Category Archives: aor

FIRST SIGNAL – First Signal

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What is there to say about Harem Scarem? Their first three albums rank among the finest melodic rock releases of the early nineties. Occasionally, their lyrics ended up somewhat cryptic (and for that, read nonsensical), but among their band members they featured a first rate guitarist in Pete Lesperance and in Harry Hess, they had a top class vocalist. However, by the time of their fifth album, 1998’s ‘Big Bang Theory’ (rather confusingly issued with differing tracklistings in Canada and Japan), Hess’s vocals began to sound a little forced and their material wasn’t as instant as it once had been. Harem Scarem continued to release albums up until their 2009 break up, but despite each one containing some good material, none were as consistent as the band’s early work.

In 2010, Harry Hess teamed up with Khymera/Pink Cream 69 bassist Dennis Ward forming the core of First Signal, a band which ought to appeal to fans of Harem Scarem’s classic early work. This is clear from the opening bars of ‘This City’ which opens with an attention-grabbing lead guitar courtesy of Michael Klein, whom although not quite up there with Pete Lesperance, does his best to fill the album with enough guitar showboating to keep Scarem fans happy. While Hess’s vocal style isn’t quite as strong as it was back in the early nineties, he still contributes a decent performance here (as good as his performances on his 2003 solo outing ‘Just Another Day) and regarding the song, its chorus is very strong indeed. If you came looking for a bit of the old-style Harry Hess magic, you’ll find it here in abundance.

‘When You Believe’ follows in a similar vein with another top chorus, but it’s Eric Ragno’s keyboard fills which give the track it’s best quality. Although I’m a fan of 80s style stabbing rhythmic keyboards, Ragno’s rather more accomplished fills are really classy (in an 80s rock way, naturally), with their shiny edges. The upbeat ‘Into The Night’ provides plenty of bounce and Hess turns in a natural performance; here, Klein’s guitar work is rather more understated, his solo far simpler than he could have managed and in contrast to ‘When You Believe’ Ragno’s keys sound buried in the mix. Despite the production here not being quite as sharp as it could’ve been, it doesn’t detract too much from the song.

The title cut is a solid rocker, opening with muti-tracked guitars. Punchy without being heavy, it’s a timely reminder of what made Harem Scarem great back in the early 90s. Klein alternates effective staccato guitar work with some decent fills, before launching into another effortless solo (even if a little short). The chorus utilises some classic sounding harmony vocals, making it another track which ought to please fans of this style of melodic rock. ‘Feels Like Love This Time’ taps into a mid-paced, classic 80’s style radio-rock. Sure, you’ve heard it all a thousand times, but it’s hard to ignore when done well – and had this been written earlier and passed into the hands of Bryan Adams or Def Leppard, it could’ve been huge. Great to hear the mix of electric and acoustic guitars here and while Hess’s vocal sounds slightly ragged, the end result makes this one of the album’s best tracks.

The mid-paced ‘When November Falls’ features some decent staccato guitar work during the verses, before launching into a chorus which is gentle and simple. Despite sounding a little over familiar, it still manages to be effective thanks to great song writing. It’s been said elsewhere that this may have suited John Waite…and hearing it, it’s not difficult to understand why. If you’re a Scarem fan, ‘Yesterday’s Rain’ is a three and half minute snapshot of why you need this album. With verses dominated by Michael Kline’s hard and rhythmic chords, this paves the way for a solid pre-chorus, before the band hits the listener with a harmony-filled chorus which could have easily been a left-over from the sessions for Harem Scarem’s 1991 self-titled debut. Hess and the rest of the band are on good form, but it’s the great song writing matched with uncomplicated arrangements and harmonies which gives the track its greatest strength.

First Signal haven’t released this album with any dreams of being contemporary. It’s the work of musicians who love what they do and do it extremely well. In short, this First Signal album is the closest anyone associated with Harem Scarem has come to recreating the consistency of the band’s early releases.

September 2010

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TERRY BROCK – Diamond Blue

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Despite stints as vocalist with Kansas, Giant and Louisiana based melodic rock outfit Le Roux, Terry Brock will, to most people, be best known as the vocalist with Strangeways, the AOR band with whom he recorded two excellent albums – 1987’s ‘Native Sons’ and 1989’s ‘Walk In The Fire’. In 2003, Brock released ‘Back To Eden’, a solo album on Frontiers Records. Including material co-written by Survivor’s Jim Peterik, the album featured some great moments; however, as good as the songs were, the demo quality of the recording let the side down somewhat.

