Indie 2002
Review by 15 June 2002

YEAH! Manly Metal! Weinbauer are a new Finnish band "on a crusade against the nu-metal cancer", and "Military P." is their latest single, and it's a sure-fire hit! Great vocals, pounding rhythms, amazing axe-playing, thought-provoking lyrics! Even the artwork is very stylish! YEAH RIGHT...

This CD has to be a joke. It is that bad. Actually, it is beyond bad. But the whole package; the music, the bio and the artwork is quite entertaining in a twisted way...the bio claims that the musicians (and I use the term loosely) are all highly trained, the "drummer" has taken jazz lessons for years and the "guitarists" are long-time music school students - if that's the case, their teachers should be immediately fired! What's more, the bio describes these two songs as "more polished and more mature-sounding"...yep, mature indeed. I do not ever want to know what their less-polished and immature songs sound like!

The two songs here, "Military Metal Sheet Worker" and "Military Pussy" both contain lyrics that make those of Kiss or Spinal Tap sound like fine feminist-friendly poetry. Musically (and I use the term loosely) they are just as classy: recycled standard metal riffs, basic drum machine rhythms and TOTALLY horrible falsetto vocals.

The cover "art" (and again I use the term loosely) has to be mentioned too: there's a young lady with a gun in it, wearing nothing but an army shirt. "Military Pussy"...yeah, you got it. And to make sure, the tray liner pix follow the same theme.

Frontiers 2002
Review by 1 october 2002

There’s a lot you could expect from a man like John West, who’s the singer from bands such as Artension, Royal Hunt and Badlands. He’s got the voice that you cannot dislike and recognize. In Royal Hunt he’s just the right man for the job after D.C.Cooper. On his own he’s released two solo albums before this one and unfortunately they’ve never done justice for him. The material has always been somewhat shallow.

On “Earth Maker” though the songs have gotten a bit better and especially on the slower/midtempo tunes like “Stand,Sentinel”, “Mystic Wings” and “Soul To Soul” I can almost feel the spirit taking me over. Is it the spirit of “Shenandoah”, who knows. This albums tells the native American spirit’s story through time and lives as he embarks on his “Vision Quest” to meet the Earth Maker. These songs have soul in them. John can sing high, but on this album he doesn’t go there much. And maybe it’s for the best, as these slower tunes are the best ones on the album.

The faster ones are again quite shallow. The only one from them that got my attention was the heavy and changing “Warrior Spirit”. Though the album has a mighty beginning on “Soul Of The Beast”, the song doesn’t keep it together, it lacks of something. The next “When World’s Collide” has a Rainbow-touch to it, but it seems so weak and futile at least with this mixing. It doesn’t give much which is a shame, ‘cos this song would work better with some small changes. There’s action here that is anxious to get out! “Sleep Of The Dead” has heavy guitars, almost as in Zakk Wylde category. But it suffers from the same things as most of the songs.

There’s also some odd parts I could easily compare to Faith No More. Those weird sidegrowls are heard on “Life” and “Love Is Pain”. These songs don’t really fit into this album, at least “Life” is just too FNM’ish that I doubt this will be a favourite for John’s fans. I used to like FNM so I don’t mind, but it’s not what you would expect to hear from John.

Z Records 2002
Review by 24 November 2002

The melodic supergroup of Westworld returns to the scene, with their best album up to date? Indeed, this 'dream-team' featuring Tony Harnell - vocals (TNT, Morning Wood), Mark Reale - guitars (Riot), Bruno Ravell - bass (Danger Danger), Josh Pincus - keyboards (Ice Age) & John O'Reilly - drums (Rainbow), only gets better with each release.

I actually find something new and refreshing about the vocals of Harnell nowadays. Back in the 80's he was pretty much stuck at one gear (overdrive), and never really shifted into the lower gears much. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my "Tell No Tales" a lot!!! But Tony have really matured as a singer and doesn't 'shriek' as much any longer. To put it nicely, there's no need to drive with the pedal to the metal all of the time, when you're the one with the fastest car anyway.

