Dark Symphonies 2002
Review by 12 Oktober 2002

You can’t go wrong with Dark Symphonies-label’s releases, if you’re into the more darker or atmospheric kind of music. Once again they are offering an interesting band, Brave, who arose from thorns.. Actually, they were formerly known as “Arise From Thorns”, but changed their name somewhere in 2001. With the name change they’ve taken a bit more progressive direction, but not giving up on the athmosphere. And that athmosphere is given to you by the singer Michelle Loose. With her clear voice she will probably touch female fans and of course those male fans that aren’t too prejudiced against female singers. Brave are indeed an emotional band and they would be quite lost without a female singer.

But Brave aren’t just that female softness. They combine different styles with class and the melody is always there. Though here and there the music starts drifting somewhere and loses it’s best grip. But not so much that it would bother really. Mostly this band is giving a nice and relaxed feeling to the listener and the progressive parts aren’t as aggressive and complex as what the word usually means to most people. You'd better maybe forget that prog-part, because Brave are more about the athmosphere, not about notes and technical skills. Though they are being introduced as a progressive metal band, you better not believe that. It’s misleading. They’re not your Dream Theater. Nowhere near so heavy.

Some of the songs have a haunting touch to them, which might attract the fans from gothic side. There’s eleven songs here and the most interesting ones for instance are the opener “Escape”, which is just the right track to open the album with it’s fresh and beautiful melodies and makes you interested in hearing more, the second song “I Believe”, that moves forward adding new stuff along the way and “Trapped Inside”, which is yet another faster track with changing patterns. The faster tracks seem to work best, since they have more idea in them.

CARGO Records 2001
Review by 19 december 2001

This English band used to go by the name Passion Street and play pure aor. Now the guys are going in a new direction mixing some progressive and more heavier parts into their music. The beginner “Knife In My Back” has just those elements, when the next song “Arabia” is more oriental- influenced. Then we move on to “Strange Days” with Dream Theater influences and nice keys. And so the cd goes on, with lots of different styles mixed here and there.

My fave must be the “All The Heroes”, it reminds me of the old Passion Street, ‘cos it has that much needed right mood that I would’ve wanted to hear more on this cd and it has more speed too. And the first two songs were my faves too. Then you’ve got “Dreams Never Die”, which is a very complicated mid-tempo song. That one needs more listens to get in to. The whole album actually needs more listens, before you can fully enjoy it and get inside of it all.

And you need to listen to it with stereos on ten ! Even if you’re a pure aor-fan, you should check this cd out. It’s got its moments, even if the music is more proginfluenced hardrock now with touches of heavier stuff here and there. Most of the songs are mid-tempo, but intriguing with all the new ele- ments. Let’s just hope these guys can keep it together, if they’re going to continue experimenting with the prog- ressive stuff. That area is too much for most of the bands and I would rather hear this band play that familiar aor I’ve already gotten used to. But oh well, who am I to say what bands should play !

Z Records 2002
Review by 30 August 2002

Take a deep breath as the Canadian band 'Brighton Rock' has once again returned from the land of the living dead. OK, this may not be another zombie release by the fright night show... but it's sure been a while since I heard anything about this five piece band.

Formed in 1984 and originating from Toronto, the band released two really fine albums in the 80's (Young, Wild & Free - 1986 & Take A Deep Breath - 1989), before disappearing into obscurity. This may not be the whole truth as they also recorded the album "Bulletproof" in the early 90's. A pretty average album in my opinion and I find it kinda' hard to believe, that they would actually open up this live CD with the title track (Bulletproof).

Frontiers/Now & Then 2001
Review by 12 June 2001

Ex-Strangeways and famed session vocalist Terry Brock returned to the melodic rock scene last year with The Sign, and this album should confirm anyone that he wasn't just visiting - "Back To Eden" is definitely one of his best works to date. The Sign was a brilliant piece of pompous AOR, but "BTE" is a more traditional melodic rock album, along the lines of Foreigner, Journey and Terry's work with Strangeways.