Early in 2010, the announcement came that Brock would be reuniting with Strangeways, which was good news for AOR fans across the globe. While fans anticipated the arrival of the proposed 2010 Strangeways “comeback” disc, Terry Brock paved the way with the release of his second solo album, ‘Diamond Blue’.
Teaming up once again with Frontiers Records, Brock’s second album is far stronger than his debut. This is not least due to ‘Diamond Blue’ actually having half-decent production values – there’s a lot to be said for releasing something which sounds finished, as opposed to polished demos (something so many small melodic rock labels seem to fall into). Take Brock and an album which sounds like a finished product, and then add City Boy/Steelhouse Lane man Mike Slamer on guitar and you have the right ingredients for a fantastic melodic rock disc.

Essentially, ‘Diamond Blue’ won’t give you any great surprises if you’re already a Terry Brock or classic Strangeways fan, but you likely wouldn’t have wanted it to… The title track, which opens proceedings, captures the brilliance of the Brock/Slamer team in an instant. Brock’s soulful vocal is the perfect foil for Slamer’s mid-paced riffery, which at first uses a couple of chords which appear slightly edgy, but he soon settles down. Good use of harmonies beefs up an already solid chorus – it’s the kind of stuff these guys have been doing for years and, by now, could do in their sleep. The same could be said for ‘It’s You’; while not as immediate as the opening number, it’s mid-paced riff and lead guitar harmony have the makings of absolutely classic AOR.

‘Jessie’s Gone’ (a title which, naturally, makes me think of Rick Springfield’s ‘Jessie’s Girl’) is special in that it was co-written with Strangeways man Ian Stewart. While it’s chorus isn’t quite as strong as I’d hoped for (just a little bit too simplistic), a detailed pre-chorus is proof enough that Brock and Stewart still have their old magic. Combine that with a decent punch on the verses and a superb Slamer solo it’s another of the album’s stand out cuts. ‘No More Mr Nice Guy’ is heavier – giving Mike Slamer more opportunity to rock out – and while the lyrics are a quite silly, Brock delivers them with conviction – ever the absolute professional.

‘Broken’ is interesting in that the opening riff promises something quite heavy. This doesn’t last, as the riff gives way to a gentle mid-paced rocker, allowing Brock to use the softer edge of his voice during the verses. Its chorus, which makes full use of harmony vocals and the harder edge of Brock’s range, is faultless in its delivery. ‘Face In The Crowd’ provides the album with something a little more uptempo than Brock and Slamer’s usual approach, built around an acoustic jangle. Slamer contrasts this with some excellent electric counter harmonies (including a cracking solo). Brock, meanwhile, demonstrates that he’s vocally at ease with whatever is thrown his way.

The end of the album tails off a little for me. ‘Too Young’ falls foul of 80s rock “she’s jailbait” style lyrics; I could tell you that Slamer’s hard rock guitar riff packs a decent enough punch, but once Tezzer starts singing about the 16 year old who could be 30, the cringe-factor is just that little too high. While ‘A Soldier Falls’ is certainly heartfelt, its pro-American anti-war stance is so unsubtle it becomes hard to swallow and ‘Face The Night’ – the ballad which closes the disc – has too much of a saccharine factor to make it stand up with the album’s best moments. Minor complaints though, especially when you consider how superb the rest of the songs on this album are.

Despite my misgivings of the last few tracks, ‘Diamond Blue’ is one of the best melodic rock releases of 2010. Fantastic vocals, the inclusion of the god-like Mike Slamer and decent production for a small label make Brock’s second solo venture a winner. If you’re a fan of solid AOR, get this as soon as you can.

September 2010

JON MULLANE – Shift

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Jon Mullane may be familiar to North American listeners since this album’s opening track, ‘Make You Move’, was used on NBC’s trailers for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Released two years later (talk about not cashing in on potential advertising), this album’s biggest interest lies in the fact that Mullane’s co-writer Creighton Doane – one time drummer with the mighty Canadian rock outfit Harem Scarem – is also in the producer’s chair and the drum stool…and what’s more, he’s bought Harem Scarem’s Pete Lesperance along to play guitar.

On Harem Scarem’s early albums, Pete Lesperance proved to be a decent guitarist (their first three albums are well worth checking out if you like melodic rock and haven’t already done so – their third, ‘Voice of Reason’ is particularly underrated by the melodic rock community). Then, about the time of Harem Scarem’s fifth album ‘Big Bang Theory’, Lesperance traded in his best styles for a more “modern” approach…and sadly, on Mullane’s ‘Shift’, he seems to favour a similar style – a slightly distorted rhythmic choppiness replaces his classic, medium range fretboard gymnastics. And so, the potential excitement surrounding Lesperance’s contribution to this disc, for me, had all but vanished by the end of the second track.

