Rated X - ST Album Review

In the true style of Frontiers Records, Perugino Serafino has installed a group coming from 3 bastions of rocks finest heritage. If the likes of Rainbow, Deep Purple (or Deep Rainbow as it was in JLTs tenure), Malmsteen, Blue Murder, Vanilla Fudge, King Kobra, The Firm, Ozzy, Rod Stewart and Frehley rock your musical world then Rated X is definitely to be on your shopping list of new CDs .Perugino wanted to build a group to show of JLTs immeasurable and undiminished vocal talent, and so Rated X was conceived. If it was a whim project for Perugino, then they don’t come much better than this.

Appice was first on board given his long history with Turner. So who better to bring on next that

Appice’s partner in crime at Blue Murder, bassist Tony Franklin. Long time JLH cohort and collaborator Karl Cochran was an obvious choice for guitar. With a combined age of well over 200, there’s no law that states that you are too old to rock and kick some ass! Not only that some well known guitarists have assisted on the album, Nikolo Kotsev (Baltimoore & Brazen Abbot) and Daniel Palmqvist (X Origin). To think that Cochran

Rated X came under the executive direction of Frontiers ‘go to guy’ Alessandro Del Vecchio, which is the equivalent of the Frontiers seal of approval for quality. We’ve mentioned that bands that rock your (and the RX guys) world, Rated X take all these influences from their past on the chin and have written and produced an album that typifies the term CLASSIC ROCK.

Absolute key to the sound is the husky vocal stylings on Joe Lynn Turner, unaffected and undiminished in power from his Rainbow & Fandango days.  Get Back My Crown is aptly titled as it shows JLT in fine fettle indeed. Never one to be away for more than what seems 5 minutes its great to see him in a band function rather than what seems to be a ‘pay money will travel’ kind of vocalist in recent years. The first video ‘This Is Who I Am’ once more has a formulaic chorus but a bloody catchy and hooky one all the same. “Lhasa’ (no its not a song about JLTs dog) is a Valley of The Kings type affair, (more so for the fact that he sings VOTK in the opening lines) with Cochran pulling (and plucking) the strings. ‘You Are The Music’ drags a little, mainly due the quality preceding it, but again the pace picks up for ‘Peace Of Mind’. The Kotzev guitar fronted ‘I Don’t Cry No More’ and the hard hitting, and belting closer, ‘Stranger In Us All’ and are the closest they come to JLTs and Kotzev’s pomp and classy Brazen Abbot/Rainbow sounding days.

Ale certainly knows how to assist a band with production skills to get the best out of the band dynamic that is Rated X. No doubt adding keyboard fills and BVs?

Basically Rated X could have just come in, taken the money and run by doing a music by numbers album. This is a better bet than I ever envisaged. A sterling effort from some of rocks elders.

Score 85/100

Rated X is…

Joe Lynn Turner – Vocals

Carmine Appice – Drums

Karl Cochran – Guitars

Tony Franklin – Bass

Nikolo Kotsev – guitars on 'Maybe Tonight', 'Peace of Mind', 'Our Love is Not Over'; and lead guitars on 'Stranger In Us All' and 'I Don’t Cry No More'

Daniel Palmqvist – guitars on 'You Are The Music'

Produced by Alessandro Del Vecchio

Mixed by Pat Regan

Release date 7^th Nov in EU / 10^th Nov NA

Tracklisting

Get Back My Crown

This Is Who I Am

Fire And ice

I Don’t Cry No More

Lhasa

Devil In Disguise

You Are The Music

Peace Of Mind

Maybe Tonight

On The Way To Paradise

Our Love Is Not Over

Stranger In Us All

 Rated X - Stranger In Us All

Jimmy Barnes - 30:30 Hindsight Album Review

2014 sees the 30^th (yup, thirtieth!) anniversary of Jimmy Barnes’ debut as Scottish born Aussie rock singer/songwriter, and to celebrate this feat, Mr. Barnes has recorded ’30:30 Hindsight’, his 15^th studio album (not bad…an average of 2 a year, that would take some bands 60 years to emulate).

Barnes explains the thought process behind creating a collaborative album of his own tracks:

“I wanted to do something special for the 30th anniversary…  There was talk of a tribute album, but that idea would have taken me out of the picture. So then I thought of a much better idea – I’ll get all my favourite artists and sing with them!”

