At a time when so many AOR albums seem to be constructed from predictable European inflected bombast – often well played but full of forgettable material, or else just poorly executed all round – it’s an absolute pleasure when a disc comes along that impresses. This full length release from State of Salazar does just that. Bringing together the talents of various Swedish musicians and fronted by vocalist Marcus Nygren (previously of metal band 8-Point Rose), ‘All The Way’ offers something near melodic perfection. With similar sounds to their closest contemporaries Work of Art, celebrating the sounds of Toto and Survivor, the result is the best AOR record since State Cows dropped their debut in 2011.
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MOONLAND – Moonland feat. Lenna Kuurmaa
The record company office, sometime early 2014. Approximately 2:47pm, European time. A couple of hours of brainstorming for new ideas has reached a typical impasse. A man in his mid fifties with thinning hair paces up and down anxiously. Without anything fresh to put forth, he calls for assistance. Taking a phone from the pocket of his thirty year old stonewashed jeans, he pokes at the keypad.
“Is that Del Vecchio?” he asks, somewhat expectantly, “we need your help… Do you have any new songs? Bueno. Do you have connections to any European female vocalists we’ve not yet recorded? You do? Stupendo!”…
X-DRIVE – Get Your Rock On
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.
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.