After losing three members following the release of their debut album, Scorpions vocalist Klaus Meine and rhythm guitarist Rudolf Schenker merged with the remnants of a band named Dawn Road. Though the Scorpions name was chosen for the newly formed quintet, in terms of overall sound, their second album credited to Scorpions is a world away from their first. In fact, there are huge chunks of 1974’s ‘Fly To The Rainbow’ where the only recognisable feature is Klaus Meine’s vocal, and even that, in many places, has developed in style.
Tag Archives: hard rock
LAWLESS – Rock Savage
Lawless 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.
THE V – Now Or Never
Veronica “The V” Freeman will be familar to some as the vocalist with power metallers Benedictum, a US/Euro outfit who often favour bombast over decent songs. Her first solo release, 2015’s ‘Now Or Never’ (released via Frontiers Records, home of the previous two Benedictum discs) retains a fair amount of heaviness, but brings in a much welcome melodic element. The dozen featured numbers hark back to the days of classic eighties sounding metal, with tunes regularly casting Freeman in a Doro Pesche-esque mould.
INTERIM – Metanarratives EP
Interim are a five piece alternative/hard rock band from Australia who’ve previously been championed by their own country’s famous rock radio station Triple J. By the time of their 2015 EP release ‘Metanarratives’ the band sounds more than established – the five songs on this release are of a very high standard indeed, effortlessly mixing hard rock, post-grunge and blues sounds to create a heavy yet melodic style.
DEAD SHED JOKERS – Dead Shed Jokers
Following the release of their debut album in 2013, Welsh hard rockers Dead Shed Jokers were praised by UK’s Classic Rock Magazine and picked out as a band whose star was very much on the ascent. Two years on, their self-titled follow up brings the rock in a hugely unsubtle fashion, mixing heavy blues riffs with a truckload of distortion, a post-grungy attitude towards the more angular and a frightening amount of bravado.