With the help of co-writers such as Mark Mangold, Jim Peterik (who seems to be on every other album these days) and Bob Held, Terry has come up with a collection of songs that I believe no melodic rock fan would be unhappy with. Unfortunately, the production (by Teddy Cook and Brock) does not always match the brilliance of the songs.

"Audio Life Dream" is an interesting intro featuring excerpts from songs Terry's voice has been featured on, and it leads directly into the Journeyesque, lite rock track "I Wanna Love Someone". A more fitting opener might have been the next song, "Up All Night", a simply awesome hard-edged track from Mark Mangold, featuring heavy guitars (thought it was Ralph Santolla shredding there, but no, it was John Minor) and fantastic, trademark Mangold-keys. "Native Sons" and "Waiting" are both good AOR tracks, reminding me of Journey again, although somewhat effected by the less-than-perfect sound. "I Should've Known" is the Big Ballad of the album, and a very good one too, while "Back To Eden" is unmistakebly from the pen of Jim Peterik, a distant cousin of Survivor's "Burning Heart".

A2 Records 1999
Review by Kimmo Toivonen

This is the first release from a new melodic/classic rock label A2, featuring the talented vocalist Robin Beck colaborating with famed songwriter David Capek. AOR fans might be interested to know that Danny Jacob from Signal plays guitar on this album, and cult AOR vocalist Marc LaFrance provides some backing vocals.

At her best Robin can compete with the like of Heart and Shania Twain, but unfortunately there are not so many of those moments here. Most of the songs are a bit average standard rock'n roll numbers, with some country influences, like "Rockin' The Airwaves" and "Lipstick And Lace". The ballads are quite impressive though, especially "If I Can Forget", which is by far the most outstanding song here. Other titles worth mentioning include the Chrissy Steele-like "She's Outta Control" and the pop rockers "I Lied" and "It's My Heart".

A2 Records 2001
Review by 22 August 2001

Robin Brock has gotten some big names to back her up on her second album: it is produced by Keith Olsen (Whitesnake, Scorpions, Magnum), and the musicians involved include Jeff Pilson (Dokken), James Kottak (Kingdom Come, Scorpions) and ace session guitarist Tim Pierce. Very impressive, but what about the music?

While Robin's first album had it's moments, I felt that there were too many average standard rock tracks on it, and not enough hooks. "Hidden Power" sounds much better in that respect, as the songs are better and not quite as "mishmash" stylewise as they were on her first album. There are still hints of "new country" here, but mostly it's classic melodic rock.

Let's go through the highlights... One of them is "These Walls", which is a great melodic track with a chorus that grabs you instantly. The ballads "(I Wish You Could) Read My Mind" and especially "In This Skin" are good ones too, and so is "I Surrender", a hard rock track that reminds me of Jaime Kyle and Vixen. I have to mention "That Scares Me" too, and while I'm at it, let's add to "The Game" and "After The Storm" to the list of tracks worthy of your attention! If it wasn't for a few too many less appealing tracks like "Don't" and "Goddess Of Rock'n Roll" (Oh yeah?), I wouldn't have hesitated to go for a higher rating. As it is, "7" will have to do, but that ain't too bad, is it!

Ox Records 2003
Review by 6 December 2003

Ojo x Ojo is the debut album and brainchild of Argentinian guitar player Gonzalo Ledesma. He is joined by vocalist Marcelo Arenas who also participates in the songwriting and production duties. Ledesma is well known in his native country due to his career as a member of Alianza where he joined Adrian Barilari (of Rata Blanca fame, and who contributes in one track of Ojo x Ojo). Then he decided to form his own band and thus here we have Brokenheart. And in this debut album, (recorded in Buenos Aires back in 2001 but not released till now and only in Europe), Ledesma and Arenas have achieved a very good 80's retro feeling and sound.

