Incorporating influences as diverse as Progressive to R and B, Speaking To Stones musical style encompasses many different styles and genres. Bands such as Rush, Dream Theater and King’s X may be obvious at first listen but numerous plays of the CD also reveals touches of Marillion, Soundgarden and Peter Gabriel just to name a few. Though the CD has its fair share of chops-laden technicality, there is also strong attention given to making progressive music that grooves and has strong melodic sensibilities. One does not need to be a fan of only progressive music per se to enjoy the broad musical styles that ruminate throughout the CD.

Opener ‘Still Life’ is probably one of the best songs Dream Theater never wrote with its change of moods, great guitar work, drumming all topped off with the vocals of Richard Fink IV.  The chorus suggests a more modern side of the band showing off some of the choruses favoured by today’s modern metal bands. Yet this blends nicely with the more progressive sound of the verses and instrumentation.  ‘Rescue Me’ sees the tempo drop a little for some heavy riffery and this something that again both prog metal fans and modern metal fans could get into.  ‘Waiting For…’ begins reminiscent of a mix of Dream Theater’s ‘Surrounded’ and Creed’s ‘My Sacrifice’ (but doesn’t kick in until much later).  In short this is finely crafted metal with excellent performances and flawless melodies and has hit written all over it.  ‘Down’ sees the intensity taken up a few notches with a chunky 7 string guitar riff which sounds massive.  The track breaks down to a restraint verse with nice bass work before heading into another quality chorus.  ‘My Final Sin’ is probably my favourite track on the album with again superb instrumentation, killer vocals, a great vibe and great production.   Clocking in at just over 9 minutes the track never gets stale and you get the impression this could go on even longer maintaining the quality had the band so wished.  ‘Close To The Sky’ sees the Rush/Kings X sound mentioned in the intro come in mainly due to guitarist Tony Vinci’s use of open strings in the rhythm pattern giving a Lifeson/Tabor slant.  ‘Shallow’ begins with a haunting piano motif kicking off its 10 minute running time and this leads nicely into a mid tempo guitar riff with keyboard colouring on top before leading into a guitar/keyboard doubled solo which leads into more riffs before the vocals come in halfway through;  again superb quality throughout and another epic that doesn’t get stale.  Closing tune ‘Nothing’ reminded me a little of the qualities displayed on Alice In Chains ‘Jar Of Flies’ acoustic ep (a good thing) before, the track fools you a few times thinking the intensity will kick in and it eventually does 3/4s of the way through which leads into a very impressive solo from Tony Vinci.

Overall the debut from Speaking To Stones is simply one of the best prog metal debuts I have heard in a long time and comes highly recommended.

Rating  - 90%

Mob Rules - Ethnolution A.D. (SPV)

German melodic power metallers Mob Rules have been on the scene since the late 1990’s and whilst I am familiar with a number of their early works when they were signed to LMP records the last few releases have passed me by unnoticed. So when the promo for their new album ‘Ethnolution A.D.’ landed on my doorstep I was intrigued to see what the band were up to a few years down the line.

The first thing to strike me was that the intensity seems to have been reduced somewhat with a more melodic power entering the fray and to be honest I think I prefer it. Instead of trying to be one of what seems like a never ending throng of speed obsessed double bass drum led workouts with fever pitch vocals, Mob Rules see fit to work more with the actual arrangements and structure adding some nice classic touches throughout the album. The opening title track is split into six sections all of which work well as songs in their own entity. ‘Ashes To Ashes’ is quite superb reminding me of the kind of thing Iron Maiden should be doing now with its great riff, strong orchestration and infectious melodies and this high quality trend continues throughout each of the title tracks six movements. The quality does drop a little for the rest of the album however and these numbers seem to be a little more predictable, yet Mob Rules do come out higher than the majority of the competition in this field.

Overall, the band are probably better now than when I last heard them and anyone that has yet to check out the works of Mob Rules will find ‘Ethnolution A.D.’ a rewarding start.

Rating – 80%

Whitesnake ~ Live: In The Shadow Of The Blues (SPV)

The long awaited new live album from Whitesnake and I can give this a definite thumb up. Overall a better sound, better performance and better track listing than the recent live DVD entitled ‘Live… In The Still Of The Night’. Plus there are 4 new studio tracks all co-written by David Coverdale with guitarist Doug Aldrich.

The live material is a good mix of early Whitesnake ('Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues', 'Ready An Willing', 'Take Me With You',an awesome 'Slide It In'), all the biggies from '1987' plus 'Judgement Day' and 'The Deeper The Love' from 'Slip Of The Tongue'. All see guitarists Reb Beach and Doug Aldrich in excellent form and Coverdale sounds better here than on the "Live in the still of the night". The production is also a lot better with better separation and a meatier guitar sound. To say that Beach and Aldrich may very well be the best guitar duo Coverdale has had in the band to date is no overstatement.

Onto the 4 new tracks, first up is "Ready To Rock" which fuses classic early 'Snake with some Coverdale/Page influences but has a good delivery and is a relatively straight forward rocker. "If You Want Me, I'll Come Running" is quite modern in its approach - BIG riff from Aldrich, in fact quite reminiscent of recent John Sykes solo stuff, Coverdale vocals sounds a little nasal here but the riff and overall performance is again good. The ballad "All I Want Is You" sees the smoky low Coverdale trademark start over organ chords before leading into the big chorus and I can see this getting some serious airplay if modern day radio are open to the Whitesnake name. Finally we get the dark Blue Murder-ish "Dog" which is pretty darn good as well. Nice guitar tones, a little Zeppelin (Black Dog) in its verse call and response and polished nicely with a superb production. If you are expecting 1987 Mk.II from these new tracks then you may be disappointed, but these 4 tracks do show that Whitesnake have viability in the new millennium and their is definite potential in the Coverdale/Aldrich song writing department.

