Screaming Eagles - 'Stand Up And Be Counted' Album Review

I must admit, it took me a while to get my mitts of the Screaming Eagles debut. Not so sure why it took me so long, but it immediately became like seeing a long lost friend. Everything felt familiar and comfortable, in a great way of course.

The Northern Irish foursome recently achieved international recognition from Sony Music Pictures in Los Angeles, who after signing a licensing agreement with the band, featured their first single release “Rock N’ Roll Soul” on the Hit US TV Show - Justified, Season 6 Episode 1, starring Timothy Olyphant and airing to an audience of more than 4 million viewers in the US.

 

Screaming Eagles have shared bills with the likes of Airbourne, UFO, Black Star Riders and The Answer, at various festivals such as Giants Of Rock, The Great British Rock N Blues Festival, Hard Rock Hell and their biker edition in Ibiza.

To kick-start the next chapter of the Screaming Eagles, the band will be releasing a multi track EP, titled ‘Save Me’ with bonus material including a cover of Australian rock classic “Good Times” featuring guest vocals from Pontus Snibb of Bonafide as well as some live material recorded at Hard Rock Hell, 2 years ago.

The 7 track ‘Save Me’ EP will be released digitally and worldwide on 24th June; with an exclusive new video shot in their home country to back it up.

The new album ‘Stand Up and Be Counted’ contains ten tracks of blistering rock n roll, recorded in the band's home country, Northern Ireland during March/April 2015.

All the Screaming Eagles hallmarks are there from the off – DC/Airbourne style classic rock with a Punch! There’s no need to be able to be a Malmsteen and play 150 notes a second when you can be as effective and hard hitting as this. Ready For The Fall is as close to Airbourne as you will ever get. Its not a bad thing by any means – its in yer face, right to the point high voltage rock n roll done extremely well. If Bon Scott had a baby with Joel O’Keefe then Chris Fry would be the said adopted offspring. Strike that – if AC/DC gangbanged Airbourne then Screaming Eagles would be the bastard offspring of such a dalliance. ‘Save Me’ takes off on very similar note. An air raid siren gives the game away to what is approaching, riffs of seismic proportions coupled with fire and brimstone. ‘Stand Up And Be Counter has all the air guitar knobs set to 11 for those of you wanting to join in at home (why can’t bands give away free air guitars and wigs with cds?). ‘Bow Down To The Blues does what it says on the tin, old skool blues-rock with a modern edge. ‘Chase You Down sees the SE’s throwing in a bit of funk. ’Breaking All The Rules’ makes for a refreshing refrain. Part country rock, then exploding into this delightful meaty riff.

A few bands are looking to step into AC/DC’s soon vacant shoes. Few are doing it as good as Screaming Eagles. Chris Fry’s (or shout that be fries) voice shines like a beacon in the darkest of nights.

If you love the debut then this is a no brainer of gargantuan proportions. It’s a step up from ‘From The Flames’. Screaming Eagles deserve greater things and 'SUABC' will get them their deserved rewards. Give this a while and they will be on the long road to rock stardom.

Score 88/100

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Kelly Keeling - Mind Radio Album review

Well-known to melodic rock aficionados, Keeling has a decent pedigree with namely Baton Rouge, Heaven & Earth, TSO, work with Schenker, Norum etc, and Blue Murder on his extensive CV.  All in all, he has appeared or written songs on 60 albums! His excellent Red Zone Rider album was one of the highlights of 2014. 2015 sees him shacked up in the Frontier stable with the Frontiers ‘go-to’ guy, Alessandro Del Vecchio

Mind Radio gets off to a great start with the energetic up-tempo ‘This Love Is Our Paradise’ and the pacey  ‘Isolated Man’.  The decent pace continues thru the first half of Mind Radio with ‘Sunshine Over Me’ the best of the bunch. Once the second half hits its more music by numbers and sees a dip in quality, which is unusual considering the talents of Keeling and Del Vecchio. God only knows what the fuck they were thinking of with the god-awful Monkey House, a whiney, mess of a song.