There are definitely quite a few melodic rock slices here as Angel Alado (with the guest appeareance by Adrian Barilari), Los '80 (a heartedly statement about the 80's feeling), Loco (with its fantastic backing vocals and great lead vocals performance by Marcelo Arenas), Sola, No se que decir, or specially the ear candy Destrozando Un Corazón (my absolute fave track on the album, an ass kicking uptempo rocker with a chorus catchy as hell and great back up vox). Performances here are top quality, either Gonzalo Ledesma, who did an excellent job on guitars, and played keyboards, bass and programmed drums as well (yep, yet another album with drum machine sound, sadly), or Marcelo Arenas, a quite good and competent vocalist, who delivers some very intense, passionate and above all very melodic vocals on this album. Some may tend to compare Brokenheart with other melodic rock acts with Spanish lyrics, like Sangre Azul or Coda, but Ojo x Ojo is, in fact quite a different type of record, mainly because of the time it was recorded, being more of a retro album, quite well achieved, that's true. The CD includes a multimedia track as well, containing pics, bio, mp3 files, and even a guitar clinic by Gonzalo Ledesma himself!

Indie 2002
Review by 21 May 2002

The company I work for held its' annual spring party last weekend, and Bronze Doré provided the live musical entertainment. To be playing in front of a hundred more or less drunken computer sales men was not the perfect setting for a band playing their very first gig, especially considering that their music isn't very "party"-like. However, what I heard didn't sound too bad, so I went and asked for a possible demo to be sent to me. And whaddaya know, they had one ready to hand out! And whaddaya know, I didn't even lose the disc!

The self-titled debut CD is a two track single actually. The current line-up didn't play on it, instead the core of the band, vocalist/guitarist Saara Leino and keyboardist Sami Poimala were assisted by members of Sami's old band.

"Crumbles" is balladic, progressive track with echoes of Dream Theater. Saara's vocals are quite distictive though, slightly reminding me of Tarja from Nightwish or more precisely, the less operatic stylings of Sabine from Edenbridge. Her phrasing is quite "La Brie" at times, especially on "Fragile", which is a very good keyboard-driven track. It's again somwhat DT-like, but not quite as heavy as majority of their songs. Not AOR, but melodic enough to appeal to a common AOR fan, I think.

Two songs are really not enough to judge a band (and I wasn't in a "reviewer mood" during their set...), but if the rest of their material is as good or even better, Bronze Dore might be one to watch out for in a year or two. Meanwhile, they can start polishing their songs and their live act, and especially Saara could concentrate in getting more confidence to her vocal delivery - she's got the voice but she still need a bit more power.

Sanctuary 2003
Review by 4 September 2003

Jack Bruce is strolling down the memory lane with his latest release: "More Jack Than God". There's an incredible variety of styles and musical genres on this CD, and you can't help to think "the man is obviously desperate".

There's everything from blues, rock, jazz, to simple put... weird arrangments, going on here. I'm still trying figure out what the heck "Bizniz" is all about (and I'm not talking about the lyrics here). Bruce may still be mostly recognized for his work with Cream (1966-1970), the other members of that UK band was a certain Eric Clapton and of course Ginger Baker. By the way, the title is nasty remark to "Mr Slowhand" perhaps?

http://www.mascotrecords.com" target=blank> Mascot Records 2004
Review by Martien Koolen, 29 March 2004

Originally released in the USA only in the late "90's", this album is now available in Europe, but with extra track, re-recorded drums (by Virgil Donati), re-recorded bass and completely re-mixed. This CD features super guitar player Vivian Campbell (Dio, Whitesnake and Def Lepard), Hammond organ player Brian Auger, bass guitarist Bunney Brunel and the amazing Vigil Donati on drums. Furthermore as guest players, Mike Stern, Jeff Grossberg, Ray Gomez and Mike Palmer.

This whole album was composed as a tribute to all the rock bands that Bunny listened to for inspiration. Of course it is a complete instrumental album and the electric guitar dominates the sound of this CD. My personal favs are: "Led Boots"(inspired by Jeff Beck, Bunny's favourite guitar player); especially meant for guitar freaks with amazing guitar picking by Vivian Campbell. "Maybe Tuesday" is a Led Zeppelin tribute and contains a superb bass solo and some wah-wah guitar solos. "Tropicana" is inspired by Leslie West and Mountain; a slow blues song with howling guitars and harmonica.

