I admit to not knowing a whole bunch about these guys. I think they formed in Germany in 1989, and by ’93 they were done. Except, I do believe they had an album out in April this year titled Unreal.
This is their first album and if you like melodic rock with a hard edge, then you might be in luck. Opening track State Of Confusion is the band wrapped up in a nutshell. Great hook and chorus, and the melody is high on the list of priorities. Tears follows and it’s more of the same. Nice riff, the guitar sounds killer, and those harmonies are great. Run With The Wind follows and those double kicks confuse slightly as this is a pomp rock classic that Styx would have been proud of, and to top it off we have a touch of the Yngwie’s with the solo. King Of Temptation starts with a riff that would not be out of place on any Dokken album, and the joint solo with keys and guitar is quite cool. It’s favourite song time with Side 1 close out track High Speeder. Double kicks all the way in this fun high octane rocker, with a great riff and killer guitar sound.
So Cold opens up Side 2 with a mid-tempo rocker and again, it’s the guitar that draws your attention. Eyes Of The Gods is up next and the intro riff and groove are awesome but it feels as though the rest of the song belongs somewhere else, apart from the solo section which I really like. They have a gift in writing great intro’s and Rock Will Survive doesn’t disappoint, plus this was a close second for favourite track. Thunder And Lightning also doesn’t let you down in the intro department and reminds me of early TNT, and that instrumental section is ripping. The album closes out with Too High To Touch and they saved it until the very end…power ballad time.
This album is regarded as a lost treasure and rightly so. If it was released five years earlier things may have been different, but I say that about a lot of records.
8/10 from The Grooveman.