GEP Music 2003
Review by 23 Mars 2003

Rock Of Faith? Well... one thing's for sure, John Wetton (ex-Asia, Uriah Heep, UK, Family etc.) do not exactly rock out, with loud guitars and big drums here. It's rather the opposite really as "Rock Of Faith" is probably his softest album ever. Like his previous album wasn't calm enough?

This doesn't necessarily mean that we're talking about an allthrough lousy CD here. On the other hand, do not expect to find any loud guitars, uptempo tracks, or "rock" at all really. It's Prog-Pop (a new genre?) with tons of atmospheric keyboards and lovely vocals. Indeed, Wetton does his strongest vocal performance for years here.

Frontiers Records 2002
Review by 1 november 2002

The Italian White Skull has been around for years, but they’ve never managed to get enough attention among metal fans for bigger success. They’ve always been categorized in the “b-class” or something, but on “The Dark Age” they will probably surprise many. This album was recorded in New Sin Studio (Labyrinth, Eldritch, Vicious Mary)and finally the band has found a much more credible sound with more power. Sure they still sound like a german metal band and have that bit of a fun touch to the songs. But when you run the cd a few times, you’ll find everytime it does get a bit better. The cover won’t probably convince many, since it’s so ‘80’ies, but you should never buy music in the first place, if the interest is based only on the album cover!

White Skull’s music is a mixture of Manowar, Virgin Steele and the traditional eighties metal. Hail to manpower ! Most of the songs are more like Manowar though, as heard in “Grand Inquisitor” and the title song, which comes right after the intro “Penitenziagite”, which starts with church bells and dark keys and reminds of a scene from an old and funny horror movie. “The Dark Age” starts with Danzig-like guitar and beat, but then starts whirling towards the more traditional metal and then along comes the new singer Gustavo Adrian Gabano, who took the place after the original singer De Boni left the band in 2001.

“The Dark Age” is a concept album based on the middle ages and on the crimes of the Inquisition, which is illustrated on the cover well enough. Gabano screams for instance on “Maid Of Orleans” like he was himself on one of those racks, having every one of his joints in the body systematically dislocated. But the torture isn’t endless. There’s some light on the seventh song „Voice From The Heaven”, which is the albums only ballad. The Skulls can be quite touching too, who would believe after all the bashing around ! And this isn’t cheesy at all. Nothing new to it, but it’s still good and beautiful.

Frontiers 2004
Review by Satu Reunanen,
4 May 2004

White Skull from Italy returns after “The Dark Age” from 2002. Their brutal and raw sound and their Manowar/Rage/Virgin Steele-like simple metal still make an underground impression though. When the overall sound is quite unfinished, thin and hollow as here, which is very common to Italian bands, it often leaves an insignificant mark on good bands and it’s a shame really. White Skull went through another line-up change after “The Dark Age” release and found a new bassist in Fabio Manfroi and a new lead guitarist in Danilo Bar, though Manfroi was announced in March having left only after 6 months with the band. But he’s still present on this album.

Having kept a break of two years and changing members, it still seems like the band hasn’t developed really during that time or gotten new blood to the music from the new members. The songs are basic, straight metal, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but the band lacks that certain essence here that would bring the final touch to the songs. Comparing to their earlier album, “The XIII Skull” seems to be a setback really, there aren’t much songs that stand out. Even the Rage-like choirs aren’t bombastic enough, which should’ve been an easy task to fill. Sure the battle-attitude works at times, but it doesn’t carry far. The only faster song having some idea to it is “Perfect Design”, a complex song which keeps it together quite well, with a chorus that has potential to be even bigger. In most songs the chorus promises quite a lot.

