I know... it is back from 1992, but I got a hold of it the other day - for about 1 $. And I must admit it was one of the best buy's I have done this year. I had absolutely NO expectations towards this CD - but I had heard the name Fiona and saw Jimmy DeGrasso played the drums - so it couldn't be that bad.
Man... was I surprised, from the very first song I was lost to Fiona's smooth voice, raw voice, melodic voice - man... she sings just like she looks, absolute breathtaking. On this album (her 4th as far as I found out) she has joined forces with Laura McDonald on bass, Dave Marshall on guitars (wasn't he in Brunette?) and Jimmy DeGrasso on drums. And in the songwriting departement she has called in writers like Curt Cuomo, Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Jani Lane and Diane Warren. The album is produced by Marc Tanner, mixed and recorded by Davis Thoener and supervised by Paul Winger.
Like I said the whole record is listenable - but some tracks are worth mentioning. The track that has been in my car-stereo all week is "Ain't it just like Love" penned by Fiona/Marc Tanner/Jeff Neill, it has a catchy riff, a pounding rhythm and a chorus that just sticks like glue! "Don't come cryin'" is a typical Diane Warren penned piece of catchy melodic hard rock - but man does that chorus stick, but also the Cheap Trick penned ballad "Mystery of Love" is a winner and Warrant's Jani Lane has penned a good little last track "Life on the Moon".
All in all is "Squeeze" a very good hidden treasure - I don't know how hidden it is, but it was to me and I am so glad and fond of it that I think it should be noticed! The mix between Heart, Danger Danger and Winger is great! The songwriting, the musical skills, the production and the overall impression seems to fit 100%. The American label Wounded Bird will re-issue the first two albums, though!
One of several un-official fan sites is available here - but try "Fiona Flanagan" in Google!!

When Harem Scarem was informed that their original 10 track demo CD was put to sale for 995 U.S. dollar on a website it prompted them to officially release these tracks. The original tapes was a limited run of some 50-100 copies - but now we all can listen to the tracks in a remastered version - an the band has added some bonus material, too like "End of Time" which is the first European release of the Japanese bonus track which was featured on the last studio CD "Weight of the World".
Like I mentioned earlier these tracks was originally used getting the record deal with Warner Bros. back in 1989. The tracks is (of course) unpolished as they are demo versions both in expression and in production. There are some fun fan stuff here and I particulrly enjoyed this first edition of "Whatever I want" - which i first met with Fiore a couple of years ago.
I think it is good fun listen to these outtakes - even if the sound and the mood in general seems a little dated - it is not that far from putting on the first Boston record (on vinyl) on your stereo - the memories are great! And here you can sense the historic feeling that later caused albums like "Mood Swings" and "Voice of Reason".

Sometimes you just stumble across a band with a record that makes a difference - Green is such a band. Their debut album "Life" is a proclaimed concept album based around the fictious person Mr. Kite who is on a journey through life and love. He is constantly living a contrast between his interior world and the reality surrounding him.
"Life" descibes his flight through calm and sometimes stormy skies on his quest for the wind of love - "...seeking something worth living for", as it says in the press material. Green is an Italian foursome from Tuscany featuring the talents of Fabrizio Pieraccini on lead vocals and guitar, Guido Melis on bass, Giovanni Fanfani on keyboards and Michele Fanfani on drums and has been involved with pop/rock outfits like Airspeed, Diafranna and Time Escape.
Throughout the album Green combines strong personal experiences with an uncanny sense of a good song - inspired by their own heroes in Rush, Giant and/or Pink Floyd, not unlike their Swedish colleagues in A.C.T.
A delightful record with a spiritual approach of a timeless landscape of virtous musicianship with an attitude - and a good song is always a good song.

Circle II Circle was originally the brain child of former Savatage singer Zak Stevens. And the general expression is not that far from Savatage - Jon Oliva and Chris Cafferty has also contributed a lot to this project. But from being the project of a single vocalist it has turned into a real band with Matt La Porte on guitar, John Werner on guitar, John Zahner on keyboards, Kevin Rothney on bass and Chris Kinder on drums.
Stevens was tired of touring back in old Savatage days - but with Cricle II circle he has regained his good condition from back then and the band will go on a tour supporting this good hard hitting record and as Stevens says in the info material supporting this album: "Right now we are young and strong, and we want to support our new album whereever and whenever possible. We'll have the rest of our lives to sit around".
One of the clues on this record is - besides Zak's great vocals - ace guitarist Matt La Porte who sometimes sounds like Zakk Wylde and sometimes like both the two Metallica guiarists in one! - great!

After last years album "Live & Acustic" former Stiltskin and Genesis singer Ray Wilson has made another classic melodic rock album with "Change". And making an album of this quality this proud Scotsman "only" has to make really good songs with a mature expression - somehow sounding of a mixture of Bryan Adams, Michael Stipe and Peter Gabriel.
"Change" is a natural development from the last album - and basically this man only needs a bagfull of mature ideas, a finely tunes guitar and a steady hand at the mixing desk. There are several good tracks here - and the first one to spring to attention is the title track - which is also released as a single track, but also the more Del Amitri inspired "Along the Road" is a real earcatcher.
So if you are into mature melodic with an attitude and a comment on life in general - sometimes with a melancholic twist towards it - Ray Wilson is right up your alley!...and remember he will be supporting Saga on a Europe tour this spring/summer.

