I will be honest with you; I’d given up on House of Lords or more accurately on James Christian and the ever revolving door of musicians that complete the House of Lords puzzle. You see, I highly respect what the band did in the 80s and early 90s and I guess I am not the only one who believes that the gap left by Gregg Giuffria’s departure has remained huge and unfulfilled ever since. Up until now…

Yes, you read it correctly! It is a long standing tradition to keep low expectations with every single House of Lords album thus “Saints and Sinners” was not the expectation to this rule. But not only was I pleasantly surprised by the final sonic outcome but I was kinda surprised, too! You see I didn’t expect such a strong comeback despite the fact that all the omens were there to see. The secret ingredient behind House of Lords’ success was none other than Mark Mangold; a legend and a highly respected figure in the global AOR community. Mangold fit like a glove with James Christian and his input in “Saints and Sinners” cannot be described in a couple of paragraphs as his trademark sound shines throughout the duration of “Saints and Sinners”!

Mangold has succeeded in building a huge wall of sound with his ever present pomp/AOR keyboard style thus catapulting the quality level of “Saints and Sinners” and making it the best House of Lords album since the “Demons Down” days. And not only this. His collaboration with Christian brings back the glory days when Giuffria was in the band and actually this is the first House of Lords album since 1992 that we didn’t miss Giuffria…and that’s a huge statement! Thank God for Mark Mangold and his majestic performance. Also, another important aspect of the album is that it’s not yet another bunch of songs enhanced with a “plastic”, flat production. No, sir! This is a record with a proper, warm, huge production that is so much needed nowadays (especially with such well-crafted and memorable tunes).

All in all, “Saints and Sinners” is the best House of Lords album since 1992. Period.

Highlight: If only Frontiers would invest more on the cover artworks of its releases…