Indie 2002
Review by Endre "Bandi" Hübner 14 February 2003

It's always a good feeling when an artist you support from the beginning grows up and gets as far as a proper release of their stuff that you know from its demo version. This is the case with Marc Bryant, the 5 track EP that served as the predecessor of this full album was reviewed almost 2 years ago here [see our archives for the review]. I did that review back then, so it's best if I go on with following the band's career here.

The EP was characterized as guitar driven hard rock with a little southern feel and lots of aggressive riffing ala Revenge era Kiss. Well, the full album continues in the same vein, all the five tracks of the EP are included here, however the new tunes show a heavier approach. Gone are the southern feeling, the bluesy playing, and say hello to in-your-face riffing and shout-out vocals. "Soul Searching" really kicks and you gotta love the tricky guitar riff of "Road" and the drum-bass groove is really cool there. I only wish I could forget about those enhanced vocals. Vocals seem to be the only downside of the album. The songwriting is really cool, the rest of the players (Pete Roberts on bass, Chad Wedlake on drums) put on a solid performance and Marc's guitar playing is really amazing just like those guest players in solos and such, however his vocal abilities do not live up to the rest of the music. This makes vocal melodies relatively flat in some of the songs. There's some progress in the new songs towards more melodic singing and thick backing vocals (check the brilliant refrain of "Take Me Home") and me says that's the right direction to take.

SPV 2004
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
9 April 2004

There's no secret that Eric Burdon used to be 'The Animals' frontman in the 60's. I'm sure that any guitarist out there are blaming them for the agony of learning how to play "The House Of The Rising Sun", when all you really wanted was to shred like Eddie Van Halen (damn teacher). The Animals started out some 40+ years ago and recorded among other things, classics such as "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (which Gary Moore covers), "See See Rider", and "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place".

Frontiers/Now & Then Prods. 1999
Review by Kimmo Toivonen

Ten-guitarist Vinny Burns has teamed up with vocalist Sam Blue (ex-Ya Ya/GTS/Ultravox) to record a solo album that strangely doesn't drift too far from the sound of his "real job". I was expecting him to take a step to a new direction, but instead Vinny has recorded songs that might have sounded just fine on a Ten album too.

The intro "Irish Eyes" leads us to what I think is probably the finest moment of the album, the energetic melodic rocker "Superstar". The sound is not far from Ten or the Bob Catley solo album (on which Vinny also played). Following that gem "Fire Burning" sounds a bit dull and repetitive, but is rescued by a good chorus (or is it a bridge?). "Freedom" has that slightly celtic sound of Ten's "Spellbound" album, but even more Ten-like is the Gary Hughes-sung ballad "This World". Hughes and ballads are almost a sure-fire combination, but I feel that the production leaves a lot to be desired on this track. It's a good song though, if only an average ballad on the Hughes standard.

"Where You Gonna Run" isn't one of my favourites, a mediocre hard rock track that reminds me of bands like Silent Rage or Y&T at their weakest. "I Believe" is a pompous, melodic track and I hear that celtic influence there again - another track that could have been included on "Spellbound". "Live The Dream" gives Mr. Blue a chance to show his ability to sing a ballad, and he succeeds very well. It's an OK track too.

"Lonely Man" is a very good midtempo track, and again very Ten-like, but this time I'd say it's in the vein of their first album, plenty of keyboards and backing vocals. Hughes takes the microphone for the second time on "Already Gone", a good rocker that sounds like his solo material. The uptempo and uplifting "Falling" is the last song featuring vocals, and then we're left with the instrumental title track, which has touches of Gary Moore and Neal Schon, and a drum loop that fooled me to believe that the CD had jammed!

All in all, a bit of a hit-and-miss affair, but with a fair share of hits and thankfully the misses weren't too far off the mark!

Frontiers/Now & Then 2003
Review by 16 May 2003

In search of creative freedom, Vinny Burns made a brave move and left TEN, one of the biggest bands of the Melodic Rock scene, in late 2001. He had already met vocalist Sam Blue during his stint in Ultravox and used him on his solo album, so it wasn't surprising that he teamed up with him for this project. Other musicians on "What If..." are FM's Pete Jupp on drums, Bcb Skeat on bass and saxophone player Tony Kelly.