Red Zone Rider is an album that I turn back to frequently, but sadly Mind Radio isn’t one to have repeated listens beyond 3 or 4 tracks

Score 65/100

Dimino - Old Habits Die Hard Album Review

Out of all the five Frontiers releases planned for this week, the Dimino album was the one that I wanted to hear the most. Most people who will be drawn to the Frontiers roster will know of Frank Diminos past glory and pedigree with glam rockers Angel. Yes you remember them, the ones Gene Simmons plucked from obscurity, and dropped them back into obscurity when they failed to ignite on five albums. Perhaps it was the androgynous white outfits, or maybe just that they were overhyped and not that good!

As all good Frontier bands projects, this one is no different. Pick a singer from the past (check), put him with some other old musicians (check), and hopefully some of the cream will rise to the top? Involved in Dimino are Oz Fox (Stryper), Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister), Ricky Medlocke (Blackfoot, Lynyrd Skynyrd), and former Angel band mates Punky Meadows and Barry Brandt.

First thing to not is that Frank sounds good. Great even. Even better is the fact that he has gone for his own thing and not done like others have and tried to recreate the past he had with Angel. ‘Old Habits Die Hard’ is a straight 6, out and out powerhouse rock album.

‘Never Again’ roars out of the blocks like Usain Bolt wearing a meat unitard being chased by a rabid hoard of zombies.  ‘Mad As hell’, ‘Rockin’ In The City’ and ‘The Quest’ just powers along with a sense of power and purpose; all have great riffs and soaring soloing.  ‘I Cant Stop Loving You’ sees Dimino in great vocal form. He probably, (strike that), definitely sounds better than his Angel days. ‘Tears Will Fall’ is in a similar soaring vein, and sounds like a song that Dokken could have written in the days when they were great! Top it all off with ‘Sweet Sensation’, and OHDH is a very surprising and welcome addition to the Frontiers label

It’s a mystery why he hasn’t been plying his trade globally these past years as he is a man right on top of his game. I’ve hyped up a few Frontiers releases this year, but if you have to buy one, make it this one! If there’s to be a 3^rd Frontiers fest next year, Dimino surely must be on it!

Score 85/100

 Frank DiMino: Lead Vocals
Justin Avery: Organ, Background Vocals
John Miceli: Drums
Oz Fox / Paul Crook / Jeff Labansky / Punky Meadows / Jeff Duncan / Eddie Ojeda / Dylan DiMino / Rickey Medlocke: Guitars
Danny Miranda / Paul Crook: Bass

Released 3/7/15 

The V - Now Or Never Album Review

Veronica Freeman the front woman of Benedictum and Dio wannabe moves out of her comfort zone to do a solo album for the Frontiers label. To say Frontiers have thrown the kitchen sink at this is an understatement. Either that, or Ms. Freeman has a blackmail (little black) book of decent proportions (see and I didn’t mention her boobies at all!). She has gathered a rather impressive array of talent from the rock-pool! Band mates Pete Wells, Aric Avina and Rikard Stjernquist (Benedictum), Michael Sweet (Stryper), Garry Bordonaro (The Rods), Jeff Pilson (Dokken, Foreigner, T&N), Mike Lepond (Symphony X), Tony Martin (Sabbath), Jerry Dixon (Warrant) and many, many more!

Her music with Benedictum started out as a novelty for me as they did excellent Dio covers. Now Or Never is a decent departure from the more metal vocals of Benedictum and proves that Freeman has a decent singing voice on her when not forcing the issue. The album kicks off with a few above average songs, with opener ‘Again’ showing the talents of Freeman and Michael Sweet, advertising the modern, harder edge of Sweets talents on guitar and production. ‘Roller Coaster’ jumps out of the blocks like a classic Kiss song, think Strutter or Deuce. ‘L.O.V.E.’ and ‘Ready To Run’ have their musical roots firmly planted in the 80s. There are a couple of duets worth a mention here. Firstly ‘Kiss My Lips’ with Leather Leone of Chastain (with both sounding very similar in style) and showing that the vocal similarity blends well. The second duet ‘King For A Day’ with Tony Martin shows he has lost none of his power and is as good as his Sabbath days.