David Coverdale & WHITESNAKE: "Restless Heart"

Company 19XX
Review by

As the reviews I had read about this album suggested, This is quite different from the previous Whitesnake albums. The opener "Don't Fade Away" proves it instantly: it is a very mellow song, a very strange choice for an opener. Actually the whole album is quite mellow and bluesy, apart from a few rockers like "All In The Name Of love" and "Restless Heart". Indeed, some of the songs are a bit too bluesy for me, but there's still enough good tracks to make this a quite enjoyable album.
Overall, I'd say this album is closer to Manic Eden than the late eighties Whitesnake sound. That isn't really surprising, because Adrian Vandenberg was the main writer in ME and is also heavily involved in writing of this album.

Snakebites - A tribute to WHITESNAKE

Victor 2000
Review by

A quite strong trend was born recently: tribute albums. Not that we didn't have tribute albums in the 80s and 90s but in 1999 and 2000 there were tributes to Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard just to name some of the biggest names of the scene, and now our British friends deliver one of the most precious of them all: a tribute to Whitesnake.
Being a huge Whitesnake fan and having played countless Whitesnake covers myself too I have waited for my copy of the album with great interest. When playing a Whitesnake cover the crucial point is always the vocalist. Not that Sykes or Vai were easy to play but if the vocals are bad, no matter how good the guitarists and the other musicians are, the whole thing just fails. Probably in the know of this there were really big names chosen for this album. Contrary to the rest of the tribute albums here we only have five singers sharing the lead vocal duties of all the 12 songs and they do most of the backing vocals too. The names: Doogie White (probably best known from Midnight Blue or Rainbow), Steve Grimett (Lionsheart, Grim Reaper), Bernie Shaw (Urian Heep), Steve Overland (FM, So!), Nicky Moore
(Mammoth). Not a bad list I have to say.

Though I personally have not been a big Rainbow fan and never had the chance to catch up with Midnight Blue (they were rather a cult band in England) I have to say they couldn't have found a better opening for this album than White doing "Crying In The Rain". Musically it is quite faithful to the original and White does a decent job as Steve Grimett does on the following "Still Of The Night". He already had great moments on the Lionsheart albums especially on Pride In Tact but he shines on this one. As I also sang this song in various bands I know how hard it is. Probably this one is one of the toughest Coverdale songs to pull because of the lack of musical companion under the high pitched verse lines, add to that the last line of the bridge and the pre-guitar-solo part's scream. I know in a studio these tests
are easier to solve but still I have to bow and say Steve does an
outstanding job here. Both of the two opening songs feature Andy Barnett playing the guitar solo. He was wise enough not trying to change these classic solos and got the right guitar sound for the "Still of the Night" solo (which is also often a problem when covering this song).

Then one of my all time favorite Whitesnake song comes "Here I Go Again". I have already heard The Snakes doing a wonderful cover of it on their "Live in Europe" album and the line-up of this song features some of them. (For those not in the know there are ex-Whitesnake members in that band.) They manage to keep the positive changes done in The Snakes version here too, namely Don Airey's extended keyboard lines and Bernie Marsden's thick guitar sound and strengthened riffs. Bernie Shaw does a decent job on vocals (he leaves the scream line out before the refrain. just like I always do. neh neh. Anyway, not being picky I have to say it was a wise choice, why even bother to try if you know you'd fail compared to Coverdale?!) The best and most unique part of the song for me are the backing vocals. Great and very thick harmonies, a gem!

"The Deeper The Love" is the first song of the album where I have to say it's better than the original. It is not just a faithful cover
with a better studio sound but the guys managed to capture the
feeling, the arrangement very well and add extra backing vocal parts, guitar harmonies that spice up the whole song. Bill Liesegang's guitar sound is much more "ear-friendly" than Steve Vai's and Steve Overland's voice gets right into your soul. You have to hear it to know what I'm talking about. This one is definitely one of the highlights of the album!