One thing's for sure: this album doesn't sound much like TEN, DARE or even Vinny's solo "The Journey". What you'll get is guitar-driven melodic rock with a strong 80'ies flavour. You can pick up similarities to a number of different bands, ranging from Poison to Journey and from Tobruk to Sheriff. The best tracks seem to be the first six tracks, with "I'm Gonna Win" ("dut-dut" keys and a killer chorus) and the ultra-catchy "Deadly Sin" being the top picks. Unfortunately, the remaining six are less impressive, except for the Foreigner-like "Tomorrow Never Comes" and "To One Side" which are both quite good. The rest of them aren't necessarily bad, just average. Well, the chorus of "Where Are You Now" does make me gringe, as it sees Mr. Blue going for a few notes that are a bit high for his range, and the result doesn't sound too enjoyable.

To sum it up, a good album and a promising band, but not quite there yet. They got it right on two thirds of the album, but the one third costs them a few points.

Indie 2002
Review by 14 July 2002

Frank Burrows is a multi-talented musician from New York, who has worked with people like Carlos Santana and Michael Narada Walden, to name a few. Now he's concentrating on his solo material. He has this album under his belt, for which he is hoping to find a label to release it.

Frank has done everything on the album by himself, which must have meant hours and hours of studio work. The production is of high quality, and the arrangements are very colourful. As Frank himself writes in his letter, "the album is ready to go" - this indeed is a product only waiting to be released. We are not talking about a "demo" here.

"The Music Of Angry Men" is not an album for the majority of our readers, and to be honest, it's not an album for me either. I can freely admit that this kind of music goes way over my head. I even find it hard to describe it, I guess the term "alternative rock" is at least somewhere close, although I know it really doesn't say anything. Frank mentions Elvis Costello, Neil Finn, Kevin Gilbert and Jason Falkner as references, maybe they give you a better idea. Diverse arrangements, uncompromising compositions and witty lyrics..."Intellectual pop rock"?

Atenzia 2004
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
29 May 2004

The New Jersey native returns with his first solo effort after leaving Styx. For the second time actually as he was originally the replacement for Tommy Shaw in the late eighties. You can find a re-recording of "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye", taken from the latest Styx album "Cyclorama" here. I really don't see any point with this, since you can hardly tell any difference in style or quality from Styx' version. A kick ass song nontheless even if "Welcome To Hollywood" could as easily have done without it.

What else then? Well, difficult question really as you find a broad variety of modern rock, classic Burtni(c)k stuff, and even pomp-ish songs. The arrangements are always quirky, mostly scrumptious, and hardly ever dull or boring. You can discover a new detail or hangup to discuss among friends every time you play the disc. It's like this neverending source of over-the-top material, which gets a bit too radical in all its pomposity at times. But damnit if "Roses" isn't one of the better songs of the year. Opener "Super Boy" is a great rock song with a catchy refrain. "Another" is pompy stuff, while "Cry" is a real tear-jerker with its sentimental touch and message (cry - you can't hold back forever... sigh!). "Follow The Muse" is actually closer to the stuff Gowan (his old Styx partner), did in the past, except for the rap part of course. "When The Shit Hits The Fan", and I believe it just did, since this is one awful and aggressive rocker 'ala Rage Against The Machine. There's unfortunately a couple of more fillers included and you REALLY need to be open minded, about different music styles and genres in general. You can keep in mind that he's been working as songwriter for Don Henley, Cyndi Lauper, John Waite, Patty Smyth, Randy Travis, etc, in the past. He also turned down his place with Bon Jovi back in 1983 or so (not that it really matters by now).

Review by Kimmo Toivonen

Stan Bush is definately one of the great AOR artists. His "Stan Bush And Barrage" album is one of those albums that should have sold millions, but it never did. This album was his next effort, and it didn't sell millions either, but earned itself a classic status. As usual, I got to hear it years after its release, but hey, better late than never.

