Updated 18th November 2003

Steve Lukather & Friends - Outland - Shortino/Northrup - Toyz - Train - Mystery Blue - Tarot - Biomechanical - Zon - Hardline - Body Electric - Johnny Lima - Dave Varlet - Snake Charmer - Craaft - Double Cross - Kee Marcello's K2 - Bonfire - Far North - Balance Of Power - After The Silence - Ulysses - Sayit - Qwestion Y

All reviews by Andrea Bertamino except where noted

A Merry Xmas coming early this year from Lukather & friends (Steve had already been part of "The Carols Of Christmas 2" in 1997 and "Merry Axemas 2" produced by Steve Vai in 1998), but don’t expect the familiar Christmas songs or at least the covers are not performed in their more traditional shape, because these versions are totally different with massive injections of rock and fusion and grow quite another song.

It’s not for "Jingle Bells" sung by Sammy Davis Jr. and anyway with an arrangement of the big bands of Bing Crosby’s years such as "Winter Wonderland" that delivers a duet with Edgar Winter.

The cd contains eleven songs, but the bonus track "The Christmas Song" is unavailable in my advanced-cd that’s opened by a stunning version of "Joy To The World" in which Steve duels with Eddie Van Halen over a thunderous rhythm section served by Greg Bissonette (dr, only he and Simon Phillips know how to drive such a drumming so damn well) and John Pierce (bs) the only two musicians playing all the songs.

The distorted and jazzy arrangement of "Greensleeves" (Edgar Winter on sax) and "Carol Of The Bells" (featuring one Trevor Lukather and the third solo is by Steve Vai) sees Lukather’s electric power facing electric piano (by Jeff Babko) and sax breaks, while in the flaming "Broken Heart For Christmas" (written by Lukather/Babko and guesting Slash) and in the linear rock song "LooK Out For Angels" (from the pen of Lukather/Babko and Michael Landau plays the first solo) is Steve himself to sing, and "Angels We Have Heard On High" is a relaxing piece where also Lukather stops his overplaying to be more concentrated on notes worth of a vocal singing.

Among the musicians there are also Lenny Castro, Scott Hamilton, Walt Fowler.

"SantaMetnal" is a confirmation of class and versatiliyy of Toto’s guitar player and if you’re not afraid by the rock/fusion/big band genre, go and buy, you won’t be disappointed.

Without warning, from the sunny California we salute the very good AOR debut album realized by the only Jeff Prentice (vc – ex Predator, an heavy metal band with some albums released for Metal Blade in the eighties) and Rob Nishida (gt, bs, keyb – 2000 Weed) who put together a dozen of songs in the wake of big acts like Survivor, Boston, Aviator and Night Ranger.

"Valerie" open the album with its pace rich in melody and keyboards halfway between Drive, She Said at their best and Aviator (and the same goes for "Strong Enough"), followed by "Love Alive", between Boston and Eddie Money, with a very catchy refrain and by the airy slow "Forever Yours" that has anything such a song must have to please.

"One More Night", with hints of White Sister and Survivor, turns up the atmosphere and prepares our ear to the Boston-like "Mary Anne" with its purely ‘80s spirit and its contagious pace.

With "Last Forever" Outlands place another classic ballad rich of pathos, voices and keyboards, while "Different Worlds" adds a pompous touch to Survivor and Boston di un tocco pomposo.

Absolutely to enjoy the good and sparklin cover "Love Cries" of Stage Dolls performed with class and the powerul AOR of the Japanese bonus track "Lost In Your Love" which has echoes of the magniloquent expressivity of White Sister and the refrain doesn’t overcome the other parts of the song.

A really good surprise that will please the needs of the fans of classic AOR!

Contacts: http://www.outlandmusic.com

Ten years after its original release only in Japan, the album "Back On Track" by Paul Shortino (vc – Rough Cutt, Quiet Riot) and JK Northrup (gt) is reissued with four bonus tracks that add value to this collection of hot and glimmering hard rock songs.

Also the list of musicians is impressive: Bobby Kimball sings in the nervous semi ballad "Forgotten Child", Sean McNabb, Jeff Pilson, Matt Bissonette and Larry Hart play bass, Richard Baker and Brant Harradine are on keyboards, James Kottak, Carmine Appice and Glenn Hicks beat the skins.