With that, it’s down to Jon Mullane – whom, we shouldn’t forget is running the show here – and his songs to stand on their own. Overall, there are only flashes of greatness among a quagmire of dullness, I’m afraid. It suffers from the complaint that its songs are essentially 80s rockers, but they’ve been dressed up to appear more cool and alternative. I never understood that emperor’s new clothes thing and Jon Mullane is no exception.

‘Make You Move’ plods along predictably; a fuzzy edge to the guitars and a slightly gravelly approach to some of the vocals attempt to give the impression that the track is more modern, but at the heart lies something that is unashamedly 80s. Handclaps and woo-woo’s kick start ‘Got It Goin’ On’, which typifies driving music for those who never quite made it out of the 80s. Having half of Harem Scarem on hand really should have helped pick this up a gear, but as mentioned, Lesperance’s guitar tone has no shine and once you factor in Creighton Doane’s drum sound being quite weak (it appears to have been given some electronic oomph elsewhere on the album), it doesn’t fire up the listener in the way it really could have.

A couple of tracks try far too hard to be edgy: ‘Sin City’ has distorted keyboards providing its muscle – which irritate fairly quickly (interestingly though, Lesperance’s solo is half decent, though nowhere near as good as he’s capable of); ‘Missing Time’ utilises a similar mechanical, distorted sound, interspersed with a ticking effect to highlight the little meaning behind the song (like you were too stupid to get it…) There are occasional appearances of some eighties synth pop keyboards which sound like novelty doorbells, but generally, there’s nothing here to keep you coming back for more.

There are a couple of decent numbers, but those only really pull the album up to a middling standard, given the low batting average here. ‘The One That Got Away’ is a decent ballad, which, with a bigger set of boots could have fit snugly on a latter day Vertical Horizon disc, or maybe that overlooked sole album by Neve. With a bit of luck, it wouldn’t sound out of place on a montage scene in a hit US teen drama; ‘You Get What You Get’ provides some one-two marching on the spot punchiness and momentarily gives the impression that the album is about to pick up, while the gentle rock of ‘Change Your Life’ shows promise, despite its by numbers approach; the piano flourishes help lift it a little farther, but a weak chorus lets the side down.

To be honest, unless you’re a Harem Scarem completist, or else wondered what that music was on the Olympics trailer (although, since this album was delivered some two years after the event, it’s likely you’ve forgotten about it), you could probably live without this album.

July 2010

MASS – Sea Of Black

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Despite this Boston based hard rock/melodic metal band forming in 1980 and releasing albums throughout that decade, they’ve never really gained much attention. They were inactive throughout the 90s, but returned at the beginning of the 21st Century and played live shows, which eventually led to a comeback album ‘Crack of Dawn’, released on Escape Music in 2007. I’ve been a fan of melodic and hard rock for years and have an extensive collection of cult albums, but somehow, Mass passed me by completely. This 2010 release – again released by UK based melodic rock label Escape – marks the first time I’ve heard them.

The opening track ‘Falling From Grace’ is probably the heaviest thing on offer as the verses really thunder, but this is counterbalanced by a very melodic chorus; this approach reminds me of the self-titled album by Heaven’s Edge (for those of you who’ve never heard that, their approach of melodic rock with guitar histrionics is almost unrivalled). During moments of this opening track Louis D’Augusta’s vocal approach can seem a little waily, but even so, it’s obvious right from the start he’s got a decent voice – although for me, it’s one which works best when played down a bit. ‘All The Years Gone’ slows things down and here, Mass are at their strongest: Gene D’Itria’s guitar riff hits a solid groove with a classic 70s rock vibe, but it’s Joey Vadala’s drum work which gives the track real power; his drum fills are more than reminiscent of a Bonham style, and due to this, it’s hard not to hear a Led Zeppelin influence.