Personally, I think the blokes amazing, his voice has stood the test of time. Whilst never being truly soulful (certainly if comparing to Sam Cooke) his is a very distinctive sound. To top it off, his stats are pretty damn good as well – NINE no.1 albums; all bar one of his 14 studio albums debuted in the Top 3, and twice inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame as a solo artist and also as a member of Chisel

Not only that, when he can call on the likes of Neal Schon & Jonathon Cain (Journey), Keith Urban, Joe Bonamassa, Steven Van Zandt and Baby Animals, they you know he is well and truly respected and admired amongst his peers

There was a time in the mid 80s when Barnes career was on fire – Working Class Man, Two Fires, Heat and the immense Jimmy Barnes S/T (aka For The Working Class Man). Amazingly only ‘Walk On’ and ‘Still On Your Side’ is represented from FTH album on the standard version of Milestone. The problem is – if you have a HUGE number of songs in your repertoire, which ones do you pick. Good Time with Keith Urban was one late casualty – in fact its pretty good to have to miss the cut. On this ‘standard’ version a lot miss the cut. All I can say is that there is a fairly good mix of songs from right across the Barnes spectrum, with even the likes of ‘Psyclone’ and ‘Love & Fear’ albums represented.

‘Lay Down Your Guns’ (w/The Living End) is as good as the original version, slightly altered but excellent all the same. Its great to hear Suze DeMarchi of Baby Animals and the rest of the Baby Animals appearing on ‘Time Will Tell’). For ‘Ride The Night Away’, Barnes teams up with original co writer Van Zant. Originally written for Barnes it’s fitting that VZ play a part on what is a belting modernized version. Talent runs in the Barnes family as his daughter Mahalia shows she has a stunning set of pipes on her on the raucous Stand Up. Jimmy’s brother in law Diesel (even the bloody in-laws are talented!) duets on a cool version of ‘I’d Die To Be With You Tonight’. Bonamassa and Tina Arena are pulled out for the blues standard ‘Stone Cold’ with Bonamassa given free reign to do what only he can do. ‘Working Class Man’, a song designed to break JB in the states is assisted by the writer, Jonathan Cain, with guitar from Ian Moss (Diesel). Both Cain and Journey cohort Neal Schon appear on ‘Going Down Alone’ from the under appreciated ‘Psyclone’. It’s a broody song given the ‘what for’ by Schon and is definitely in good company on this album. Shit! Its one of the BEST songs on 'Hindsight' (check out the video below). Shihad and Barnes combine for ‘Love and Hate’ and I admit I prefer this to the original as its even more pulsating and in yer face than the original.

All in all you can see what I’m getting at. 30:30 Hindsight is a bloody good album as it stands. With newer and modernised / alternate versions of some of Barnes’ fave tunes. It may not please everyone due to some glaring omissions – ‘Driving Wheels’ / ‘Too Much Aint Enough’ / ‘Promise Me You’ll Call’, and ‘Good Times’, but what is here hits the mark.

Don’t bother buying the single CD version, there’s a belting 3 CD version for only a £6.50 more than the standard version. For the audiophiles there is also a limited edition of 1000 x 180g pressings. Go on, you know you want to.

Score 85/100

1. Lay Down Your Guns (w/ The Living End)

2. Time Will Tell (w/ The Baby Animals)

3. Ride The Night Away (w/ Little Steven)

4. Stand Up (w/ Mahalia Barnes + The Soul Mates)

5. I'd Die To Be With You (w/ Diesel)

6. Stone Cold (w/ Tina Arena & Joe Bonamassa)

7. Working Class Man (w/ Jonathan Cain and Ian Moss)

8. Going Down Alone (w/ Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain)

9. Love And Hate (w/ Shihad)

10. No Second Prize (w/ the Family Choir)

11. I'd Rather Be Blind (w/ Jon Stevens)

12. When Your Love Is Gone (W/ Ruby Rodgers and the Tin Lids)

13. The Other Kind (w/ Troy Cassar-Daley)

14. Walk On (w/ David Campbell)

15. Still On Your Side (w/ Bernard Fanning) 

Going Down Alone

Stone Cold

The Driftwood Sign - releases new single and video

The Driftwood Sign releases single and video 

The Driftwood Sign, rockers from Malmo Sweden, releases the new single "Disorder" together with a music video. The single is the first of two songs recorded at Berno Studio in November. 'This time we wanted to do everything right and focused on quality. That's why we chose to record at Berno with over 30 years of experience in the studio', says Anders, singer in the band. Mixing and mastering was made by Beau Hill (Europe, Ratt).  'Beau really delivered and we're happy with the end result', Anders continues. 