The splendid combination between the rough voice of Shortino and the brilliant guitar work by Northrup gives birth to a long series of exalting, sincere and enjoyable songs that at once made my faithfull air-guitar appear in my hands.

From the thunderous opener "When There’s Smoke" to the last note of the fourth bonus track "Wishing Well" is all an endless flowing of emotions that left me breathless for their uncorrupted and untamed pure hard rock passion with "When There’s Smoke", "The Kid Is Back In Town" like Y&T, "Give Me Love" far better than the best Zebra and "Wishing Well" (a mix of Hurricane and Coney Hatch) as the best songs to me.

There are also more melodic tracks like the damn ear-grabber "Everybody Can Fly" and the AOR of "Pieces" and "Far Too Long", so as they also play some good blues ("Girls Like You" and "Used To Be"), but I stop with words and let the music do the talking.

From Paris, France, comes the five piece Toyz with a stunning five-tracks demo-cd graced by a sound superior to many releases of the European AOR-labels (and not only), but it’s above all the quality of songs to catch my attention with that melodic hard rock that’s not enough to recover riffs stolen to the giants of the genre (anyway there are some similitued that are never too evident/invadent).

Kept in mind these words, let’s start with "One Step" introducing us to the world of Toyz with far echoes of Dokken and Danger Danger and adding a nice dramatic touch. "She’s A Star" recovers in its refrain and in the keyb solo the pomp rock attitude of the ‘70s close to Styx, Sugarcreek and Roadmaster (thanks also to the analogic sounds of synth), performed with a production and a feeling of late ‘80s and it’s a good song to listen to.

With "Lost In Honk Kong" we’re again into the class rock camp with that dynamic mid tempo bouncing Survivor and Dokken, while "Thrill Of Flesh" is more vicious and cheerful and Steve Lynch wuold have been proud to have it on the debut album of Lynch Mob, an anthemic song that also on stage should work fine.

"Big Ice-Creams (And Love Stories)" is a mocking and struttering party song like Danger Danger/Winger (and also a touch of Slade) written and performed just to make listener jump for joyness.

I do hope that the boys have more songs at least of equal level to gain that deal that in the late ‘80s would have arrived in a blink of an eye, but also today their fresh harmonies will satisfy many people.

Contacts: http://toyzOnline.free.fr , toyzContact@wanadoo.fr

TRAIN "My Private Nation" (Sony) Rating: 80

Release number three for the American band Train who had a good success with previous album "Drops Of Jupiter" (of now three years ago) that’s double platinum and Train are here at least to confirm and if possible too make their fans base grow thanks to their simpl modern rock well sung by Pat Monahan.

Opener "Calling All Angels" has already been playing on the internet radio for weeks capturing the ear with his catchy refrain, but it’s not the best song of this album that continues with "All American Girl", another easy to remember song, and semi-ballad "When I Look To The Sky" quite close to Richard Marx.

The moodier "Save The Day" plays with words in the refrain ("Hey baby, I don't wanna be your superman/I just wanna be your man and I'll be super, baby") and carries us along the day with its bitter sound, so as the titletrack does and its verse recalls the late Police mostly thanks to the peculiar use of voice.

"Get To Me", "Counting Airplanes" and "Following Rita" are three nice fillers and in the fist one once again Richard Marx appears in the refrain, with "Your Every Color" to get the sound of the ‘60s and filtering it thru nowadays lens, and similar fate is for the splendid "Lincoln Avenue" in some passages close to the music of Paul McCartney (and Monahan doesn’t avoid to emulate the expressions of ex Beatles).

The only real slow "I'm About To Come Alive", a heartfelt song rich in emotive intensity and melody, closes with grace the come back of Train, whose personality is less explosive if compared with Matchbox Twenty or Vertical Horizon, but not for this inferior in terms of artistic results.

After the recent appetitizer three-tracks demo, the historical French heavy metal band (it was formed early in the ‘80s and was the first band to sign for Axe Killer Records) releases another cd containing ten song plus hammering intro of pure and powerful heavy metal as it was used to be played on the ‘80s and close to Judas Priest, Saxon, Accept, Anvil and Iron Maiden.

The 90 seconds of intro "HumanE.T." work as bothering introduction to the fast paced and dynamite "Slave To Blood" worth daughter of the Priests circa "Painkiller" on which singer Nathalie Geyer shouts high notes like Rob Halford, and also following "S.T.A.G.E.", althought q little slow, will please fans of early Maiden and Anvil.