The same heavy drumming is at the core of ‘All That I Needed’, its mid-paced stomping riff providing a base for one of D’Augusta’s more restrained vocal offerings (at least during the verses) and the guitar riff has a chuggier approach. You’d think given its chug and the heavy drums this song would end up sounding rather heavy handed, but at this stage in their career, Mass are clearly old pros and never overplay anything here. If you want things overdone though, look no further than ‘More Than a Friend’, a track which makes Firehouse’s ‘When I Look Into Your Eyes’ appear tough. In all honesty, this track’s four minutes made me feel queasy with its sickly sentiments, acoustic guitars and wailing. I like a rock ballad as much as the next man (provided that next man isn’t from a Norweigan black metal band), but this – in a word – is hideous. ‘Hear Me Now’ pulls out the acoustic guitars again, but uses them in an entirely different way. The contrast between the electric hard rock and these acoustics is fairly striking. The acoustic guitar remains clear in the mix after the heavy riffs make an appearance and are still used to create rhythm underneath a fairly aggressive guitar solo. This contrast, in fact, was one of the first things which struck me about ‘Sea of Black’.

‘Ashes To Ashes’ goes for a different tack again, in that the verses are guitar free. The drive here is provided by Michael Palumbo’s bass playing. His approach is very solid (and repeated listens of this album show him to be a decent player) and as such, the absence of guitars here almost goes unnoticed. When the guitars kick in, they are suitably heavy, replete with a decent amount of squeals. As with a few of the other tracks, it’s the drum work which provides this tracks greatest feature as, during a bridge section, Vadala goes for his best Bonham-esque fills.

‘Sea of Black’ is well produced and although musically it’s almost instantly familiar, Mass clearly have plenty of potential in their retro rock sound. Those who like hard rock with hair-metal touches and an occasional Zeppelin-ism should find more than enough entertainment here.

June 2010

N.O.W. – Force of Nature

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‘Force of Nature’ is the debut release by N.O.W., a Brazilian based melodic rock outfit formed by bassist Alec Mendonça. The music was recorded in Rio de Janeiro (aside from a few drum parts recorded in Sweden) and the tapes were then sent to Los Angeles, where ex-Unruly Child vocalist Philip Bardowell laid down his vocal tracks. The resulting album offers thirteen hook-laden songs which push all the right buttons – especially for Philip Bardowell fans.
‘Can’t Make It (Can I)’ opens the album with the band in full-on rock mode, focusing largely on Caio de Carvalho’s guitar riff, although there are moments where some classic sounding AOR keyboard work breaks through. Although this is great, it’s on the slower numbers where the band sounds more comfortable, particularly those with a traditional mid-paced arrangement. ‘Listen To Your Heart’ is the album’s masterpiece. It’s a classic example of AOR – the keyboards take a stabbing approach and the bassline is uncomplicated, but it’s the vocal arrangement which is key: Bardowell sounds absolutely at ease and his lead vocal is fabulous; on the chorus, it has a well-placed backing vocal as a counter-balance. ‘Once That Feeling Comes Again’ is a standard mid-paced rocker, but stands out due to another use of stabbing keyboards, as well as featuring a couple of pleasing keyboard flourishes. ‘You’ begins as a grandiose piano-led piece, where Bardowell could be accused of over-singing. Things settle down with the addition of drums and guitars, at which point the track becomes another in a long line of songs which sound like they’ve come off the AOR factory’s production line. There’s nothing wrong with it, but ‘Force of Nature’ offers better moments.
‘Lonely Soul’ is an excellent soft rocker, which should please fans of Jeff Scott Soto and ‘Long Way From Home’ features some well played pompy keyboards, before settling into a techy 80s groove on its verse; this track sticks out a little, as its stylistically quite different to the other songs. ‘Hail Mary’ opens with some terrific soaring guitar lines, before the main riff kicks in. As with most of N.O.W.’s material, it has a mid-paced approach. The pre-chorus feels a little out of place but a couple of effective guitar fills help to make it work; when the chorus eventually arrives, it resembles melodic rock at its best, with another big hook. ‘I’m Free (But Not Ready To Go)’ is slow-burner of a song which seems to take a long time to get to the chorus. While the chorus is memorable, I would have shoehorned an extra one in, before the two minute mark, especially since verses are in a key not best suited to Bardowell’s voice. Once it hits its stride and he gets to hit the higher notes, though, it becomes another standout track. The closing number comes with a great lead guitar part, full of vibrato. With regard to the lead guitar in the end section, Caio almost steals the show here with some smart fretboard work. It never upstages the song, though, as once again the chorus here is incredibly strong.
Although there are no bad songs here, the (polished) demo quality of the recordings stops the album being truly great (it’s also worth mentioning that for some reason ‘Long Way From Home’ has also been mastered at about a third of the volume of the rest of the disc). However, fans of melodic rock – and particularly fans of the mid-nineties releases via labels like MTM – should find plenty of enjoyment here, even if ‘Force of Nature’ sounds like something you’ve heard a thousand times before.
March 2010