THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: music review (Page 362 of 493)

ALLEN-LANDE – The Revenge

November 8, 2021 /

Here are two of the most respected vocalists in the rock and metal world, well at least everywhere apart from North America where they can hardly get arrested. Russell Allen is the voice of Symphony X, and I first heard about Jorn Lande when he fronted Ronnie Le Tekro’s band Vagabond, but he was great also in Ark and Masterplan as well as on his own. Two very differing styles as Allen is more metal and Lande has more of the classic Coverdale tones to his voice.

Funnily enough, neither of them have had a hand in writing any of the material as that was done by Magnus Karlsson, and is another of those put together projects by Frontiers. The whole vibe of the album is a symphonic melodic metal with big choruses and melodies with some nice playing along the way. My favourite is the gallop of Victory as I really like the choppy riff. If you are a fan of Euro Metal and love both of the vocalists then you can’t go wrong really.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.

JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR – Wild

November 6, 2021 /

There still seems to be a lot of prejudice towards women in some areas of the rock business, but in the blues, female artists seem to thrive. I have been following Joanne’s career for quite a while and it’s nice to see her getting some success. Her new album is being produced by Joe Bonamassa so I look forward to that one.

This album was released in 2016 and was produced by long time Bonamassa producer, Kevin Shirley, and he has given the album a real gutsy edge that I really like. Dyin’ To Know opens up the record and it’s a really cool shuffle vibe with a great hook. Ready To Roll dips its toe into funk/gospel territory with great melodies and some killer leads from Joanne. I guess recording the album in Nashville rubbed off a bit as Get You Back has a great country rock vibe with a nice gritty vocal – you can’t go wrong with that chord progression. No Reason To Stay is next up and it has an old school RnB vibe to proceedings which I really like. Side 1 closes out with Wild Is The Wind and is quite a laid back tune with emphasis on the beautiful tones of Joanne’s voice, along with some killer playing.

Side 2 opens up with the up-tempo RnB grooves of Wanna Be My Lover – superb track. I’m In Chains has a Deep Purple vibe mainly due to the chopped off Smoke riff. My Hearts Got A Mind If It’s Own is a really old school swing blues number, complete with ALL the horns that reminds me of something Aretha would have done. Nothin’ To Lose is the penultimate track, and the country blues vibe is strong here with a killer chorus and melody. The album closes with an awesome cover of Gershwin’s Summertime and this all about the voice and the guitar. So there you have it, a great little record so go grab yourself a copy.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

ARMORED SAINT – Raising Fear

November 6, 2021 /

When Metallica upped sticks from LA to the Bay Area in San Fran to be leaders of the fledgling thrash scene, Armored Saint hung around to be one of the leading bands in the LA metal scene.

This album was their 4th release that came out in ’87. After this release, they were dropped by their record label Chrysalis. Now it’s not as good as March Of The Saint, which IMHO is a classic, it does nevertheless contain some great songs. At times the band do remind me of Iron Maiden, especially on tracks like Saturday Night Special, but they do sort of have their own sound as it’s an amalgamation of a lot of influences. There are a couple of typical early eighties slow build numbers like Isolation and Frozen Will that are cool, but my favourites are the simpler tracks like Out On A Limb and the close out track Underdogs, which have the big riffs and grooves to bang your head to.

As I said earlier, not their best but I enjoyed it having not listened to it in a long while.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

OSI – Blood

November 5, 2021 /

This is the third album from Kevin Moore (ex Dream Theater) on keyboards, and Jim Matheos (Fates Warning) on guitar. The first two albums Moore had Mike Portnoy (his band mate from Dream Theater) on the drums, but this time Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree) was on the skins. I’ve always found Moore a bit of an oddity as he shunned DT when success came their way after the Awake album, and he would reappear sporadically with his first solo project Chroma Key with the Dead Air For Radios which I really liked, and then this project. This project is sort of a cross between DT and Dead Air.

The first track, The Escape Artist, has a huge monster of a riff that would put DT to shame and really drives the track along, with Moore’s breathy vocals style over the top. Terminal is almost an electronic track with a cool groove and a simple quiet vocal. The fat huge heavy riffs return with False Start – this a real heavy sounding track. This is the pattern of the album, very heavy riff driven tunes interspersed with more intricate electronic pieces that seem to compliment each other perfectly. My two favourite tracks off the album are Radiologue, which is a groovy amalgamation of both styles, and the delightfully heavy groove of Be The Hero. Superb tracks! I really like Kevin Moore and I wish he would do more things.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

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