I would like to take you for a spin… Does 1989 look appealing? Okay, get in and buckle up. Adrian Smith And Project’s “Silver and gold” is just being released and certain fans want to buy it – for obvious reasons! So I’m heading to this cool record store and watch this guy asking one of the peeps working at the store. “Is it out, dude?” and the reply is faster than lyte… “Totally commercial stuff, nothing to do with…”. The guy is looking at me then returns to the salesman. “Err… dude, what did I ask again”? My point? Exactly! When I want to know certain things about an album, I want just that, nothing else. Spear me the review, I will read it later. What I really want now is to get the news. Bottom line: it’s my freakin’ money!
The Captain of Heavy Metal, the mightiest personality in the history of Metal genre, according to my opinion and a whole bunch of other opinions I guess, has done something I wasn’t expecting. He released a solo album and created a lot of fuss as many peeps were saying he was only interested in his super-band and nothing else. Yeah, he has also recorded for his daughter’s album and with some graphic tennis champions. Harris made the move though and he did release the solo thing.
Album opens with “This is my god”… Okay, so this is the new Harris job or the next Psycho Motel album? Could I be wrong? Patience, patience, my lad, let’s listen to the next track… “Lost words” is on and me likes it moore although… Gotta wait, next one will be even better… Then “Karma killer” enters… sneaky, dark, poisonous. Attackers are assembling… “Us against the world” and it’s open season! This is one fantastic song, it surely reminds me of the Emperors of Metal, yet there is this significant difference. And the name of that dif… Richard Taylor. I love bands such as Mike And The Mechanics, I really like those “types” of voices. “Mild power”, as it is. Really expressionistic, really into it. Wot, every singer has to possess a forty two octaves larynx?
“The chosen ones” features an intro vaguely pointing at “The angel and the gambler”. No, it’s just fifteen seconds and it’s really vague. Then a Rock song is on, close to Hard Rock, a six and a half min “hit single”. Could this album actually be a Rock album? Cuz it’s surely looks like that… When “A world without heaven” enters, I’m more than sure. The Captain wants to play AOR! American-ish to the core, cinema gear and TV syrup. Check out the chorus, it’s to fall in love with! “Judas” kicks off with a more powerful theme, however, following the snare pounding, we listen to a seventies Rock thing, filled with a seventies feeling and memories of bands playing at sold out arenas, forty years ago.
So, Steve Harris is still writing stuff, sitting in his study, when the door opens and Jon Bon Jovi steps in! Jonicus Maximus checked around, gave the room a thorough look and then said “Hey, Steve, take five! Come with me, man, I’m gotta introduce you to Bruce Springsteen”… And “Eyes of the young” was born! This is one spectacular song, a BonJovinus treat; I’m sure that the Jersey man is probably wondering, asking Sambora at the same time. “Dude, isn’t that one of ours? This is ours, right”? Hey, do the opening chords take you to the “Electric dreams” legend? Me, too, me, too!
We have a winner, we have a new champion. “These are the hands” is simply doing the victory round, it’s time for photos and autographs. West Ham fan played and won and made the Rockiverse go bananas. Yeah, yeah, lots of you are saying you got disappointed, lots of you are saying the new singer is not good… or that production is not the one supposed to be… or that Kevin Shirley did a lousy mixing… I read all that. Over and over again. I talked with many people about those things. Can I just say something? When it comes to music, I’m a barbarian. I will listen to you, tell me everything there is to tell me. I will thank you for that and then proceed with my own instinct. As I’m sure you will, too. We ain’t gonna listen to music based on “recipes” and “instructions”, we will not operate that way. Ever!
Mr. Taylor has a very special voice. He feels every song and we feel it along with him. Giving him the boot thru media is simply a sign of the times. A friend wrote a few days ago “Should Steve bring a singer the likes of Bruce, everybody would say it’s the same thing, they sound alike and blah-blah. Now that the singer is totally different, they say he’s not good. You just can’t win this one”. If you ask me, this is the very singer that should have done “The final frontier”. Yes, the entire album! What’s that, some of you beg to differ? That’s okay. What, some of you are starting to think about it? That’s okay, too…
Classic Rock, Kerrang, British Metal Hammer, historical magazines all of them, praised the British Lion. I haven’t yet read the German magazines reviews, I am going to though. So, magazines that would not bend for anybody, are actually praising the album. You don’t think so? So, if these magazines are doing a fave, doesn’t that mean every other magazine will follow? No? It’s a weird situation, isn’t it?
I would love to dedicate “The lesson”, last song of the bouquet, to all those suits in ΕΜΙ and the rest of the labels… Cuz they really need a lesson. When I found out about the album, I decided to talk to EMI Greece and the British branch, in order to get a streaming slot, to review the album. The peeps I spoke to were really polite and very helpful. However, they were instructed to say the same thing. EMI would send the link to printed media and then decide about “the rest”. Yes, this is still 2012 and not the dark ages revisited. For some “brains” out there, printed media are the “correct” ones. It’s as if the gurus of music write there whilst incompetent fools work with web magazines. This is how certain peeps think. Peeps that make money out of bands that have become famous because of their music and because other people wrote about those bands, for free. These “brainiacs” are simply pitiful and they should consider “relocating” to the oil business. Thank you for the album, Percy, we love it! Up the lions!
I would love to dedicate “The lesson”, last song of the bouquet, to all those suits in ΕΜΙ and the rest of the labels… Cuz they really need a lesson. When I found out about the album, I decided to talk to EMI Greece and the British branch, in order to get a streaming slot, to review the album. The peeps I spoke to were really polite and very helpful. However, they were instructed to say the same thing. EMI would send the link to printed media and then decide about “the rest”. Yes, this is still 2012 and not the dark ages revisited. For some “brains” out there, printed media are the “correct” ones. It’s as if the gurus of music write there whilst incompetent fools work with web magazines. This is how certain peeps think. Peeps that make money out of bands that have become famous because of their music and because other people wrote about those bands, for free. These “brainiacs” are simply pitiful and they should consider “relocating” to the oil business. Thank you for the album, Percy, we love it! Up the lions!
