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Domain
- Last Days Of Utopia
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Limb
Music
Out Now
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Domain
have been on the metal scene for approaching two decades with Last
Days Of Utopia being their sixth album and most ambitious to
date. Last Days Of Utopia is a musical journey, in
which DOMAIN bring the world of Utopia to life with their mixture
of progressive, melodic and symphonic sounds.
The basic plot
line of the story as told by the lyrics is as follows, A New
Beginning takes the hero of the story on a voyage On Stormy
Seas to discover a new existence, during which he is stranded
on The Shores Of Utopia. In this Ocean Paradise he
at last discovers The Beauty Of Love, causes "he
Great Rebellion through his thoughts, before the Gods destroy
the paradise with Endless Rain. As the only survivor our
hero finds himself Underneath The Blue, floating on the
sea, Left Alone.
Musically the
band play powerful melodic power metal but with a slightly more
symphonic sound along with a straight ahead metal approach
which separates them from other bands in the genre. Led by
guitarist Alex Ritt the band is completed with vocalist
Carsten 'Lizard' Schulz [who sang on Iain
Ashley Hersey's The Holy Grail], keyboardist Erdmann Lange,
together with bass player Jochen Mayer (Boysvoice, ex-Demon
Drive, ex-Casanova) and ex-Symphorce drummer Stefan Köllner.
Musical highlights
include the fast paced second track A New Beginning, which
is rich in symphonic arrangements and home to a great chorus.
The symphonic Ocean Paradise where Schulz really flexes
his vocal muscles - home to a great chorus as well. The
Beauty Of Hope is a delicate ballad which has a nice classical
touch to its chord progression and arrangement. Endless
Rain sees metal muscle combine the symphonic backing to great
effect, whislt the classy mid-paced Left Alone closes the
album with great dynamics and superb performances from Schulz, Ritt
and co. The special edition digipack sees superb packaging
along with stripped back versions of 3 of tracks along with a couple
of other goodies.
This was my
first taste of Domain and I left very impressed. The band
have obvious metal pedigree and with Last Days Of Utopia
the band have produced an excellent slice of symphonic metal that
will please all but the most discerning listener.
Rating - 92%
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STRIDE
- IMAGINE |
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Sensory /
Lasers Edge
Out
Now |
Stride are a band that have been doing the
rounds for around 5 years. Hailing from Texas, Imagine
is the bands second album and first with vocals! The band
are a five piece and possess a superb sound that fuses Dream Theater
(Images & Words era) with Queensr˙che mixed with the AOR sensibilities
of Journey. The band played the prestigious Prog Power VI
in the USA in 2005 where by all accounts a rousing reception was
given.
Imagine
is home to 9 strong tracks that have a sublime blend of musicianship
and vocal melodies strong enough to pack an arena. The title
track opens the album and gives a good indicator of what to expect
throughout, but its track two, Alive, which really catches
your attention. Great musicality combined with a great vocal
delivery from Gary Berlin in the vein of Geoff Tate, fans of early
DT will greet this as if a second child has been born into the family.
The band flexes its instrumental muscle of Endeavour which
fuses neo-classical metal with prog rather nicely before How
Far showcases the bands more restraint AOR stylings in fine
fashion. The keyboards of Rick Flores and Joel Gregoire combine
nicely here for a rich backing. The epic 7 minute Role
Model crosses different sonic landscapes but maintains a clear
vision of its own. The Waiting sees the impassioned melodic
edge return and again Gregoire showcases some fine chops here.
Ion Drive is another instrumental that sees the band showcase
their technical abilities and its quite good fun playing spot the
influence here, I hear Dream Theater, Deep Purple, Yngwie,
Vai and many more. Face The Day is another excellent
track that fuses heaviness with a more restraint flip side and again
more musical goodies are contained here. Album closer
Time is what I would call the bands version of DT's 'Another
Day' only not quite so overly commercial (i.e. this doesn't sound
forced) and is a fine way to end the album.
Overall Stride
have been produced a very impressive proper debut (for all intents
and purposes) in Imagine. The band have all the tools to develop
a legion of fans around the world. The album is marred slightly
by a rather flat mix (which I suspect is more down to recording
budget) which shouldn't put you off, and one can only imagine what
a decent production budget would do for the band as they have the
song writing skills, musicianship and wide cross over appeal to
make some serious waves. Highly recommended.
Rating
- 90%
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MARCEL
COENEN - COLOUR JOURNEY |
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Lion Music
Jan 20th 2006 |
Colour Journey
is the second solo album from Sun Caged guitar whiz Marcel
Coenen. Unlike Marcel's debut solo album the instrumental
Guitartalk, Colour Journey features a range of vocalists
to make this a more accessible album for the vast population of
the world. Fans of Marcel's instrumental outings needn't fear
as there are a few instrumental to please you too.
Opener Waiting
is a fast paced progressive metal stunner which shows a more streamlined
approach than Sun Caged material but is in that ballpark.