All in all ‘Now or Never’; proves to be a decent album, and one I suspect that will top the Frontiers sales come the end of the year such is the pull across the metal fraternity for Ms. Freeman. It’s not far removed from her Benedictum stuff, but she is given more chance to shine. I’m expecting greater things should no2 be on the cards.

Score 75/100

 Veronica Freeman – Lead vocals
Leather Leone – Duet vocals  “Kiss my Lips”
Tony Martin- Duet vocals “King for a Day”
Meliesa McDonell- additional vocals “Star Shine” & Acoustic guitars
Derek Kerswill- drums
Jeff Pilson, Mel Brown, Garry Bordonaro, Aric Avina, John O’Boyle & Mike Lepond- Bass
Pete Wells, Michael Sweet ,Peter Tentindo, Jimmy Durkin, Mick Tucker, Jordan Ziff, Michael Harris  – Guitars

Produced by John Herrera
except for:
King for a Day (produced by Kenny Lewis)
Love Should be to Blame & Again (produced by Michael Sweet)

Released 3/7/15

Room Experience - ST Album review

There seems to be a small but very dedicated band of Italian musicians that seem Hell-bent on trying to inject life into Melodic Rock and keep the AOR torch burning bright. The guy behind Room Experience (I’ve heard of worse names, but not that many!) , a certain Gianluca Firmo, who is a keyboard player and songwriter, accumulated over 100 songs and decided that it was time to get some of them professionally recorded.

So apart from approaching that bloke who runs a well known Melodic rock label, what do you do? Well back in 2013 Gianluca probably typed ‘Italian AOR’ into Google, and about 6 names appeared – most of them have had significant input in the recording and production of this album. Initially he approached Davide Barbieri (Charming Grace), and Pierpaolo Monti (Shining Line, Charming Grace, Lionville) asking them to produce the album. A singer was needed to give the songs the voice they deserves, so in came the British vocalist of PC69 and Voodoo Circle, the excellent David Readman. He (David) was introduced to Gianluca by the Italian AOR ‘go to’ guy, Alessandro Del Vecchio

Gaps were filled with a multitude of melodic rocks finest – Amos Monti (Shining Line, Lionville, Charming Grace), Steve De Biasi (Charming Grace), being the core foundation, with the likes of Sven Larsson, Ivan Gonzalez, Stefano Zeni, and more joining the Room Experience family

So what do we have? Ill tell you what we have – Room Experience is a melodic rock lovers aural feast.  The keyboards are place at the forefront of Room Experience, and so they should be. Many bases are covered here, from punchy AOR (Shock Me, One Way Out) , to Westcoast ballads(The Only Truth, Only Goodnight), to more radio friendly power and riff based rockers such as the driving with the top down ‘Not Yet Time For A Lullaby’. David Readman gives his all in these songs  and doesn’t appear just a man brought in on a pay cheque to do music by numbers. Because of this the songs have a substance and are believable. Gianluca deserves his time at the front and does so for most of the last song Only Goodnight, before Readman wades in and struts his stuff to take it up a notch on the grandiose scale. But wait……let the song run through and there’s a bonus hidden track to savour.

Good things come to those who wait. For Gianluca, his collection of songs written over two decades, has been a long time coming, but for him in particular the long wait has been a worthwhile one.

If you have a love of tinkly, parpy keyboards, soaring and polished choruses, with a bit of parmeggiano reggiano sprinkled like fairy dust over the whole proceedings then Room Experience is definitely for you.