As the speaker says in the intro ..."Please welcome the Red Rocker - Sammy Hagar" and from that moment on the album is one Tour de Force in Sammy Hagar's mighty rocking career!
"Live Hallelujah" is a 17 tracks collection of live greatest hits that spans from his work with the band around Ronnie Montrose, through his days with the mighty Van Halen and his work as a platinum selling solo artist. This album also includes some very special once in a lifetime performances with his successor in Van Halen gary Cherone who joins Hagar on "When it's Love" and former VH-mate bassist Michael Anthony who lends signature bass talents and backup vocals to "Right now" and "Dreams".
Besides Sammy Hagar on guitar and lead vocals his backing band The Waborita’s are a bunch of well known artists like Jesse Harms on keyboards, percussion and background vocals, Vic Johnson on guitar, and background vocals. Mona ? bass and background vocals and David Lauser on drums, percussions and background vocals.
Some of the more memorable tracks are the before mentioned "When It’s Love" recorded from Boston and featuring a double lead vocal by Sammy Hagar & Gary Cherone and not to forget the background Vocals by Waborita’s Michael Anthony, former members of Boston: Fran Sheehan, John “Sib” Hashian, Barry Goudreau and former member of Extreme, Patrick Badger.
So for me it is an essential recording by one of my favorite performers - and a true rock 'n' roller to the bone!

Redemption is a project started by guitarist Nick Van Dyk - who co-wrote a song on Fates Warning vocalist Ray Elder's "Engine" album - and there it all began. Van Dyk was able to convince Elder that he had to participate on his Redemption project both as a producer and a performer. Corraling Fates Warning bassist Joey Vera to engineer, Van Dyk assembled a lineup for Redemption that reads like a who's who of progressive power metal: Rick Mythiasin (Steel Prophet) on vocals, Jason Rullo (Symphony X) on drums, Bernie Versailles (Agent Steel) on guitar and of course Nick Van Dyk on guitar, bass and keyboard - and as special guests Ray Elder (Fate Warning) vocals, Michael Romeo (Symphony X) on keyboards and Mark Zonder (Fates Warning) on drums.
Van Dyk himself descibes his music as dark progressive power metal with a sound that reflects a hypothetical combination of Evergrey, Savatage, Kansas, Iron Maiden and Fates Warning. Sure he has a thing for horror too - as the two epic tracks "Desperation" and "Something wicked this Way comes" (clocking at nearly 25 minutes) is inspired by the novels of Stephen King and Ray Bradbury!
Heavy as hell!!

Back in 1977 Praying Mantis was kindda brick in the NWOBHM-puzzle. The two Spanish/Greek brothers Tino and Chris Troy founded Praying Mantis and the band found themselves supporting Iron Maiden. And speaking of Iron Maiden ... the Troy brothers has worked with drummer Clive Burr, Paul Di'Anno and now Dennis Stratton but also Uriah Heep has delivered singer Bernie Shaw and now John Sloman to Praying Mantis.
The melodies on "The Journey goes on" are not all in 100% good condition - but that fact is overruled by the fact that the album has some excellent musicians involved - as mentioned Tony Troy, Chris Troy and Dennis Stratton plays guitars sings lead- and backing vocals and they are assisted by John Sloman who sings the lead vocals on 3 tracks - "Tonight", "Beast within" and "The Voice", Dougie White, who sings the lead parts on 4 tracks - "The Escape", "Silent War", "Hold on for Love" and "lost World" and Martin Johnson who plays the drums.
According to the core of Praying Mantis this album sounds definitely more melodic than before - and they expect this release to be their most successfull release ever. And somehow I'll hope they are right - they have gained a lot with the decision to use different singers as they have added more variety and depth to the songwriting. Please wait for the hidden track on #10 "Naked" - if you missed it on their previous release!

The story behind the comeback album "Letter to God" is pretty sad - concerning the title - the album is dedicated Terry Ilous' son, written as the last one for the album after the tragedy of Terry's son dying late last year!
XYZ was originally formed in the late 80's - at that time the band featured Terry Ilous on vocals, Marc Diglio on guitar, Patt Fontaine on bass and Paul Monroe on drums. Nowadays only Ilous and Monroe are in the line up assisted by new guitar player J.K. Northrup and Sean MacNabb on bass - Vinnie Appice makes a guest appearence on the title track, by the way.
Way back then XYZ was discovered by Don Dokken, who also produced the bands debut in 1989 and the general style and approach was very similar to Dokken.
... but here we are in 2003 - and the band has left the cock-rock image of yesteryear, now playing with a much more "grungy" style than earlier - very much anchored in Northups groovy guitar sound and of course Ilous' sometimes Robert Plant like lead vocals like his time in the project Cage. The album "Letter to God" is very powerful and groovy - I think that the album is good without giving me any ticks of enthusiasm. What saves the album is very much the strong songwriting - both the powerful tracks like "What's on your Mind" and "Letter to God" but also the ballads are worth a listen - in the best Whitesnake/Blue Murder vein!
So welcome back XYZ, keep up the good work and let's hear from you again!

