PRIDE OF LIONS – Fearless

POLF2017Jim Peterik is a legend. His work on various Survivor albums cements his place in the melodic rock history books, regardless of anything he has written or recorded since the 80s. Tracks like ‘American Heartbeat’, ‘Jackie Don’t Go’, ‘I Can’t Hold Back’ and ‘Poor Man’s Son’ are stone cold classics…and of course, it would take a hard heart not to be amused by the ‘Eye of The Tiger’ video with Survivor attempting to look tough whilst stomping through a warehouse.

Peterik’s post-Survivor projects have, understandably, been less high profile. After all, how can you follow a million selling rock band, radio play and worldwide number one singles?

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IRON MAIDEN – No Prayer For The Dying

maiden 90As the 1990s dawned and Iron Maiden entered their second decade as recording artists, their eighth studio album presented the band’s first real misfire. Sure, 1981’s ‘Killers’ may have used of a lot of leftover material but it had a lot of heart, but ‘No Prayer For The Dying’ (released in October 1990) is the first Maiden release that could be considered bad. Maybe that’s harsh. To put it another way: it is one of those albums which sounds solid enough at first, but dig a little deeper and repeated listens show it to be generally unremarkable. And obviously, compared to Maiden’s previous heights – following a decade where the band could barely put a foot wrong – that’s not so good. Since its predecessor ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’ offered especially memorable material in ‘Infinite Dreams’, ‘Can I Play With Madness’ and ‘The Evil That Men Do’, it didn’t seem like too much of a leap of faith to expect ‘No Prayer…’ to deliver a similar standard of goods, but most of the album sounds genuinely flat by comparison with any of its forebears.

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ERIKA – Deaf, Dumb & Blonde

erikaHaving released a string of albums in the 90s and subsequently retreated from performance into the world of song writing, Swedish rock singer Erika Norberg marked the end of an eighteen year recording hiatus with the release of 2016’s ‘Deaf, Dumb & Blonde’. There’s always a lot riding upon a performer’s return…but on the basis of these dozen hard rock tracks, she probably shouldn’t have bothered.

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THE MURDER OF MY SWEET – Beth Out Of Hell

muder of my sweet bethFormed in 2007 around the talents of drummer/producer Daniel Flores and vocalist Angelica Rylin, The Murder of My Sweet is a symphonic metal band based in Sweden.  Their third album, 2015’s ‘Beth Out of Hell’ is a ridiculously grand affair straddling a fairly typical symphonic metal sound with huge elements pulled from musical theatre.   Those who enjoy Within Temptation, Nightwish et al might glean some listening enjoyment, but to say its bombast is both one-paced and predictable would be an understatement.

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LAWLESS – Rock Savage

lawlessLawless is a band that brings together a few cult names from second division hard rock bands.  Vocalist/guitarist Paul Hume and drummer Nigel Ogden have previous ties with Demon, while guitarist Howie G previously played with Persian Risk.  ‘Rock Savage’, their debut album, pulls elements from various classic rock sources, adding up to create a release that has the speed of classic Dio and Saxon, coupled with the melodic edges of many a Euro rock outfit.

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