P.S. A bonus edition exists (probably sold out by now) that includes ‘Only Goodnight’ sung by Readman, and a couple of bonus tracks

SCORE 85/100

ROOM EXPERIENCE is:

David Readman (Pink Cream 69, Voodoo Circle) - Lead & Backing Vocals


Gianluca Firmo - Keyboards, Backing Vocals & Lead Vocals on "Only Goodnight"


Davide "Dave Rox" Barbieri (Wheels Of Fire, Charming Grace) - Keyboards, Acoustic & Electric Piano, Acoustic & Rhythm Guitars, Backing Vocals


Pierpaolo "Zorro11" Monti (Shining Line, Charming Grace, Lionville) - Drums & Percussion

Amos Monti (Shining Line, Charming Grace, Lionville) - Bass


Steve De Biasi (Gunshy, Charming Grace) - Guitars

But that’s not all... Making special guest appearances are:

Alessandro Del Vecchio (Revolution Saints, L.R.S, Three Lions, Shining Line) - Hammond on “Rainbow In The Rain"


Ivan Gonzalez (Secret, 91 Suite) - Guitars on "Another Day Without You", "No Sign of Summer" & "Tomorrow’s Came"

Sven Larsson (Street Talk, Fergie Frederiksen, Lionville, Charming Grace) - Guitars on "The Only Truth"


Stefano Zeni (Wheels Of Fire, Charming Grace) - Guitars on "Queen Of Every Heart"


Boris Matakovic (Human Zoo, Charming Grace) - Sax on "Tomorrows Came"

Elena Aurë (Charming Grace) - Backing Vocals on "Rainbow in the Rain" & "Tomorrows Came"

ROOM EXPERIENCE released their debut album “Room Experience” via MelodicRock

Records/Cargo Distribution on May 22

Tremonti - Cauterize Album Review

Mark Tremonti is the guitarist of modern legend. In the UK he is the 'Riffmaster General', in Germany, 'The Riff-meister,', and in Latin he is 'Riffus Dominus.' I’m not making this shit up. Anyway, I digress….

Tremonti began writing in his Orlando studio in early 2014. Joined by his band, Tremonti penned more than twenty-five songs over the course of multiple sessions. “We wanted to do a ton of songs,” he affirms. “I decided to take my entire catalog of material, get everything out, and purge it. On ‘All I Was’, we couldn’t spend as much time on pre-production. This time, we were able to take the time to tear the songs apart and put them back together so they could become as dynamic as possible. That helped make the new music what it is.”

Emerging from the most prolific period of his two-decade career, Tremonti is actually delivering two successive albums - ’Cauterize’ and follow-up companion album ‘Dust’. With ‘Cauterize’ leading the charge in June 2015 and ‘Dust’ to follow in the not-too-distant future, it’s a one-two punch of modern thrash and melody that has become the group’s signature. Think riffage of gargantuan proportions. Tremonti allows, er, Tremonti to play all the mental stuff he has NEVER done with Creed, and only scratched the surface with in Alter Bridge. Take, for example, opening track ‘Radical Change’, it’s an absolute onslaught of bass, guitar and drums, that will leave you gasping for breath. It’s a song about feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders, something a lot of us can bear testament to. ‘Flying Monkeys’ I’m hoping is influenced by one of my childhood fave movies, The Wizard Of Oz, and it has this low down chugging drawl of a start, dirty and yet with a catchy refrain. Cauterize is a is the burning of part of a body to remove or close off a part of it in a process called cautery, which destroys some tissue (in this case its definitely my ears) in an attempt to mitigate bleeding and damage, so at least the good Doctor knows what he is doing to our bodies in listening to this.

After the collective battering so far, and up to ‘Arm Yourself’ you’re almost praying for mercy. Either that, or a nice ballad! ‘Dark Trip’ is about as light as it gets on the Tremonti scale of balladry. Journey it definitely aint, but it’s a break in proceedings all the same. ‘Another Heart’ is as close as we get to Alter Bridge, more melodic than the rest on offer, such is the case I half expect Kennedy to wade in with the vocals. ‘Sympathy’ if it were on the telly (when MYV used to shoe music videos) a few years back, would be abso-fucking–lutely HUGE. It’s an anthem of stadium size proportions and is my favourite track by far.