"Dark Visions" starts with a dark semi-acoustic part to explode into an epic mid tempo recalling of Queensryche, Iron Maiden and also the ‘once-upon-a-time’ Scorpions, but soon after here it is the hammering European heavy metal europeo of "Metal Dream" that owes a lot to Accept and "Angel" makes the primordial spirit of Maiden and Saxon resurrect, with a cathcy as ingenuous refrain, while thunderous "Roller Coaster Ride" and "Silent Whisper" invade the trash metal ground.

"Desolation" and "Land Of No Return" (the latter closer to Warlock) try to give more atmosphere to MB’s sound and in the closing "Cry Out" the band offers again the initial Priestish roots.

So we’re in front an album released almost twenty years too late, but don’t be victim of nostalgic thoughts and I can affirm that a true defender shouldn’t miss this bloody portion of old ‘80s heavy metal.

Contacts: http://www.mysteryblue.com , HMysteryblue@aol.com

Some five years on from their "For the glory of nothing" album, and with a new home at Spinefarm, as opposed to the less effective Bluelight, Tarot return.

A heady brew awaits the listener, a blend of Helloween, Evergrey, Kamelot,  Metalium and Dream Theater circa "Awake", all underpinning Marco Hietala's hugely melodic rasp.

"I rule" is Kamelot atmosphere, Janne Tolsa's keyboards to the fore, combined with the sort of riff from Zachary Hietala that Kai Hansen would want to pinch, as Marco Hietala delivers menace and melody.

"Pyre of Gods" is a progressive monster, a lightning strike across the portals of Valhalla itself, with a chorus worthy of massed Nordic ranks, as is the brooding bass shimmered "Rider of the last day".

"Undead son" is Kamelot with a bitter undertow while the restrained power of  "From the Void" reveals a chorus of the kind Andi Deris pens too infrequently these days.

All in all a welcome return for a band that deserves every success this album should bestow upon them.

by Andrew Paul

Imagine for a moment a band combining and blending the best of Nevermore, Queensryche, Judas Priest, and adding a that certain indefinable twist of their own. A band like that could be special.

Imagine no more, the band exists, and it is a British band into the bargain. Ladies and gentleman, the rock deities bring you Biomechanical.

The band are already veterans of the Bloodstock festivals, and vocalist John K is currently in Balance of Power, but "Eight Moons" is a serious step in the wider arena.

Opener, "The Awakening" is "Painkiller" fierce, but underpinned by a keyboard driven melody, and John K dovetailing Halford and Warrel Dane to stunning effect, as the guitars of Jamie Hunt and Chris Webb  take us to the places we wish Tipton and Downing still would.

"Do you know me?" is Nevermore with the grit of pure British steel and a stunning multi-vocal chorus, while the twisted Zero Hour with weight of " In the core of darkness" sees John K switch from Anselmo growl to the unholy hunger of a Tate trained Banshee  melody enfolding the whole in a warm embrace.

 The situation for British metal has been improving over the last 18 months or so, but Biomechanical are ahead of the pack as demonstrated by "Hunted"'s statement of intent, or the hauntingly orchestrated title track which sees John K's startling vocal balanced again Rob "Book of Secrets" Brown's Burtonian narration, the pair detailing the voyage of a universe. A wondrous tale, and worthy of inclusion on the soundtrack of a film yet to be made.

"Save me" is a towering offering of Rychian light and shade and demonstrates exactly what Balance of Power should apply themselves to, while illustrating the reach and grasp achieved by Biomechanical so far.

Awesome is too often ill-used when referring to bands, but Biomechanical's potential is awesome, and I look forward to awarding the full complement of marks next time.

by Andrew Paul

The worthy re-issue collection by Escape Music goes on with the digital remaster of "Astral Projector" (1978) and "Back Down To Earth" (1979), a gem and a half of Canuck pomp rock in a de-lux digi-pack.

Born about half of the ‘70s when the Act Three band of singer Denton Young lost guitarist Rik Emmett who joined Triumph, soon Zon started working and in’78 they released "Astral Projector", a masterpiece in his genre adding theatrical aspects, tons of keyboards and melodies, energy, a groove recalling more lucky acts as Styx, Starcastle, Touch and a slice of Queen, the whole of course in pure ‘70s mood.