"Judgement Day" I never really liked, not even the original and the guys couldn't make it better either. Both the sound and the
arrangement are quite faithful to the original, maybe the drum sound differs a bit. By the way when we are at the drum sound: it has lots of reverb on it. The engineers seemed to like thick reverbs and lots of echoes, especially on vocals and on the drums. Not that it was annoying but a bit strange and it would definitely help to hide the singers' mistakes. if there were any, but they are all doing a much better job than I expected. After his outstanding performance on "The Deeper The Love" I was already eagerly waiting the CD player to get to track 6, Steve Overland doing "Looking For Love". Well, this guy is more Coverdale than the original, the sound is perfect again, and Liesegang created awesome guitar sounds again. I always respected if a guitarist could make good use of his gear and this guy definitely can!

I was pretty afraid of "Is This Love" as I regard this song un-performable. Well, at least live. My bands always failed trying to put it on stage so I never made it to sing it live, all the tribute bands I saw failed big time when trying to perform it, and <sigh> even the mighty Coverdale and the band failed every time I heard them doing it live. It's simply so hard to catch that feeling live. As for this studio version I was glad to recognize an extended guitar riff in the intro. Great idea and sounds very good! Nicky Moore does a good job all through the verse parts and everything is quite okay till the song gets to the refrain. Here it fails. Not that any of the musicians had done a bad job but somehow the feeling is missing and the whole thing sounds very thin. Though when doing a Whitesnake tribute it's essential to have this song there, still probably it would have been a wiser choice not to try it (though I have to admit if I had been in position of the guys I would have also gone for it. but whoever said I was wise?!).

Then comes the journey back in time and old-timer Whitesnake classics are coming. It was such a great thing to hear them with modern, bombastic studio sound. "Slow An' Easy" has a very pleasant surprise: there are no Casio sounding handclap parts under the refrain. J Steve Grimett's mannish vocals (at the same time pulling the high pitched parts with ease) fit very well to the song that - despite the different sound - is quite faithful to the original, as it features Mick Moody, Neil Murray, and Don Airey too. Lots of reverb on the vocals give an extra huge stage feel to the whole song, one can picture a really big arena with the crowd jumping for the refrain. This is big time arena rock at its finest! Moody's solo is tasty, has a good old overdriven sound that adds a 70s flavor to the crystal clear modern sound. "Slide It In" and its Hammond organ sounds take you back to those glorious days too. It's Steve Overland again but this song does not give that big opportunity to shine with the vocals. However the backing vocals delivered by almost all the musicians present here fire the refrain up and Andy Barnett's solo is a gem too.

As for "Fool For Your Loving" it's another cover-band live favorite, but I also have Joe Lynn Turner's cover of it. You can't go wrong with this one, Steve Grimett does a decent job, so does Bill Liesegang on guitars. Nothing special, simply good! "Love Ain't No Stranger" won't change the world either. I was glad to hear the modernized keyboard sound, but the rest of the arrangement is faithful to the original again. I could have imagined bigger backing vocals (compared to the rest of the songs here, not to the original!). Anyway, the guys managed to make the fast parts of the songs very energetic, and this is good because mostly this is where most tribute bands fail, they can't emphasize the tempo/volume/feeling difference between the slow and the fast parts of the song.

The album finishes with Nicky Moore singing "Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City". Lots of reverbs-echo effects on the microphone and on the lead guitar give a special moody feeling to this version of the song. It fits very well to the sadness concept of the lyrics. This version seems to be faster than the original but it's a positive remark because it makes the track more enjoyable (I have already seen bands playing it too slow live and turning the song into complete boredom).

All in all I was more than pleased with this album and in the recent flood of tribute albums this is definitely a gold fish to catch. Having seen/heard all that "The Snakes thing" going on I'm not really sure whether it is a REAL tribute to David Coverdale and the name Whitesnake or just another way for the ex-Whitesnake members (and some others too) to get their (well deserved) share and fame out of the songs they were involved in. But it might just be my dirty mind to question it. Listening to this great album you won't ask questions like this from yourselves, you'll just have a great time with it.

? 2003
Review by Martien Koolen,
2 January 2004

This is the third solo album of singer/songwriter and guitar player Alan Whittaker and I hope that it will be his last. Fourteen songs influenced by Crowded House, Neil Finn, Genesis and Yes??? Well, I certainly cannot hear any “relations” with the last two mentioned… But there are definitely poppy influences from Crowded House, like in “White Noise” or “Set Me Free”.