The next single, "No Longer Young" is set to be released early fall. 

Never heard of them? Me neither. But after recent support with Tremonti, then it wont be too long before you do!!! Check out their video below 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etmMzMALa-A

http://www.thedriftwoodsign.com/

Hornet - NEW EP due to drop in November

HORNET have announced that they will be releasing a brand new EP, the follow up to their debut album ‘Skies Are Falling’, alongside a modern sound and look.  The first single ‘Cry Wolf’, from their as-yet-untitled EP will be dropping on November 25th with a dramatic music video. Phil Kinman (Tank, New Device) returns to produce the record along with Dick Beetham (Enter Shikari, Young Guns) mastering.

Frontman, Joe Thompson explains "With the new EP we really wanted to just expand the sound we already had by incorporating more of our influences to make our sound more modern and diverse, something in the now, you know? The same can be said for our image. It’s definitely more relatable to us as individuals. It's still Hornet through and through but as we've found ourselves developing both as a band and as musicians it has really shone through in our new songs. It’s modern but still hard, heavy and in your face!"

The band will be building up to the release with exclusive behind the scenes videos, photos and more, so be sure to follow the band  

@OfficialHornet and  
facebook.com/officialhornet.

Virgil And The Accelerators - Army Of Three Album review

Moments come along every now and again when you are completely taken aback by a bands performance. The occasion was at Parr Hall Warrington about 18months ago, whereby the then unknown to me, V&TA took to the stage and completely blew me away within the first minute. I knew for certain that I was watching someone special, very special indeed. Albums don’t do bands justice on many an occasion, none more so that the debut, vs the live performance I caught that night....

....and the even more annoying thing? That they were kids when it was recorded. Damn you, you talented set of buggers!

VATA are Virgil McMahon, the guitarist/vocalist and driving force behind the band. A talent from a very young age who joined his dads band ‘The Accelerators’. Such was his talent that his dad and fellow band member Hugh Morgan had the foresight to get Virgil to form a band with people his own age. So Virgil and the Accelerators was born. In came his brother Gabriel on drums. With no previous experience he quickly showed signs of massive potential. Bass players are a hard bunch to find. Jack Alexander Timmis is the man they have settled in on bass duties

There’s always doubts if bands can get over the ‘2^nd album syndrome’. To help them overcome this they went for a man with aeons of experience behind the desk, Chris Tsangarides (Lizzy / Moore / Sabbath / Priest / Anvil etc).

Army of Three is aptly named. Not only because of them being a rather fine cohesive unit, but also because they sound as if it’s the aural equivalent of being pounded by a battalion.

Why start off subtly when you can go for the jugular. This is exactly the premise for opening track 'Take Me Higher', an epic six minute blues rocker that just flies by. The maturity and progression from 'The Radium' has come on leaps and bounds. The paying from all three feels like its double the size, and couple this with the feel, emotion and vocalising that belie someone so young, then its bodes well for the rest of the album, and the future of VATA. Whilst the musical aspect of ‘Blow To The Head’ is killer, the same cant be said of the singing. I don’t know if it’s the chorus or production making it sounding a little weak. ‘All Night Long’ puts the VATA machine back on track – its more of a simple rocker than the usual VATA fare and when you think its all done and dusted, it comes back to life again. After the ‘meh!’ of Love Agression comes the surefire future single ‘Give It Up’ a Rolling Stones style complemented with some good harmonica playing. The latter half of the album is a strong one with the groove led ‘It Burns’, the ‘classic’ rocker sounding ‘Stand Up’, and finish on a strong un’,  the southern rock tinged ‘Free’ which will be a surefire hit when played live.

Is a great year for lovers of classic rock what with California Breed, Rival Sons, the excellent Blues Pills, and this. VATA firmly sit in good company

I cant’ wait to see them on tour in October. I strongly suggest you do the same!

Score 85/100

VATA are 

Virgil McMahon - Guitar, Vocals

Gabriel McMahon - Drums

Jack Alexander Timmis - Bass 

Tracklisting -

Take Me Higher

Blow To The Head

All Night Long

Love Agression

Give It Up

Through The Night

It Burns

Stand Up

Anymore

Free

Room Experience - Press Release

Press RELEASE - ROOM EXPERIENCE: First official trailer and singer announcement

Room Experience is the name of a brand new high profile project, born from the artistic partnership between keyboardist and songwriter Gianluca Firmo (from Brescia, Italy) and the production team composed by Davide "Dave Rox" Barbieri (Wheels Of Fire, Charming Grace) and Pierpaolo "Zorro11" Monti (Shining Line, Charming Grace, Lionville).