If you’re into this kind of music you’ll easily love songs like "Put On The Show", "Time For Your Love", "Point Of View/Where To Spend My Dollar?", "On The Road" and "Astral Projector", moments preserving the most true and sincere soul of Zon who also grabbed the attention of CBS that added them to its rooster and released the album.

The year after "BDTE" saw the light and the label pushed Zon to make their sound more commercial without giving the necessary time to write more qualitative songs, even if "Circus", "Please Stay" and "Back Down To Earth" are at the same level of previous album.

But poor sales, negative comments and a change in the commercial view of CBS played against Zon who were left without deal and then signed for the small Falcon Records recording and releasing the (quite weak as far as I heard about) third album "I’m Worried About The Boys" in 1980, after which Zon disbanded.

Drummer Kim will play later with Canuck bands Urgent, Hannover Fist and Lee Aaron, while keyboards player Howard Helm will be back with the great Refugee (two very good albums under their belt), but today there a re rumors of a possbile Zon reunion, we’ll see.

Meanwhile enjoy this piece of the past with particular attention to "Astral Projector" album, and Escape is quite ready to release digipacks re-issues of past Orphan and The Creek albums.

http://www.escape-music.com

The 2002 edition of Gods of AOR has been used by Frontiers/Now & Then to bring onto cd (and video) the Harem Scarem show and now it’s up to Hardline, at that time with few rehearsals made and the recent joining of Josh Ramos (gt) and Bob Rock (dr), more there’s also Gudrun Laos, already fronting the band named Laos in the early ‘90s.

The sound is nice (consider that I think no correction has been mand in the studio), the musicians performance is to be underlined for professionality, even if some mistake can be heard (it goes also for Rush and Dream Theater, so...) by bass player Bob Burch, a set of songs taken mainly from the debut album "Double Eclipse" released ten years before, and space for drums and keyboards solos.

As stated before, I don’t remember so fine the songs featured on "Double Eclipse" and the remembrances were not so good, but I must admit that in this live-album I enjoy tracks like "Hot Cherie", "Everything", "Life’s A Bitch", "I’ll Be There" and the cheerful "Rhythm From A Red Car".

The cd contains also three studio bonus tracks, that are the hard rock-blues "Hypnotized" (kind of Zeppelin’s "Dazed And Confued" revisitated in arena rock key), the acoustic version of "Only A Night" (the origianl electric version appeare on "II" and in the present live section) and the nightly ballad "Mercy" written with "Slip Of The Tongue" by Whitesnake well in mind.

The same gig is also offered in DVD version shot on Beta SP using five cameras, in Region Free NTSC code.

http://www.frontiers.it

One more good re-issue by Escape Music with Body Electric formed by ex Straight Lines (2 albums for CBS) Bob Buckley and David Sinclair who, enrolled Frank Ludwig (vc, keyb – Trooper, Union) and Ross Friesen (dr), signed with Attic and in 1984 published the album "Body Electric" (1984) which, as following ep "Two Worlds" (1985) with Sinclair as lead singer and Ludwig only at keyboards, gained few success. So BE signed for the small label Parallel One Records owned by their new managers and in 1986 "Walking Through Walls" saw the light but soon after the label faded and also the history of the band reached its end.

Today we have their best album reissued with five bonus tracks and, if you like one techno-AOR of mid ‘80s with its goods and bads, you’ll easily enjoy the music of these Canadians that has several points in common with Go West, Cutting Crew, Loverboy, Haywire, Corey Hart and, in particular in the slow numbers "Nobody Touches Me Like You" and "After the storm", with David Foster.

Rich of keybs and choruses, but with electric guitars well in evidence when needed, we can taste some good songs such as "Lines Are Breaking Down", the slow "Out Of The Blue" like Gino Vannelli, the mid tempo "Ordinary Madness", "It Must Be Magic" and the more symphonic "The Things You Didn’t Do" taken from the Straight Lines albums.

Sooner or later we should have from Escape Music the reissues of The Creek (now ready), Straight Lines (probably very close) and other AOR heroes of the ‘80s, meanwhile please enjoy these 65 minutes of good music.

http://www.escape-music.com

Third album for Johnny Lima faithfull to his own music credo with the eleven songs here featured and the not so good sound (only the openers "Made In California" and "Best Night Of My Life", in my opinion the best songs of this cd and the ones mostly worth to be enjoyed thanks to their good and powerful sound, while the remaining tracks seem coming from a demo) doesn’t help the big choruses prepared by the Californian Lima.