Most of the fourteen tracks are however more boring, mediocre pop tracks, where musically nothing interesting happens, just listen to “Powder And Champagne”, a song with a capital B for boring, or the lullaby “Fading Embers”; yawn, yawn, I almost fell asleep there...This really is the kind of music that my grandmother would love; is this guy maybe related to the “notorious” Roger Whittaker?? That would explain a lot; I hereby rest my case.

MTM 2002
Review by 30 January 2002

This band has been marketed as a cross between Whitesnake and Pink Cream 69, and fair enough, they have elements of both. The vocalist Robert Soeterboek sounds like David Coverdale sometimes, and the album was mixed by Dennis Ward of the "Pinkies". However, the bands I started to think of were Bangalore Choir/"Eat The Heat"-era Accept, Lion and occasionally latter-day Icon. What you'll get is a mixture of melodic euro-metal and more "american-souding" elements, and I have to tell you that the results aren't too bad at all.

"Magic Moments" opens the album, a big-sounding rocker that proves in no time that there's no need to complain about the production this time. Dare I say it's quite...sensational? Powerful it is anyway. "Someone Strong" is a midtempo track with Soeterboek sounding like the bastard son of two Davids, Coverdale and Reece (of Bangalore Choir and Accept). "You're The Answer" is very much in the vein of Bangalore Choir's more "european sounding" tracks, with a good melodic hook. "Stand Tall" is another retro-trip to the eighties, reminding me of bands like Dio and Lion, an anthemic midtempo track.

"Highspeed Chase" is probably the track I like the least, a boring...ehh, highspeed heavy metal number that sounds like an Accept leftover or something. "The Preacher" leads us back on track again, a fine melodic rocker with great background vocals, keys and a good hook. "Night On Fire" is similary melodic, a midtempo track with cool background vocals again. "Love Is Strange" is the Big Ballad, and a chance for Soeterboek to do the Coverdale thing again. Actually the track has a kind of an eerie feel to it, which might make it appealing to fans of the likes of HIM too.

"Caught In A Fantasy" is a good track with a slightly progressive edge, while "Get Down To Business" is probably the heaviest track of the album, flirting with the modern metal sounds - can't say I like it much. However, "Let It Ride" is much better, reminiscent of Icon's "Far Cry". With a bit stronger chorus it might have been a real killer. "Joker In The Pack" is another track featuring some modern influences, very heavy, although the chorus is more melodic. Not one of my favourites though. Finally, there's the title track, a short instrumental piece.

"Reflected" is a diverse hard rock album that's bound to raise a few heads. It may not be the best thing out of Germany since the late eighties like some critics have called it, but it's certainly a good album.

MTM 2004
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
17 April 2004

"I'm burning, burning, burning, for your love - She's the best I ever had, get me back to my bed". You'll have to admit that it's not exactly words of a genius or rocket science that we're talking about here. Nonetheless, it was obviously a stroke of genius to hire the experienced Fernando Garcia (ex-Victory) as new frontman and vocalist. Garcia has managed to take Wicked Generation a notch higher on the 'not-so-official' world ranking of hardrock.

Their previous shouter wasn't bad or anything. In fact, Soeterboek did an excellent job with his 'Coverdale' alike approach and sometimes even similar voice. Which also meant that 'WS' sounded like Whitesnake, every now and then in the past. Not anymore as they're now closer to home with the traditional "German" sound, which especially include the two acts: Pink Cream 69 and Victory (of course!!!).

Sanctuary Records 2003
Review by 26 June 2003

Widespread Panic or just a touch of hysteria? Do however not underestimate these lads as you may end up laughing all the way to your padded cell. "Ball" is the 8th studio album of the band's 19 year long career and it's described as "a thinking-man's jam, providing something for everybody, from touches of funky R&B groove through to their signature classic jazz-rock hybrids".

