Reviews April/01

Pretty Maids / Carpe Diem / Scandinavian Records 54307

3/5


Pretty Maids - Carpe Diem Tracklisting:Violent Tribe; Carpe Diem; Tortured Spirit; Wouldn't miss you; Clay; Poisoned Pleasures; Until it dies; The unwritten Pages; For once in your Life; They are all alike; Time waits for no one; Invisible Chains.

I know it is a little late - but fellow danes Pretty Maids latest effort "Carpe Diem" (Seize the Day) took a while in my CD player until I got hooked! My first thoughts was: "Oh, again!"
The style and genre on the album is as well known as always. There are are a lot of rough tracks combined with catchy up-tempo tracks and heart felt ballads. Delievered from the 4 present members Ronnie Atkins on vocals, Ken Hammer on guitar, Michael Fast on drums and Kenn Jackson on the bass.
There is a small change from earlier, though - this album is produced by the band itself. Mixed by long time friend and former Rainbow and Metallica producer Flemming Rasmussen and mastered by Aces High and Push producer Jan Eliasson.
But in all other areas it is busines as usual - solid rock songs wrapped in some heavy equipment and some smoother tracks for the airplay. The two opening tracks "Violent Tripe" and "Carpe Diem" is in the heavy departement and "Wouldn't miss you" and "Clay" are in a more radio friendly mood.
Personally I like this album more than I liked their latest "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing" - it is more catchy and the songs are far more powerful and inspired. So if you liked "Sin-Decade" you will definitely like this one! And one more thing - there are no Thin Lizzy cover on this one - phew!


Halford / Live Insurrection / MISCD 007

2/5


Rob Halford - The socalled Metal God Tracklisting:CD 1:Resurrection; Made in Hell; Into the Pit; Nailed to the Gun; Light comes out of the black; Stained Glass; Jawbreaker; Running wild; Slow Down; The one you love to hate;; Life in Black; Hell's last Survivor; Sad Wings; Saviour; Silent Screams.
CD2:Intro; Cyberworld; The Hellion; Electric Eye; Riding on the Wind; Genocide-1st encore; Beyond the Realms of Death; Metal Gods-2nd encore; Breaking the Law; Breaking the law; Tyrant. + Studiotracks:Screaming in the Dark; Heart of a Lion; Prisoner of your Eyes.

Rob Halford has never been one of my all time favorites - but Judas Priest had their tracks, and his first solo project Fight was a bit to rough for my taste.
Halford (the band) released an album last year called "Resurrection" and as a follow-up to that this double CD was recorded at various stages during the "Resurrection World Tour", which saw the band take in 94 shows over a 7 month period in 20 countries around the globe.
Halford features besides vocalist Rob Halford, Mike Chlasciak on guitars, Bobby Jarzombek on drums, Ray Riendeau on bass and Patrick Lachman on guitars. And all five members are all wired up on this one.
The press release says: "The choise of songs that feature on the album will ensure that this is the quintessentiel record for all fans, both early and more recent, of the Metal God" and as you can see there are several tracks from the Judas Priest period that the young members of Halford plays like they never did anything else! In fact I think that what Rob Halford is doing today is the natural evolution from bands like Judas Prist in the 70's - agressive, powerful and loud.
So if you want a good spank and lot of thunderous drums, screaming guitars and a high pitched vocal Rob Halford is your man!


Sinopoli / Don't bleed on my Parade / Advance CD single

4/5


Sinopoli - His solo project Tracklisting:Don't bleed on my Parade.

This is a bit of what we can expect from former Angry Tears front man Joey Sinopoli.
On this solo project a lot of guest stars will appear. Long time friend and band mate Jack Ponti on guitars, as well as Dean Fassano from Message will do a duet on the forthcoming album, Kenny Dubman from Prophet and Steve Thomas from Garbo Talks will do some guitar work, Steve Werner from Ace Frehleys's band will play the drums, Eric T will do the bass and Tony Nardini will play guitar and key's.
The track "Don't bleed on my Parade" is a bit similar in vibe and genre as found on the Angry Tears album - melancolic tune with a lot of heartfelt pain and a crouching guitar solo - a great track!
On the full album there wil also be a version of the track "Love by the Numbers" originally written by Sinopoli, Keeling and Ponti for the Baton Rouge album from 1997 - and I am looking forward to hear the whole album - promissing!


© Steen Peitersen 1999-2001