The debut album is currently being recorded in Italy under the production's oversight of duo Barbieri/Monti, while mix and mastering duties will be handled by star producer of the moment, Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline, Edge Of Forever, Rated X, Shining Line), at his Ivorytears Music Studio in Somma Lombardo (Va, Italy).

Firmo's songwriting skills are going to offer an exciting journey through a wide range of melodic rock styles, with influences coming from classic AOR to more up-to-date melodic hard-rock. With such a rich variety of styles to face, a powerhouse and versatile vocalist was needed in order to carry songs to completion, so UK's extraordinary singer David Readman (Pink Cream 69, Voodoo Circle) was officially approached to perform all the songs of the project.

The album is scheduled for a release in early 2015 on label tba. Further details regarding additional guests involved and more infos about the project will follow in the next weeks.

1st Official Trailer: Room Experience 1st official trailer

Room Experience official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/roomexperienceofficial

Moon Land featuring Lenna Kuurmaa - S/T Album Review

Automatically the word ‘featuring’ indicates that the person is of significant importance. Well up until the Frontiers Festival I’d never heard of Lenna Kuurmaa. To be honest, given the lackluster / limp / boring (delete as appropriate) performance on Day 2 of the aforementioned (but excellent) Festival, I thought that Moon Land featuring Lenna Kuurmaa (Jesus, I’m already fed up of typing this title) deserve a second chance as the circumstances leading to their performance, which seemed like a complete lack of preparation, did them no favours whatsoever.

Apparently Estonian Kuurmaa is a 360-degree performer - singer, actress and TV personality. Lenna has been the front-woman of the Pop-Rock outfit VANILLA NINJA, an all-female outfit, which debuted in 2002 with their self-titled album and went on to release internationally another 3 successful studio albums (which won Gold Records awards in Germany, Austria and Platinum in their home country, Estonia). In 2005 VANILLA NINJA also won the selection to represent Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Festival with the song "Cool Vibes", ending at the 8^th place.

VANILLA NINJA however went into hiatus and the members started to get involved in different projects. Lenna Kuurmaa appeared as an actress and TV presenter in Estonia and started a musical solo project under her own name, until she was approached by Frontiers Records with a concept to be return with a new international release with songs tailored for her singing style, with musical influences ranging from Heart and Europe with a touch of Roxette. Frontiers ‘go-to’ guy, the diminutive but most excellent singer / songwriter / keyboardist/ producer Alessandro Del Vecchio taking care of the production duties.

‘Heaven Is To Be Close To You’ starts off the album in good fashion, but fails to build on its early momentum. ‘Open Your Heart’ sees Kuurmaa trying to get all Roxette on us. If Waitrose is the musical equivalent of Roxette, then Kuurmaa is the Asda version. It’s an analogy wasted on a Euro audience, but you can find your own meaning. Basically it’s a poor mans Roxette, OK! ‘Crime Of Love’ and ‘Poison Angel’ tries to get back on track but are missing a spark to make them stand out from a competitive melodic rock genre

Without being repetitive, the remaining songs on the album basically follow suit. It’s the kind of inoffensive record that the likes of my wife would like – listenable, but not critical. Ideal as a background setting, but nothing else.

To be fair, MFLK has enough going for it to be given a second outing. Whether or not a certain head honcho at Frontiers allows this to happen remains to be seen. On the evidence of this debut, Kuurmaa deserves to be given a second chance, as her voice is the highlight of what is a lackluster album.

Score - 60/100

Moon Land Are –

Lenna Kuurmaa – Lead Vocals

Alessandro Del Vecchio - keyboards, percussion, backing vocals
Francesco Marras - guitars
Bruce Gaitsch - nylon guitar
Anna Portalupi - bass
Alessandro Polifrone – drums

Tracklisting –

Heaven Is To Be Close To You

Open Your Heart

Crime Of Love

Poison Angel

When Love Is Gone

Out Of Reach

Live And Let Go

Cold As Ice

Over Me

Heart Made Of Steel

Look At Us Now

Another Day In Paradise