Indeed, this is one of those hard-to-describe-acts, providing that you'd never heard of 'em before. I guess you could say the music of Widespread Panic's is kind of timeless. This could as easily have been recorded in the late 60's as well as today.

Prime Entertainment 1998 Review by Andreas Hoehn 01-09-26

Man, how time passes.Is it really four years ago since I received this wonderful record? Wild Frontier are from Germany and "Thousand Miles Away" is their second longplay CD following 95's "One Way To Heaven". And what a big step forward the four piece fronted by "mastermind" / guitarist/ singer Jens Walkenhorst has to offer., especially when it comes to create memorable hooks. Twelve cuts of fine melodic hardrock, no matter if you want uptempo tunes ("Breaking The Silence"; "Until The End Of Time") or nice little live rockes like the title track. "The end Of The Road" is one of the best irish-tinged songs since Gary Moore's legendary "Wild Frontier". "Too Late" and "I'm Falling" come up with the most catchy hooks and if you want a ballad giving you the creeps check out "After All The Rain Has Gone". Fantastic choirs -you won't get any better one from a German band I can promise. Support the "Underground" - the boys well deserve it. Can't wait to hear the new album!

Z Records 2003
Review by 10 October 2003

Let's set the record straight shall we? This is not the early 80's act with Motorhead/Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson and Jimmy Bain (bass) of Dio, Rainbow, fame. I thought I'd better make this clear from the start as you could otherwise end up disappointed somehow?

These "Wild Horses" recorded the "Bareback" album on Atlantic Records back in 1991. The band (then and now) consist of vocalist John Levesque (Shout), guitarist Rick Steier (Kingdom Come, Warrant), and drummer James Kottak (Kingdom Come, Scorpions, Warrant). The line-up is now completed with none other than Jeff Pilson (Dokken, War & Peace) at the bass guitar. Not that strange perhaps as Pilson helped out with laying down some bass-lines on "Bareback" after all.

This guy knows how to write "mood songs". The title suits these songs perfectly. This follows the path that the previous solo albums made, but it's a step forward. There is so much heart and soul put into the songs that it just takes you inside the music of Kip Winger. Personal CD that makes one think. Little Stingish but hey, if it feels like this then let all out. Truly one of the best works that Kip has done.

The songs are personal and there is some pain evident here. I'm not sure what has happened in Kip's life but the songs all have a sad feel to them [Ed's note: his wife died right before his first solo album]. It's a good thing here because music is about feelings and here there are plenty of them.

I really like the songs and the ones that stick out the most are "Crash The Wall" and "Only One Word". Some might think that this is too sad music, but not for me and you can always put something else on afterwards.

Winger was a great band, and if the rumours are true then the band will reunite in the nar future, and that will be something worth the wait. Kip has already reunited with Rob Morgenstein for this record...another familiar face on the album is Andy Timmons (ex-D2). If the Winger reunion doesn't happen, it would be interesting to see Andy playing these songs.

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

Some people say that Edgar Winter is a pale shadow of his past and that's a rather aggressive statement too. Keeping in mind that Edgar, like his older brother Johnny, is an albino at birth. Edgar is probably still today, mostly known for that "Frankenstein" tune, which saw its light of day already back in 1973. You can actually find a completely new "Frankenstein" here, only this time in some weird Jazz-swing version, which at least I couldn't recognize as "that" song.

LionMusic 2003
Review by 27 June 2003

It's always kind of sad when you've recently discovered a new band, only to find out that "all" the members have been replaced for the next release. Now that's exactly what happened to Sweden's Winterlong as only guitarist/songwriter Thorbjorn Englund is still with us. I wonder what caused this sudden and total new line-up?

The new vocalist is Mikael Holm and we can find both Anders Johansson (Hammerfall, Yngwie Malmsteen etc.) and Andreas Lill (Vanden Plas) behind the drums. The wizard behind the keys is the mysterious Mistheria. Englund handles all guitars including bass and the production himself this time, the latter together with Lars Eric Mattsson (LionMusic) though.