Here is a little scoop - Harem Scarem vocalist Harry Hess has made a solo release covering the more contemporary melodic side of his prior career. Harem scarem has always been hard to categorize - from Hair metal in the early days over melodic rock and progressive rock and their more mellow side in the side project Rubber.
With this release Mr. Hess intends to go back to the certain sounds and atmospheres leaning more toward the melodic rock and pop, avoiding the heavier guitar approach typical for the last Harem Scarem release and with more in common with traditional pop/rock singer/songwriter - sometimes almost Beatle-esque.
As a special little feature he has re-recorded "Sentimental Blvd." - a classic from the "Mood Swings" album from 1993. Some of the musicians on the album include Eric Martin, Pete Lesperance, Darren Smith, Mike Turner, Creighton Doane and Ray Coburn from Honeymoon Suite. A fine little solo piece - with a lot of feeling-good-songs, all with the significant hoarse Canadian voice and his production is as crystal clear, too!

The basic thoughts of this project was to re-invent the classic feel on the two Streets albums. Therefore you take: Steve Walsh on vocals (of course) and let him meet Daniele Liverani from Empty Tremor and Genius who plays nearly everything except drums which is taken care of by Dario Ciccioni. Add a bunch of song smiths like Jim Peterik, Russ Ballard, Davis Foster, Robin & Judithe Randall, Giorgio Moroder, Kip Winger & Reb Beach, Mark Spiro, Johnny Gioeli and Neal Schon. The background singers are Joe Vana, Thom Griffin and Billy Greer. Mike Slamer mixed the album in his studios in L.A., with the precise task to rebuild the approach and sounds of the classic Streets' album but with a "new millennium" edge - and he did!
In my opinion the album is great - the songs are catchy, the musicians are splendid and the crystal clear production allows the two main characters Walsh and Liverani to deliver absolute top performances. A fantastic album.

Ring of Fire is as close as you can get to a super group in the power metal depatement - featuring the talents of main man and vocalist Mark Boals, keyboard wizzard Vitalij Kuprij, guitarist extraordinaire Tony MacAlpine, drummmer Virgil Donati and Philip Bynow on bass. All very knownprior to this release - and I don't exactly know if the band still exists, because Kuprij has left the band finishing the recordings from his own home in Philly - and NOT joining the rest of the band members in LA.
On "Dreamtower" it seems that the band has found a good mix of progressive elements, sheer power and strong melodies to glue it all together - and there are several memorable tracks on this. From the powerful opener to the almost balladesque "Blue Sky" - and all through the record there are nothing bur breathtaking musical performances!

Saga has more than 25 years of experience doing what they do - synthesizer based progressive rock with characteristic vocals and a seducing guitar. The band has been around since 1976 and is (still) represented by the two brothers Jim and Ian Crichton on bass and guitar, supported by Michael Sadler on vocals, Jim Gilmour on keyboards and Steve Negus on drums. I think that after a "low" period in the late 80's and early 90's but their latest records "Full Circles" from 1999 and "House of Cards" from 2001 is a step in the right - and good old - direction again. The bands marathon performance continues with this charming album. The title track is an easy-to-digest prog hit and the more slow balladesque tracks like "Blind side of the Heart" and "Breathing Lessons" are so close to 80's FM radio hits when Sadler sounds like Bryan Ferry. But also more rough tracks like "Return to Forever" is very good and together this mixture does that Saga once again delievers the expected quality - both in melodies and musicianship!
3rd of April they are here in Copenhagen supported by former Stiltskin and Genesis vocalist Ray Wilson.

Drive, She Said has always been a little too soft and a little too smooth for my taste. I must say that I am a little surprised here, keyboardist Mark Mangold (Mystic Healer, Michael Bolton & Touch) and guitarist/vocalist Al Fritsch got a lot of semi-rough sing-a-long tracks with a guarantee for arena attitude like the grand "Stronger" and "Overdrive" with a masturbating guitar intro - and of course the big pompy "Always and forever (Godz)" is a good track, too.
As a listener I think the album never really kicks of although "Real Life" is very well produced and surely has it's moments an a slightly varied tracklist with up-tempo tracks and big anthems alongside crying ballads - but they sure knows how to write a good song and this time Mangold & Fritsch are being supported by Satriani/GTR drummer Jonathan Mover - and thats a big plus in my book!

I think there has been a Japanese bootleg available in around 10 years featuring mighty Giant - but if I remember it right it had a bad sound. Finally Dann Huff, David Huff and Mike Brignardello has officially released live material including live tracks recorded during the US and European tours the band made from 1989 through to 1992 plus some acoustic performances of a show that the band held at the Borderline in London during 1992 - the line-up featuring the before mentioned guitarist, drummer and bassist plus Larry Hall on keyboards and Mark Oakley on additional guitars!
To me this is absolutely essential - Mr. Huff is THE guitar player to me due to the fact that he can play any style in any mood, anytime! Plus the fact that I finally got to hear "Stay" in the acoustic version.