CROSS COUNTRY DRIVER – The New Truth

Over the years, Rob Lamothe has explored different musical avenues. Although best known to rock fans as the frontman with Riverdogs back in the 90s, his sometimes overlooked solo career has taken in elements of thoughtful singer-songwriter moods (‘Gravity’), acoustic sounds (‘Wishing Well Motel’), hints of Americana (‘Long Lazy Curve’) and even blues (‘Shine’, recorded with Craig Erickson). Since Lamothe is clearly able to turn his hand to anything and his solo career continually looked forward, his decision to record a brand new Riverdogs album in 2017 came as a surprise. However, ‘California’ was well received, even if the material sometimes felt like a massive step backwards.

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KXM – Circle Of Dolls

Over the years, dUg Pinnick has put his name to some fantastic albums. His long career with King’s X has afforded him a legendary status. Likewise, guitarist George Lynch has performed on some great material. Even at times when Dokken’s material didn’t hit the mark back in the 80s, Lynch’s lead guitar work was almost always terrific. In theory, a union between the two should have created hard rock gold, but unfortunately, the first two albums released by KXM – their supergroup with KoЯn’s Ray Luzier – were patchy affairs. 2017’s ‘Scatterbrain’ was an improvement on the 2014 debut, but still fell a little short in direct comparison to anything by King’s X at their very best. The bulk of this third album – their first for Frontiers Records – follows suit with another hit and miss collection of heavyweight rockers.

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