Indie 2003
Review by
23 February 2003

Italian-based Witched wear their influences on their sleeve: their music is unashamedly eighties' styled hard rock. If I didn't know better, I could believe that this was a forgotten release from the era when bands like Warrant, Firehouse and Danger Danger were big news. Naturally it's a bit rougher (no major label budget or name producer obviously), but when it comes to hard rock cliches/trademarks (take your pick), the band has nailed it. They've got the big, anthemic rockers like "Electric Love" and "Wild Night", the power ballad "When I Close My Eyes" and even the token groovy/bluesy/jammin' track "The Last Time". I know it's totally unoriginal, but not that bad really. The arrangements could've been more flowing though, some of the songs just don't move along as well as they could.

The best tracks are the opener "Electric Love" which reminds me of Baton Rouge and Jack Ponti's songwriting, the melodic "Quicksand" and "Days Gone By". I must also mention "Wild Night", an okay song otherwise but the chorus just happens to be almost identical to that of Kane Roberts' "Wild Nights".

If you're hungry for some classic "Hair Metal", you can check out some of these songs on the bands' website I believe. Rock on!

Warhorse 2004
Review by Satu Reunanen 22 March 2004

And Finnish metal reigned the earth...it’s another winner we’ve got here and they’re Withering from Lahti, formed late 1999. The band started playing covers from Amorphis, Paradise Lost and Sentenced at first and later released two demos with their own material, some of the songs ended up on this album too. The band found its final form only in spring of 2003 and the album was recorded later that year, with astonishing results.

This melodic blackmetal band stays true to its early idols, following the pros of this genre, the whole material is quite alike to early Amorphis, with little twists of Sentenced and Paradise Lost in there. And it’s a stylish package. The growling sounds how it’s supposed to sound and the melodies are all in the right places. The band roams through each song with a murdering midtempo, death rattles in all dimensions torturing your ears. So yeah, Withering has a professional touch to their genre and though everything sounds so perfect, that midtempo and the fact that the guys play it safe makes the album as a whole somewhat empty. Sure it’s one helluva band to bang your head to and probably does a lot for fans live, but the songs are a bit too alike.

Actually this album was edited first in Japan in 1998. The new european version comes with 2 bonus tracks; the instrumental "Tears of passion" and the cover of ALCATRAZZ classic "Too young to die, too drunk to live".

When I listened to the voice I said "Hey, this guy is a deadringer for Mark Boals". Later when I was reading the bio, I realized that he was she! The lady's name is Angelica Häggström. Nice surprise, knowing the fact that the power metal genre is dominated by male singers.

This swedish mob is the the brain-child of mainman and guitarist Thomas Wolf, a swedish karate champion, whose music abilities are not to be understimated. On "Stargate" we can find flute and violin interludes, like in "Sakura Opus", based on a japanese traditional song, which are contributed by Anna Norberg (Castle of Stockholm) and Michelle Wilcox respectively.

In short, STORMWIND music borrows influences from the likes of YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, TAD MOROSE or MEMENTO MORI from the "Dance Macabre" era (what a coincidence, all these are from Sweden!).

Honestly, with all this new wave of "melodic neoclassical power metal" it's getting pretty difficult to know who are the cream of the top (and of course, which bands are worthy of investing our bucks). The lovers of this genre will no doubt be quite happy with this album.

The ALCATRAZZ cover would have been the highlight of "Stargate" if it hadn't been for the awful vocal. Perhaps Mr. Wolf picked up the microphone for this tune. Ego-maniac musicians! When are they going to learn not to step into territories they don't control? Shame, with a good singer like Angelica behind the mike. Whatever...

A fact worth mentioning : Ian Haugland, of EUROPE fame, plays drums here as a guest musician.

No Fashion 2004
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
28 March 2004

The most successful "NWOBHM" act from Sweden (at least since the heydays and Torch), is back with their latest effort, "Evil Star". It's kind of weird that Sweden's Wolf should be one of the most British sounding acts right now. This could as easily have been released 20+ years ago and nobody would have noticed the difference.

