attempt to work up the most anorexic of tunes into something....
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| 352. Biloxi - Biloxi III - In The Wake Of The Storm | Rating: 4/10
Tragically, mainman Clyde Holly died during the recording of Biloxi's third album, an event that would have led to most bands throwing in the towel.But as is so often the case, circumstances dictated events. Many coastal towns in the USA's southern states had just been laid was....
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Daily Spotlight
Cage - Science of Annihilation
 American Power Metal Kings... So the Science of Annihilation cover states and I am not one to argue, in fact I am more than i....
Read full review
Retro Reviews
(Steen)
Overkill - Horrorscope
 Overkill's Horrorscope was one of my first introductions to thrash metal back in 1991. The others were Exodus' Impact is Imminent, Slayer's Decade of Aggression and Forbidden's Twisted into Form. It w....
Read full review
(Steen)
Forbidden - Twisted into form
 This is one of my all-time favorite Thrash Metal albums. It was the first Forbidden album I heard and it just blew me away many years ago. Today it is still a great example of technicality, tightness,....
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