It’s true, there are always the now usual similitudes with Bon Jovi of the ‘80s explicit in the slow "We’ve Got Tonight", in the mid tempo "Where Are You Now", in the anthemica "The Chosen One" and in the closing "Welcome To My Paradise", while the cheerful "Go On, Go Away" is closer to present days.

There are also traces of power pop in the funny "Another Girl" and in the new version of classic The Beatles "Help" so as hints of Def Leppard couldn’t be left out and we find them in nice "Love Ain’t Enough".

After some very releases such as Harem Scarem, Vertigo and Pride Of Lions, the anglo-partenope label takes a breath.

http://www.frontiers.it

Singer Dave Varlet from Belgium sent me his single featuring two songs and another one featuring contiene covers performed in his shows with the band Radio Bikini.

Dave, before going solo, was a member of Runaway with whom he realized some demos in the past years, and today he debuts in his new adventure with "Totally, Faithfully & Deeply", a cheerful pop/AOR track well arranged in the wake of Richard Marx allowing him to demonstrate his clean and decided vocal gift.

The other track of the single is "In These Arms", a cover of Bon Jovi, also it sung with class and passion.

The ‘cover-cd’ includes six songs performed very well by the whole band, the first of which is a medley of Toto’s classix: "Stop Loving You", "Rosanna" and "Hold The Line", and Dave wins if compared with the original singers who marked with fire such songs. Then it’s up to a more than decent version of "Always" by Bon Jovi and to a great version of Survivor’s "Eye Of The Tiger". Then the demo has some problems because I cannot hear to any of the remaining songs (and don’t know which they might be as there’s no title written).

To give a more complete opinion about the writing skills of Dave I need to hear him with a greater number of music written on his own, but for the moment I think Dave is a very good singer. Time will tell.

Contacts: http://www.davevarlet.com ; dave_varlet@hotmail.com

Another re-issue, this time it’s up to the Swedish super band Shake Charmer that almost ten years ago published its now rare to find debut album and in 1998 this "Backyard Boogaloo" that saw only the Japanese sun.

The musicians involved are Goran Edman (vc - Glory, Malmsteen, John Norum, Street Talk, Kharma), Benny Jansson (gt - Erika), Jens Johansson (keyb – Malmsteen, Dio, Stratovarius), Per Stadin (bs - Silver Mountain) and Anders Johansson (dr - Malmsteen, Hammerfall), together to performe a number of catchy songs betseen hard rock and pomp rock somehow preluding to what the excellent debut album by Kharma will be few years later, with those hints taken from Queen, Styx and Supertramp, plus temptations of refined ‘70s pop "Free floating" (between Steely Dan and Gino Vannelli).

To mention the presence of three songs brought by external writers that are the cover of "Life On Mars" (David Bowie), "She Made Me Fall" (Jeff Paris) with that malicious pace between Bad Company and Coney Hatch, "Someday You’re Gonna Love Someone" (Jeff Silbar / Mark Baker) with catchy choruses like Styx over a rock pop base.

There’s also the bonus track "Cold Hearted Woman" (with evident influences by Bad Company) and two songs marked as ‘previously available on in Japan’, as also the remaining cd or I am wrong?

Anyway this is a decent cd and if you love some sound melodic hard rock well performed you’ll find here what you’re looking for.

http://www.mtm-music.com

For Bad Reputation, sub Ulftone Music label, it is released the reissue of debut album by German band Craaft, who released three albums between 1986 and 1992, headed by singer Klaus Luley (formerly with Tokyo) and helped by drummer Sandy Gennaro (Blackjack, Pat Travers).

This re-iussue include a second cd containing sixteen songs taken from demos of 1987 with almost all the songs featured on the official album althought in a slightly different version.

"Craaft" is considered the best of the three albums containing some nice melodic rock performed with the usual German precision, not so original even if released in 1986, for sure enjoyable and rich of catchy refrains with influences by Europe, Fate, REO Speedwagon (above all the ballad "You’re The Best Thing In My Life" brings these hints), Boston ("I’m A Mover" is an illegittimated daughter of them) and a use of keyboards that two years later Jojo (founded by guitarist Robby Musenblicher, formerly ex Tokyo too) will performe with a more American touch on their one off.