The solo section is sure to put the hairs up on the back of the
necks of any guitar fan which sees Marcel trading solos with Bob
Katsionis (Imaginery / solo), from here we travel into instrumental
territory for the relatively straightforward riffer Abstract
Impact which is home to another killer riff and nice lead work
from Marcel. Patron Saint follows with its super tight
odd time signature detuned riffage which shows Marcel's Meshuggah
influence before heading into an Alter Bridge style melodic
verse before heading into Sun Caged like waters for the chorus.
A track that fuses a lot of styles and amazingly works superbly.
Next up is contender for instrumental of the year with the deeply
emotional and inspired La Bella Mira. Fans of Guitartalk
need the album for this track alone - simply stunning. Traumatized
To The Bone is more bone crunching 7 string delights and has
a very modern approach to it. The musicianship in the main
rhythms here is immense. The fusion esque Skill Factor
allows Marcel to flex his jazzier side and throws down some more
sublime lead lines making use nice use of double tracked lines,
the track also allows the rhythm section of bassist Richard Ritterbeeks
and Sun Caged drummer Roel Van Helden to show off their skills as
well. The Moment is a soothing acoustic and piano upbeat
ballad that if mainstream radio stations were more open minded would
probably be a hit around the globe. The track features good
vocals from Colleen Gray. The Shrink begins with a great
drum groove which is built upon with bass and then guitar locking
into a tight groove, before the track grows throughout into a nice
atmospheric piece of music. V(erbal) D(efense) M(echanism)
takes up back to Alice In Chains c. dirt for a strong slice of grunge
done with style as AIC did, the vocals of Hans Reinders are scarily
close to that of the late Layne Staley. Instrumental fans
will enjoy New Race which motors along with a Racer X intensity
and can be seen as the brother track of Race Against Time from Guitartalk.
Marcel's tone here and indeed throughout is superb as well with
an excellent production and mix. The mid paced progressive
Still Bleeding closes the album with more class and wraps
up an extremely enjoyable album.
Colour Journey
is a superb showcase of Coenen's talents which surely must be amongst
the very best on the scene at present. Fans of progressive metal,
killer guitar work and strong songs pick this up ASAP.
Rating
- 90%
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PAT
TRAVERS - P.T. POWERTRIO 2 |
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Provogue / Blues Bureau
27th Feb 2006 |
Second instalment
of classic rock covers from classic rock guitar hero himself Pat
Travers. The power trio format is again retained but this
time drums are handled by Badland's drummer (and Racer X vocalist)
Jeff Martin and bassist Steve Evans replacing Gunther Nezhoda
(bass) and Aynsley Dunbar (drums). This is another of Mike
Varney's musician assembly projects and hope that what comes out
is good. Luckily as with the first instalment it has worked
(unlike the awful Schenker Pattison thing).
What we get
here is 13 tracks from the like of Johnny Winter (I'm Yours, She's
Mine), Stone Cold Fever (Humble Pie), Rock Me Baby (BB King), Black
Night (Deep Purple), Red Skies (Tommy Bolin), Rock The Nation (Montrose)
and How Many More Time (Led Zeppelin) amongst others. The
performances are solid, Travers lays down some great pentatonic
based soloing and wicked slide work and the rhythm section has more
life to it than on the previous outing.
Fans of Travers
may yearn for more solo material but you cannot deny that this album
is guaranteed a good time. Crank it in the car and enjoy.
Rating
- 84%
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JUST
LIKE PARADISE - A MILLENNIUM TRIBUTE TO DIAMOND DAVID LEE ROTH |
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Mascot Records
10th March 2006
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Diamond Dave,
the ultimate front man famous for his works in Van Halen and his
subsequent solo career. Sadly trends change, hairlines recede
and your once rapid throngs of fans are not quite numbering what
they once were...answer Vegas! When that doesn't work you
push for a Van Halen reunion, you get close but that dies...so what
do you do? Simple when you have as quick a mind and the wit
of DLR its natural that you go to radio. But that's another
story, what we have here is a tribute to Diamond Dave's work with
Van Halen and solo career (stopping at Skyscraper).
Performed by
many of rock's "C" list acts we get some good covers such
as Panama by Jimmy Crespo (ex Aerosmith) and Richard
Kendrick and Shy Boy featuring George Lynch and
Tony Harnell (TNT) but otherwise its a pretty poor show indeed,
and one has to wonder what was the point? Is there really
a market for this? Yes the hardcore Lynch nuts may well buy it by
hardcore Roth fans probably won't bother once they hear a clip of
two.
I was hoping
this would be good but apart from the 2 tracks mentioned it really
is covers by numbers with no real energy or enthusiasm. Enuff
Z'nuff's cover of Yankee Rose is plain horrid.
I just hope that anyone that hasn't heard any of Roth's solo works
do not base their views on that material on these covers.
Ignore this and go out and but Eat Em & Smile and Skyscraper
now!
Rating
- 30%
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