THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: vinyl community (Page 3 of 479)

NORDIC UNION – Animalistic

April 14, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I always cringe when I see “a project built by Frontiers president Seragino Perugino,” as a credit in the bio of a band. I mean, the guy’s ego must by freakin’ huge, and they are certainly milking the talents of Erik Martensson. How many bands and projects is he involved in?

This, however, is one of those projects that is actually worth checking out because it’s really rather good. Nordic Union is a coming together of the aforementioned Mr. Martensson and Pretty Maids’ vocalist Ronnie Atkins. This is the latest offering in what has been three albums so far by the duo.

Melodic power metal is on the menu here folks, and there are only a couple of tunes that have that Eclipse vibe, the rest power along with double kicks pounding.  So many great tunes here including Every Waking Hour, On This Day I Fight, If I Could Fly, This Means War, and Animalistic. They’re all killer tunes with melody high on the agenda to back those crunching riffs and pounding grooves.

The only thing that bugs me is the fact that Frontiers crammed the 11 tracks onto a single disc, the sound quality is not the best. Anyhoo, a very enjoyable record.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.

JACK STARR’S BURNING STARR – No Turning Back

April 13, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Jack Starr always confused me because he had about 10,000 projects all going at the same time. I first came across him through Virgin Steele, but they were over by late ´83. Then he did a solo album, a Devil Childe record, a Phantom Lord record, and a Burning Starr record all around the same time. This is the second Burning Starr album, which came out in ´86. In fact, his Virgin Steele vocalist David Defeis produced this record.

This band are a more straight up version of a hard rock/heavy metal band. Vocalist Mike Terrelli steals the show, as he possesses a killer set of pipes. Although a very competent player, Jack Starr just lacked that bit of special sauce to make him a great guitarist. It could be his tone or note choices, but it’s something I can’t put my finger on. Light In the Dark and Call Of The Wild are my favourite two tracks, just for the killer vocal performance.

7/10 from The Grooveman.

GARRISON – The Final Chapter

April 11, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Now, I remember seeing these guys support Dare back in the day. They were supposed to be signed to a major label to record an album but this was 1990 and the musical climate was changing and the band never got to record that album, until now that is.

There are 7 studio tracks and 3 live. The studio tunes just have Tony Mitchell and Michael Bruce performing everything and the live tracks feature all of the band. Not sure why that is, it seems a bit odd but I’m sure there’s a logical answer.

Along with Dare, Garrison were one of the brightest AOR bands the UK had produced, and you get a little taste of that here. Ironically, it’s the harder rockin’ tracks that do it for me. The studio recording of Gimme Love is a great song and the live version of Here I Am grooves along at a hell of a pace. You do wonder if they had gotten to record that album back then, with a good producer, what it would have sounded like because they definitely can write a tune that’s for sure.

7.5/10 from The Grooveman.

MONRO – Some Girls

April 10, 2025 / / 0 Comments

The one thing that UK bands always seemed to struggle with was writing great AOR tunes. Welsh band Monro give it a good go though.

This album came out in ´87 and it’s very slick, borderline pop/rock. In fact, soon after this album came out, the band called it a day. They have the formula right that’s for sure, big hooks and those sing along choruses that are the trademarks for a good AOR album.

I remember there being a single of Some Girls that I heard on the radio a couple of times that I thought was ok. The best song on the record though is Here Comes The Night. This is where they got it all right. Great melody, and you just have to sing along in the chorus.

Not sure why they just disappeared because this isn’t half bad to be honest.

7.5/10 from The Grooveman.

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