Spearheaded by unknown guitarist Jeremy Brunner, X-Drive is a hard rock project that celebrates 80s melodic rock in a particularly unashamed and brazen fashion. Joining Brunner on this particular journey are ex-White Lion bassist James Lomenzo, Montrose vocalist Keith St. John and Midline drummer Fred Fischer. They say you can’t always judge a book by the cover, but this band’s general style should be obvious after one look at their dubious choice of album sleeve. It’s not as bad as Montrose’s staggeringly awful ‘Jump On It’ – a sleeve that clearly inspired the end result – but it’s pretty unnecessary.
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STRANGEWAYS – Age Of Reason
Despite some over-excitement by many aging rock fans, Strangeways supposed “comeback” album, 2010’s ‘Perfect World’, was far from perfect. So far from perfect, in fact, it couldn’t even stretch to being called average. The record featured eleven tracks which had the little life they possessed sucked from them courtesy of one of the most appalling production jobs to ever grace a melodic rock disc. The sound of a band desperately trying to be heard through a muddy dirge, ‘Perfect World’ was an insult to melodic rock fans and a bigger insult to vocalist Terry Brock, lending his great voice to the band for the first time since the 1980s.
New Winger album released in April!
Melodic rock legends Winger are set to release their sixth studio album in April.
It has also been confirmed the band are to appear alongside other melodic rockers Aerosmith, Red Dragon Cartel and “comic” relief Steel Panther.
Entitled ‘Better Days Comin”, the album reunites original members Kip Winger, Rod Morganstein and Reb Beach (also a longterm member of Whitesnake) with guitarist John Roth for a continuation to the band’s hard rock legacy.
HOUSE OF LORDS – Precious Metal
House of Lords’ self-titled debut from 1989 is somewhat of a melodic rock cult classic. The combination of Chuck Wright’s meaty bass work, Lanny Cordolla’s nifty-yet-melodic guitar shredding, Greg Giuffria’s bombastic keyboards and James Christian’s commanding vocals pull together excellently – like listening to a melodic rock supergroup, even though the original project was never conceived as such. Line-up changes for each of their subsequent recordings (1990’s ‘Sahara’ and 1992’s overlooked ‘Demons Down’) meant that the magic was never quite captured in the same way again, but these, nevertheless are enjoyable offerings.
RAINBOW – Down To Earth
With the seventies drawing to a close and with three successful albums released under the Rainbow moniker, the ever-restless Ritchie Blackmore looked to make changes. In a quest to push Rainbow towards a more commercial and radio-friendly direction a big shake up occurred, resulting in the departure of three of the band’s five members. While Cozy Powell retained his position on drums, a quest for a new bassist saw the appointment of Blackmore’s old Deep Purple mate Roger Glover, while the role of keyboard player was filled by future Ten/Deep Purple member Don Airey. Certainly the most devastating loss was that of Ronnie James Dio, who supposedly had no interest in Blackmore’s new vision for the band. Since a talent like Dio’s comes along once in a lifetime, perhaps other musicians would have fought to reach a compromise; but in any band featuring Ritchie Blackmore, Blackmore’s decision is final.