The ingenuosnesses are pared by a great attention in arrangements and and cure of choruses in typical American AOR tradition, giving more melodic flavour to songs like "I Wanna Look In Your Eyes", "Breakin’ Walls Ain’t Easy", "Hold Me" and "Cool Town Lover".

On the second cd I like "Highway" and "High, High, High" (close to Survivor), the airy power ballad "Takin’ Away" and the sweeter "Takin’ My Time" which steals a couple of passages to Pink Floyd.

Nice but not essential.

Even if they’re English, in the veins of Double Cross fa pure American ‘80s arena rock flows with big guitars, big vocals, flashy solo, plenty of keyboards to give more depth to the songs, anthemic choruses, several citations stolen to Night Ranger, Winger, Heaven’s Edge and Dokken.

Led by veterans of the rock scene as singer Rick Chase (Mama’s Boys, Graffiti) and drummer Steve Philpotts (ex Prowler, one of the many bands of the NWOBHM), DC give the start with thunderous "Reach Out", temple of the banals particurarly in its pre-refrain and also following "How Do We Know?" is so different with a very catchy refrain in pure ‘80s style so that at first listening I wondered to be in front of old hits revisisted and re-recorded by a new band (an English and poorer answer to Khymera, Vertigo and Perfect World).

But reality is different and "Touch The Sun" and "All My Days" show a little more personality, increasing the pompous side in the airy power ballad "When Two Worlds Collide" (Bob Catley on backing vocals), whose ingenuos refrain makes me imagine how Helloween might be if they decided to play a melodic/arena rock track, and in the majestic eastern pace of "Valley Of The Kings".

The not brilliant production doesn’t help Double Cross whose passionate and heartfelt performance allows them to overcome the too low originality of the twelve songs included in this "TAT", songs that under one point of view made me jump back in time bringing to mind so many melodies of past years (above all of the ‘80s), but under another point of view I have to admit that this summary of AOR/arena rock is rich of catchy and well played harmonies that will please young listeners who didn’t live those years.

Fans of Giuffria, FM and of the above mentioned bands (and of Dreamtide) will be satisfied of this purchase and I hope that next step has a much better production, the same level of class but a greater personality in writing songs.

Anyone expecting Europe retreads, Red Fun flamboyance or "Shine on" introspection best check your expectations in at the door, as Kee Marcello's K-2 sits snugly alongside none of them.

K-2 is essentially a power trio with Marcello on guitars (doh!), vocals & keyboards with the Snowy Shaw on drums and Klatuu on bass, and they deliver an album rich in melody and power.

"E.M.D" is Masqueradde circa "Flux" meets Kings X with Marcello's vocals operating in a similar area to the formers Tony Johansson, while "Enemies" is Alice in Chains shorn of the weighty misery.

"Blood" sees an excursion into Butch Walker territory though without Walker's vocal command, while "Raptor" from the film "Blood Simple" is Masquerade meets Jimmy Page on a road heading into Kashmir, and sees the band hit a righteous groove.

The Butch Walker comparison crops up on "Hey Romeo" which also hints at pre all purpose celebrity Bryan Adams, and is blessed with a simple yet elegantly poised chorus, and with a decent push could snap up some radio play.

"Evil Ways" is-gulp-Metallica with a grasp of melody and a poppy hook and some flowing guitar lines from Marcello, whose playing impresses throughout.

Aside from the cod-Britpop of "Epic" this in an expertly produced album that bears repeated listening and in the aforementioned "Hey Romeo" and the glorious melodies of Comin' Home" has a couple of single if someone dared seize the chance.

"Melon Demon Devine" is worthy of your attention being a classy offering from a class act, and I direct you to www.keemarcello.com for further details.

by Andrew Paul

After Snake Charmer, the newborn sub label of MTM Music offers another re-issue once again from the Swedish back catalogue and now it’s up to Far North fomed in 1993, two years later debutting for the small label SMC Records who released it in Sweden and Japan, then silence fell upon them.

The eleven songs plus bonus track are in the pure Skandi melodic rock with an important presence of keyboards which add a pompous toch to the songs coupled by a flaming guitar work by Jan Andersson and Peter Karlsson and by the decise and good singing of Patrik Jonsson.

The first song "Yes I’ll Try" is the sum of what written above with hints of early Fate and Treat, guitar riffs sustained by big keybs and very catchy vocal harmonies, but also good are "Never Trust A Stranger" halfway between early Shotgun Symphony and CITA, "Freedom Is All" similar to early Glory, "Phantoms" which adds some progressive and celtic hints.