Overall a very worthwhile purchase from Whitesnake and one that should consolidate their return to the scene nicely until a new full studio album is ready in 2007.

Rating – 88%

Skid Row to many fans will always mean Sebastian Bach as lead vocalist and this is always going to be a hurdle the band are gonna have try to overcome in their current guise. However, that said the promo material that accompanied this material made me feel that this new incarnation was even better with new vocalist Johnny Solinger. Now to make things clear I wasn’t expecting a ‘Slave To The Grind’ or ‘Subhuman Race’ (a vastly overlooked album btw) approach on this album and I wasn’t disappointed in this sense. Instead I got a band which it can only be described are average hard rock with a modern slant and that’s at best.

‘Revolutions Per Minute’ may try and be threatening in its track titles such as ‘Disease’, ‘Another Dick In The System’, ‘You Lie’ or ‘Nothing Is Dead’ but sadly the music and vocals are not exactly threatening in the slightest. Ok there are some good riffs here which original guitarists Dave ‘Snake’ Sabo and Scotti Hill will probably peel off until they die, but the lead work is very predictable and the overall shape of the music is nothing new in the slightest. Even when the band try and pull off their Rachel Bolan punk influence sound such as ‘Another Dick In The System’ it sadly now sounds stale and generally dull.

Skid Row in 2006 do not possess half the class, power or energy that they commanded over 10 years ago and to be honest all this will really do is tarnish the Seb Bach era albums (Bach can also be criticised similarly in his solo output). This is a band that needs their original vocalist back and he could probably do with them back. Overall one for die-hards only put be prepared to be not overly impressed.

Rating – 30%

The second album from the freshly reformed Europe coming a couple of years after the strong ‘Start From The Dark’ an album that was good straight from the off and boded well for a bright future. So it was some excitement when I popped “Secret Society” into my cd player for the first time, pressed play and found myself not getting that excited and finding it increasingly difficult to maintain any enthusiasm for the album the further it went on. Since this initial first spin I have given it numerous listens that extend into double digits and it still does nothing for me.

The opening title track starts promisingly enough but then feels the need to take the modern rock approach too far with a total unnecessary breakdown in the middle which ruins the song. “Always The Pretender” has a fairly good riff but to repeat it over and over gets monotonous quickly and the chorus is a total none starter. Joey Tempest then informs us that “Love Is Not The Enemy” which is home to some detuned Norum riffery over which Tempest feels the need to try and sound like Scott Weiland with way too much mono effect on his vocals. Luckily the chorus is good, although reminiscent of the material on the previous album but the song basically just smells like Europe trying to be someone else and Norum sounds like he is mailing it in for the solo.

“Wish I Could Believe” sees the band seemingly have injected a concoction of Soundgarden (c. Superunknown) and Core era Stone Temple Pilots, both good albums but NOT what I want to hear from these Scandinavian rockers. To say it sounds like the band realising their sound of old doesn’t get radio play anymore so they will go with what stands a chance is close to the bone here. “Let The Children Play” begins with a half-cocked wah riff from Norum before the band kicks in and the Seattle comparisons heard on the last song raise their head again sadly. “Human After All” begins promisingly enough with keyboard orchestrations before another Norum downtuned riff brings back to the, by now, familiar sound of this album and it’s a song that ultimately washes itself over you unnoticed. This trend continues again for “The Getaway Plan” which really begins to show the stale formula of this album for what it is. Luckily just when I had about given up all hope of getting a decent song the tender “A Mother’s Son” comes along, led by piano and restraint orchestration which grows in a very natural way. Again Norum feels the need to down-tune for the chorus (this is not a Creed album, Mr Norum!) but this doesn’t spoil the track.

“Forever Travelling” is another semi decent track which again thanks to the more melodic nature of it reaps the benefits. Tempest’s voice is good here, clear and unaffected by any studio trickery (save for the odd harmony backing) and Norum also manages to reel the detuned riffery in - a highlight. The title “Brave And Beautiful Soul” gives a clue that this is likely to be another dreary modern rocker and it doesn’t disappoint in that sense. I get the impression the band are going for a U2 vibe, all well and good if you happen to be U2, but as well all know that is wasn’t Europe is about. The album closes with “Devil Sings The Blues” which kicks off with a good acoustic bluesy lick before building and its probably the highlight of the album with Norum’s best solo too showcasing his great touch and phrasing which, sadly, is all too lacking from the majority of solo sections on the album.

I really wanted to like this album; in fact I was sure I would after “Start From The Dark”. But it has failed to make an impression on me save for a couple of tracks after numerous repeated spins. I have persevered with it as I thought I should like this, but the simple fact is I don’t. As mentioned in the track by track analysis the problem is too many down tuned riffs (save them for the solo albums John) which loose their impact after a while. Also there are too many examples of the band trying to sound like other bands which make those songs sound forced. The tracks that stand out sound like “Europe” tracks with a natural feel and delivery. Sonically the album is very well produced (arguably better than “Start From The Dark”) but a good production does little to save songs that aren’t happening and unfortunately for the most part these songs aren’t.

Rating – 45%