THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Day: January 8, 2025

RICHIE SAMBORA – Stranger In This Town

January 8, 2025 / / 0 Comments

This is Richie’s first solo album, released back in ’91. The one thing that this album showed is that he could step out of the Bon Jovi shadow and have his own voice and sound.

There is a lot more R’n’B and gospel vibes here than on any BJ record, as the title track shows. I would say there is not much rock n’ roll here at all really. Ballad Of Youth is the only song that remotely sounds like Bon Jovi. My favourite track is Church Of Desire. A super smooth classy chunk of AOR with Richie flexing his chops.

This is a Music On Vinyl reissue, it sounds superb and is a great record to test out the old hi-fi.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.

PAT TRAVERS – Live N’ Loaded 84

January 8, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I’m not sure if this has been out before because the original date is 2003 and as with a lot of Cleopatra’s releases, they are rehashes of previous things. All I know is that this is licensed from PT himself, so it looks legit.

I’m a big fan of PT after seeing him back in the late seventies after he relocated to the UK. Great old school player with plenty of feel and a great sound.

It was recorded in ’84 at West Palm Beach in Florida just after Pat’s contract with Polydor ended. I’m guessing this has been edited down so it fits on one disc because there are some quick fade outs on some tracks, but that doesn’t detract away from the quality of the recording.

8 originals and 2 covers is what you get for your your money on this release. The best track is Stevie, which has always been a high point of any PT show, and Born Under A Bad Sign which is a killer rendition with plenty of fretboard histrionics to keep you happy.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.

VOLA – Friend Of A Phantom

January 8, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Album number four from Denmark’s finest low end prog metal groovers, and maybe their most accessible album yet. Even though they exist in the Prog metal world they have a very unique vibe and sound. They get pigeonholed with all the other “djenty” bands but there is way more going on than the low end breakdown chunk.

The angelic vocals of Asger Mygind seems at odds with the music, but they compliment it so much that I would say this is the thing that makes them stand out above the others. Asger also contributes the huge monster riffs that define this band so much, but the secret weapon is keys wizard Martin Werner whose soundscapes and intricacies are superb. They can be supremely heavy on tracks like Cannibal, which grooves hard then so delicate and ethereal on tracks like Glass Mannequin.

Out of all the bands that are around at the moment in this genre, Vola are truly the one progressive band who are pushing and welding musical boundaries together. Bleed Out is one such track and my favourite on the album. It is so melodic and beautiful and then crushingly heavy with that low end groove.

This album would have been in my top 3 from 2024, but due to late arrival it missed the boat. Killer record and band.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

LUDOR- 777-The New 666

January 8, 2025 / / 0 Comments

So, it’s very hard to keep up with all things metal and rock because there just is too much music out there. One metal project/band is Ludor. Now, if you’re from Sweden you will probably know all about this album and the movie that it spawned from. The movie was called Mammas Pojkar (Mama’s Boys), and it centres around two metal heads called Thor and Odin who are die hard fans of a band called Ludor from Canada. The music for the movie came from Mats Levin (check his bio he has sung with some killer bands) and Jimmy Lagnefors who is a composer. The movie was so successful that they decided to do a whole album worth of tunes, which is this baby.

Seriously, if this album came out in ’84 you’d all be calling Ludor the new metal saviours. This is a killer record right from the needle drop and Ride The Vapor to the end of Rise And Conquer, it’s superb stuff. How this gem passed me by I do not know! This has to be one of the best albums I have heard Mats sing on, and he has done a few. He has a very unique style which I love, and this album is right up there.

Ride The Vapor is just killer and blows the dust from your ears immediately. Double kicks from the get go with a killer riff and groove, and Mats wailing the hook and chorus. Awesome! My fave track however is the title track 777-The New 666. An absolute monster of a tune with a freaking killer riff and groove to match, and that hook and chorus are just epic.

There are a couple more pounding tunes in King Of All and Piece By Piece, which are guaranteed to shake the dandruff loose. There are also a couple of old school Priest-style stompers in Let The Beast Out and Rise And Conquer – superb stuff.

This album came out in 2013 so if you can find a copy, good luck. Your best bet may be to get one from Mats Levin himself. I loved every inch…

10/10 from The Grooveman.

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