The greatest fault of "What?!" goes to the songs that are quite homogeneous and it makes the listening a little less interesting than each song really deserves.

Not a classic, but worth to be discovered again.

An institutions of German rock, with more that twenty years of music under the belt, ten albums selling more than 4,5 millions copies worldwide, is back without keyboardist Chris Lausmann who after twelve years goes for a different road.

But "Free" changes also the sound towards the modern rock (listen to "What About Love", i.e.), althought the ‘80s roots of Lessmann/Ziller cannot die the day after, so I fear that older fans will be quite surprised and don’t know how many young listeners will turn their attention towards these untamed ‘old-men’. Anyway "Free" contains some good music as "I Would Do Anything 4 U" with fragrant pop harmonies or the warm ballad "Free".

Waving around the average there are the oriental hard rock "Preachers And Whores" in which I hear traces of DAD and Ac/Dc, the undecided "Love CCA" (a little of Vertical Horizon, a little of The Beatles in the refrain, a touch of old Bonfire), "September On My Mind" which reflects above the present passage of Bonfire between past and (possible) future and the closing slow "Friends" (avoid to go to the silly seconds after some silenced minutes).

Among the most embarassing moments there are "Rock’n’roll Star" (with traces of the less brilliant Bon Jovi and a voice filtered thru a megaphone!), the nerveless westcoast "Give A Little" and opener "On And On...", a bad copy of the worst Kingdom Come in the refrain and a mix of Eros Ramazzotti and Matchbox Twenty in the verse.

If you are old fans of Bonfire, try to listen to something before purchasing "Free".

"Heathen Machine" is Balance of Power's fifth album, and features their third lead singer, Englishman John K replacing the talented Lance King. To borrow liberally from a Wildean bon mot, three singer across five albums smacks of something a little more than just careless.

The short piano lead "The Rising" , a vocal based piece intro opens proceedings, and it is obvious that John K is very "Rage.." era Geoff Tate( sometimes perhaps too much so) though with a huskier edge at the lower end of the range. His vocals twist and soar over the Priest gone progressive riffs of the title, before reaching up into a big chorus, and first rate guitar ( from one assumes Pete Southern) and (unaccredited) keyboard call and response.The drawbacks remain from previous albums, namely the irritatingly artificial drum sound favoured by Lionel Hicks that seems to bleed the depth from the songs , and having said all they wanted to say in 3 minutes they keep saying it for a further 3 minutes. The latter criticism can be levelled at " I wish you were" which echoes bass player Tony Ritchie's USM project in it's appreciation of modern dynamics, yet become over extended and thus a weakness.

Drum sound aside, they nail it on the infectious yet heavy "Chemical Imbalance", with it's brooding light and shade, it's Tate with a twist of himself from K and it's elegantly observed chorus. A song that illustrates how good this band can be.

K delivers a stunning vocal on "No place like home" blending the chest, mixed and falsetto voices expertly, before delivering a chorus that harks back to "Book of Secrets".

With a press release informing us that BoP  have" finally become a real band" -5 albums in!- one cannot help but feel this could be make or break for this talented band. When you something like the dark Dream Theater pomp of the Arabic flavoured "Necessary Evil" one hopes its make.

Niggles aside there is much to admire on "Heathen Machine" which is possibly the band's best album since the masterful "Book of Secrets", whether that's enough is open to question, and I wonder at the wisdom of mentioning it in the same breath as Queensryche's "Empire".

As the cliché states so helpfully, time will tell.

by Andrew Paul

A six piece coming from Holland, After The Silence release a demo cd recorded while rehearsals and so the sound is rough but it gives us an idea of what Ingrid van den Berg (vc), Willem van den Hof (gt), Ardy van Breemen (gt), Marcel van Rooij (bs), Edqard van Galen (dr) and Joop de Rooij (keyb) can do.

The voice is too often in second ground overcome by the other instruments (particurarly by the keyboards) so I cannot give a complete and clear opinion and more ATS cover a wide music spectrum from the quite anonimous and useless heavy rock of "King Of Hate", to the pleasant and good AOR midtempo "Let Love Surround Me" whose songwriting is equal to bands like Witness and Nexx.