It's raw and dirty metal, where early Maiden, Saxon, Anvil, Accept, Mercyful Fate provide the influences and inspiration. It's hardly groundbreaking or even remotely new music. Any old school rocker will recall most of these riffs and melodies from the past. Indeed, if their previous album was a nice flirt with 80's metal, they've completely overkilled it by now.

Wood/Hill Music 2002
Review by 27 November 2002

It Came From The 80's!!! I can see the headlines in front of me already!!! 20th Century Fox presents the unbelievable story about the monster album that got away. The horror, the horror!!!This is indeed one truly scary (and hairy?) story about a lost treasure, that never saw the light of day during 13 years. Yeah I know, I'm sure you've all heard it all a million times before. However, this CD is really something for all you fans of pure AOR to check out.

Joseph Lee Wood from Washington/USA originally recorded this album already back in 1989. Wood was signed to the same management company in LA, who managed Rick Springfield etc. Produced by Norman Ratner (707) and engineered by Tom Hall (Queensryche), the album was all set to go. Unfortunatly, his manager died in a car accident and other problems came along the way. So, here we are in 2002 and Woods finally decided to pick up things where he left them in 1989. I must admit that my jaw hit the floor, the first time I played this CD. I actually believed that I had accedently put the wrong disc in my CD-player at first. This is quality AOR in the tradition of Aviator, Aldo Nova (The 'Twitch' album), Stan Bush or Survivor. In other words, everything that AOR is made of, including dut-dut keys, catchy hooks, and lovely vocal harmonies.

A.B. Records 2001
Review by 5 May 2002

Wounded Knee comes from Italy and was put together in 1994 as a cover band. From there they continued with their own songs with a redskin theme. They’ve recorded one demo “Ghost Dance”, which led them to sign a contract with an independent Italian label Up Records and released their first album in 1997. It was distributed in Italy, Germany, Spain and USA. The band played a lot of shows in Italy and then released their album “Heyoke” in June 2001.

The songs are written by the same guys who also play in Rainbird, the hard rock band. But Wounded Knee is more powerful, more melodic and more complicated than what Rainbird has to offer. The opening song “Come In/Curley” is just that, beginning with an Indian intro and violin added. That’s one of the most interesting songs here, it is very powerful. The next song “Perceptions of Reality (The Beast)” is more straight-forward, then comes a partly slow track “Red Stained Childhood” and on “Achtung Banditen!” they sing in italian. “Apo-logy” is an istrumental and also one of the most interesting tracks here, then you get more proggish “Anna-Mae” and the last song “Sententia” which is also sang in italian, which is again more straight-forward, relaxed song, yet in the middle it turns into a completely different song.

Wounded Knee has an interesting combination of different styles, progressive elements playing the biggest part though. As their music is so complicated this cd demands a lot of listens to get into the music. I was hoping to hear more songs like “Come In..” from this group, as that song really worked. This album would’ve gotten more points then too. The singer was also one of the not too convincing parts, he’s much better in the slower songs.

No Fashion Records 2001
Review by 15 August 2001

Yet another Swedish power metal band! Also very bombastic though most of the songs aren't that fast. Again I'm listening to the singer and he sounds too "light". It is so hard to find a good singer and then some just don't know how to control their voice. Most of them aren't bad, but maybe don't just suite to that certain band.

There are many great parts on this cd where you are waiting for the climax, but it never happens. There's "Like Dogs Climbing Up The Moon" that got my attention. Of course the name did it too, but it was also the many other things. Like the acoustic guitar in the slow beginning and then it turns into a fast song where the shredding guitars sound like a swarm of bees! But a song with this kinda name?! Weird I tell you that.

Perris Records 2003
Review by 27 May 2003

The mini album "Knights Of Metal" with the US act Wyzard, is indeed something of a metal rarity. The 4-track vinyl is actually selling on Ebay for up to $500.00. It's probably worthy it's price too... not, since these underground "legends" are sadly very overrated.