Tremonti has a knack for coming up with blistering riffs. Not only that, on from All I Was, his vocals have gone up a notch also. If he doesn’t watch it, sometime soon, he may have to decide if he can keep both Alter Bridge and Tremonti on an even keel, as Tremonti has all the right elements to take them higher, much higher.

I fall into 3 canmps with Mark Tremonti. I couldn’t really abide Creed. I adore Alter Bridge with a passion, and Tremonti (the band) is growing on me with every listen. I liked ‘All I Was’, but with ‘Cauterize’, they have taken it up a notch or three in quality, I think that’s purely down to that fact that they have taken more time with this opus

‘Brutal riffs with a melodic lilt’. That’s how I best describe ‘Cauterize’. Fans of the man, and band will be lapping this up like a metal lovin’ kitten in catnip scented pyjamas. Essential metal listening for 2015

Score 90/100

Tremonti are

Mark Tremonti – Vocals, Guitars

Eric Friedman – Guitar

Garrett Whitlock – Drums

Wolfgang VH – Bass

Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette – Producer (and fifth member od Tremonti!)

Tracklisting

Radical Change

Flying Monkeys

Cauterize

Arm Yourself

Dark Trip

Another Heart

Fall Again

Tie The Noose

Sympathy

Providence

Thunder - Wonder Days Album Review

Jesus! How time flies. Its six years this year since I caught Thunder on their Status Quo-esque Farewell (Ha!) Tour in Manchester. That night was blistering, and I thought at the time, why do they wanna pack it all in when they are still one of the finest in the business. Lets face it, its not as if they needed to shift more tickets, as Thunder’s cult fan base is legendary. So six years after Bang! comes Wonder Years, I mean ‘Wonder Days’.

Thunder are one of the few that rode the coat tails of late 80s rock and stuck two fingers up to Grunge and plowed on thru the flannel shirt era where 90% of other bands fell by the wayside and shriveled away to a corner to die. Only a few have stuck their heads back above the parapet to see if its safe and have contributed something worthwhile.

Of course, and thankfully, their farewell was short-lived. Excellent tours with Whitesnake and Leppard followed, and it was like they had never been away. If you compare the gap in album releases of ‘Bang!’ to ‘Wonder Days’, to the likes of Rush, and Toto then they never really did leave us!

Anywho, ‘Wonder Days’ sees Thunder return as an absolute tour de force. Just the first few bars of ‘Wonder Days’ makes you prick up your ears as you know you're in for something special. Zeppelin-esque in nature, its 100% pure Thunder once Bowes’ vox kick in and complement the huge Morley riff. Just beware of a litigation coming their way from the lads of Gotthard sometime this week! ‘The Thing I Want’ should be preceded by (hit single) as this ones a whopper that its a cast iron certainty for radio. ‘The Rain’ is a mandolin driven number that has classic Bad Co. running right through the centre of it. ‘Black Water’, stomps along at typical Thunder pace. Their sound and style comes from many other influences but when the backbone is Bowes and Morley, its unmistakable 100% Thunder. ‘The Prophet’ has its roots firmly planted in the 1980 with its galloping riff and Maiden lilt. The song that will ring true to anyone over the age of 40 is ‘When The Music Played’. Bowes sings about the good old days of radio & vinyl, “I held my vinyl like a new born child, memorizing every word, every cover was a window into a far off special world” and then opens up to an overblown level on a grand scale. Thunder usually have a part song or three in their locker, and ‘I love The Weekend’ is such a number. Old fashioned Rock n Roll is something they can do in their sleep, and then some.

To be honest, ‘Wonder Days’ is fucking marvelous and is right up there with Backstreet Symphony. After a few more listens, it could prove to be even better! If you’ve have a preconceived idea about  not liking Thunder, then your life is missing something. For those that love ‘em, or are prepared to give this a good ‘ol listen, then its one of the best albums of 2015, and beyond.

Score 95/100

Tracklisting

Wonder Days

The Thing I Want

The Rain

Black Water

The Prophet

Resurrection Day

Chasing Shadows

Broken

When The Music Played

Serpentine

I Love The Weekend

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