4/5

Slamer is the brainchild of British guitarist Mike Slamer who started his career in the British cult-band CITY BOY. It is probably unnescessary to write that he relocated in the USA to form Streets with ex- Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh and two coming-members of Kansas Billy Greer and Tim Gehrt. Slamer then started working both as session player, producer and as composer on a lot af bands and projects - like Fiona, Hardline, Tower City, Wall of Silence and Chris Thompson - just to name a few...
In recent years Mike Slamer performed with former STREETS bandmate Billy Greer in the band Seventh Key, playing and co-writing on two studio and one live cd/DVD release. Now Mike has decided to come up with its own name with the aim to release the ultimate album of his career ! Magnificent producer and immaculate songwriter, Slamer is joined on the record by none other than the extraordinary former Strangeways and The Sign vocalist Terry Brock - and Billy Greer on background humming! The result is nothing else than a wet dream for all lovers melodic rock with a slight progressive and heavier edge than some of the previous material!
The album starts out really bombastic - the title track is a heavy case with a lot of sweaty drumming by Chet Wynd. Every track is build up with some spheric intro a killer production and some really nice AOR/Melodic rock guitar-work - but has its own ways in expression - ballads or hard rock... Terry Brock's voice is great and really suits the material, wheter it is a mellow ballad like the 8 minutes long "Come to me" or the rockier "Not in Love" and "Higher ground" - both are some of my favorite melodic tracks of all 2006! What a chorus and what a sound ....! All in all there are no fillers here, all tracks are right up your alley if you loved the melodic sides of Steelhouse Lane combined with the progressive sides of Seventh Key.
This album will be one of THE albums of all 2006 - and you may call me "Eberhart" if its not high on all melodic hit lists when we reach the end of the year...!

4/5

Oh, yes Sunstorm is a brand new project featuring one of THE voices of melodic rock through all times Joe Lynn Turner where he finally return to pure AOR and melodic rock. According to the following press material it is some bigger puzzle to date some of these tracks - as they may be way back to his early solo days and originally was plannned for his second album. But on the album htere are also credited people like Van Stephenson, Dann Huff, John Parr, Kelly Keagy and Jim Peterik, etc. Not a bad list of songwriters at all - but a big applause for bassist and producer Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69) for his fine job of creating a excuisite production and background performances. He has really hit the essence of Joe Lynn Turner, right on!
The opening track "Keep tonight" is a melodic gem where guiaris Uwe Reitenauer, keyboard player Jochen Weyer, drummer Chris Schmidt all are working overtime - and they are working hard for the money wheter it is on ballads like "Arms of Love" or "Strenght over Time" or on the more rockier kind - like on my favorite "This is my Heart". It really shows why Joe Lynn Turner is a star vocalist out of this world!
It is an essential release - it brings back Joe Lynn Turner back in the ranks of melodic rock/AOR artists - let's hope that there is new material on its way!

3/5

Oni Logan has like his collegue in Europe Joey Tempest found his solo-roots in the laid back westcoast genre. And like Tempest's "A Place to call Home" - especially on a track like "The long Road" the similarities are almost criminal...;-).
But nevertheless, Oni Logan has joined forces with some of the best guys in the bizz for this release - "Stranger in a foreign Land" is recorded with Michael Voss as main man, but also Don Airey and Steve Lukather are involved - and other German musicians with associations with Peter Maffay and Udo Lindenberg. Oni Logan was born in Argentina , lived in the USA - and now in Swizerland - and this journey has made him more thoughtfull - and tracks the very radio friendly tracks like "Bring back the days" is far from the furious rock with Lynch Mob and Violent Demise. But i'm sure that this very honest and down-to-earth release will be a reviewers favorite... - i'm already humming along the choruses on song like the title track and the magic "Blue Jean" - country par excellence with a stint of Joshua Kadison!
This release is a very very pleasant surprise - Oni Logan has evolved into a genuine sing&song-writer - great!