"Roaring Silence" changes style once again offering a melodic heavy rock with progressive hints and the male ‘growls’ are alternated to Ingrid’s voice (a little like the recent "Bring Me To Life" hit by Evanescence), while closing "Resurrection" and "Weary Angels Heart" sound next to Demon circa "Taking The World By Storm" with nice results.

The good impressions must be confirmed on the long run and with a professional recording.

Contacts: http://www.afterthesilence.nl , afterthesilence.rocks@hccnet.nl

This is the real debut cd for Dutch band Ulysses dealing with a symphonic prog-metal with few points in common with Dream Theater, while many more are those with Everon, withouth too many technical passages, even if sometimes the band comes to cite itself and repeating too many times the same riffs.

Also singer Raymond Jansen is not so comfortable for their genre, is voice is too forced and is the weakest member of the band (to forget his performance in the epic power ballad "The Script", otherwise really intriguing, and his lacerating highs in "Unspoken Words" that would have benefited from a shorter lenght), while nothing wrong can be said about the good performances by Ron Mozer (keyb), Renè Schippers (bs), Renè Van Haaren (dr) and Sylvester Vogelnzang de Jong (gt).

In the 56 minutes of "Symbioses" we can hear some interesting and working change of time and atmosphere, sudden accelerations, good solos and keyboards always ready to drive fast solistic raids, the whole sustained by a solid and precise rhythm section.

Almost every songs contains reasons to make you buy the album, even if the above mentioned ‘pities’ press the pedal on brakes.

Shorter songs and a better singer would have given more importance to this cd, and the boys have been very careful in providing also attention in production and in artwork (very good!). I cannot say this is a bad debut cd, but at the same time I humbly ask Ulysses to consider with greater wiseness the next moves adopting those changes to gain greater success and justice.

Contacts: http://www.ulysses-online.nl , info@ulysses-online.nl

As the title promises, the third chapter of Sayit formed by Tommy Denander / Geir Rönning (Radioactive, Prisoner), joined by talented Tony Franklin (The Firm, Blue Murder, etc) on bass and Erik Somphan on drums, is much ‘louder’ than the previous cd, going decisely towards an European melodic hard rock melodico like Hughes Turner Project with Whitesnake (of early ‘80s) / Bad Company hints thanks to the great Geir’s vocal performance.

The greatest pity of this album is about the songs seldom worth the level of the musicians involved and seldom leaving the wish to hear them again.

"Stand Up" is a rocker that Denander would have better left on a forgotten tape being totally anonymous and boring (and using it as the opener...) and the same is for "That Ain´t Me", between which we can hear "The Queen", a powerful AOR mix of Toto and hard rock like HTP, an uptempo that always finds favour in me. Noy so bad also thanks to Tommy’s jobs, "A Love I Can´t Handle" recovers the feeling of Rainbow with JL Turner and stands right above the average, with following "Come Please Me, Completely" in the same mood but a step below and semi-progressive "I Am King" totally out of place and game.

Quickly again in the AOR field with semi-slow and useless "Longing For Someone To Hold" badly similar to Michael Thompson Band and Toto, before hardening the sound with "John Doe" and "Love Without A Reason" and HTP / Rainbow are again on the helms.

I wonder how the riff of burning "I May Be Hurt, But I’m Free" might sound if it came in the hands of Steve Harris (Iron Maiden), while pre-chorus and refrain are very catchy in the style of Glenn Hughes as also "Waiting For My Love" that closes an album all in all to be soon forgotten (but why doesn’t Tommy concentrate his energy in one band/project?) and it’s a pity that Geir had sung at his best on generally quite poor songs.

QWESTION Y "Qwestion Y" (Self Produced) Rating: 60

Qwestion Y is an American trio debutting with eight totally instrumental songs for almost an hour of music embracing above all the heavy metal style with some prog and fusion hints (but take the last words in their less conventional meaning) and we don’t have here solo after solo.

In fact often the three guys seem to have recorded basic tracks waiting for a singer, abunding in riffs and different music situations.

It’s not so easy to follow the complicated their music and I’m not so sure that fans of guitar heroes like Vai, Satriani, Tafolla & Co will appreciate such a magma of chords and compressed rhythms. The musicians show to know their instruments very well, but they must decide to enroll a sing or to exalt the solistic lines because they’re not Anglagard (this band belongs to a very different genre, ok, but it’s just to give an idea).

Contacts: http://www.qwestion.net , strutter@qwestion.net