So, is it a classic album? In my opinion it's good, but not as great as I had expected. There are some songs that are really good, like "Could This Be Love", "It Don't Get Better Than This" and the killer ballad "Can't Hide Love", but also some quite average songs. I was expecting more from Stan's collaborations with Jonathan Cain and Jim Vallance. For example "Ain't That Worth Something" (written with Vallance) sounds like a leftover from Bryan Adams' "Reckless", and "Straight To The Top" (written with Cain) is also quite disappointing. However, there's plenty of good stuff to enjoy, and this album beats Stan's "Dial 812 etc" any day!

Now & Then/Frontiers 1998
Review by Kimmo Toivonen

This album has been hailed as a true return to form for Stan Bush, who has lately released somewhat disappointing albums. It is definately his most hard rocking effort to date, yet very catchy and melodic. Therefore I can gladly confirm that Mr. Bush is on the right track again!

On "Heaven" Stan has chosen to record some of his older songs that have already appeared on other people's albums. "Hard To Find An Easy Way" (covered by Brett Walker), "Heaven" (Airkraft) and "Didn't I" (Baton Rouge) have been given the Barrage-treatment, and these versions are easily as good as the earlier ones, with the expection of "Didn't I". The Barrage-version is very good, but I still prefer the Baton Rouge-version for some reason.

What else? The ballads are there of course, and quite fantastic ones are they too! "Beginner's Luck" is beautiful keyboard-based song, and the more traditional power ballad "Love Don't Come Easy" is also one the many highlights on "Heaven". "Promises" and "Joanna" are surprisingly heavy rockers, the first being probably the heaviest song Stan Bush has ever recorded. No need to worry though, he hasn't turned into a metal guy, it's still AOR!

Frontiers 2004
Review by Kimmo Toivonen,
27 May 2004

Before the release of his last album "Language Of The Heart", Stan Bush told us in an interview that it would "rock". While it was a pleasant album, it most definitely didn't rock too much. Naturally I wasn't too convinced when Frontiers reported that this album would be similar to the classic "Stan Bush & Barrage" album (1987), and that it would be very rock-oriented. But damn it, this time they were right on the money!

The album kicks off with the title track, a gutsy rocker with a similar vibe to "Take It Like A Man" or "Primitive Lover" from the "SB & B" album. It has a great hook and the guitars are cranked up. The production is quite raw and "live", but it suits these songs just fine. "Falling" comes next, a fine, traditional AOR track with a big chorus, just the way we like 'em! This is supposedly the "single", at least a video has been made for it. "I Will Be There" and "I Turn To You" are both solid AOR numbers, the first one being a bit balladic one and the second a laid-back rocker. Then it's time for the Big Ballad of the album, and Stan sure knows how to pen those..."What You Mean Tonight" is a textbook example of a good rock ballad, and features a terrific vocal from Stan.

Frontiers/Now & Then 2001
Review by 4 July 2001

"Some Things Never Change" is a title of one of the songs here, and when it comes to Stan Bush, in a certain way it's true. You can rely on him to come up with at least decent material everytime, excellent vocals and lyrics that will deal with the joys of this thing we call "love". That's the case with this album, don't expect too many surprises...

The word on the streets was that this would be in the vein of the classic "Stan Bush & Barrage" album from 1987. Well, I wouldn't say that. I'd say that this is more of a laid-back effort, classic guitar-oriented rock with a bit of a new country twist. Indeed, Stan might get himself a few surprise radio hits on the country stations, if this album was given a push to that direction. Take "Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone" for instance, now there's a potential country radio hit! Just add some fiddles...

Lionmusic 2002
Review by 6 September 2002

Guitarist James Byrd (ex. Fifth Angel) is back with yet another very bombastic release in the progressive/symphonic style of music. "Anthem" is the follow up album to last years success at Lionmusic (Flying Beyond The 9) and once again with Michael Flatters (Takara) behind the mic.

Byrd started writing and recording this record prior to September 11th 2001. However, when the attack happened he decided to start from scratch again. 'I just didn’t have any further feeling of connection to the music I had started before September 11th and to have continued as though nothing had changed just wasn't going to be artistically honest', Byrd said earlier in the press release.