World Play
Soul SirkUS
This lot are yet another hard rock supergroup, which we seem to be getting alot of lately. And unlike many of em', like the iffy Brides of Destruction, this lot have produced one hell of an album. They fill out the triumverate of Velvet Revolver and Audioslave, doing the AOR/hard rock thing with oddles of class and aplomb. Course looking at the members this is not a shock. We have Neal Schon (Santana, Journey, HSAS, Hardline, Bad English), Marco Mendoza (Ted Nugent and Whitesnake), Dean Castronovo (who hasn't he played drums for?) and finally Jeff Scott Soto (Malmsteen, Humananimal, Talisman and numerous solo stints including the vocals in the movie Rock Star) so no slackers there. What they have produced is an interesting mixture of all their previous bands. Much of the time, this CD reminded me of a mixture of Hardline and HSAS, except on the track 'Coming Home' where JSS calls on his inner Steve Perry and helps produce a great lost Journey track. JSS vocals are closer to those of Sammy Hager (who with Michael Anthony was in the previous version of the band called Planet US and who wrote the track 'Peephole') than they are say John Waite's or Johnny Goelli. I think JSS has finally found a band that measures up to his talents. The tight as f*** pairing of Mendoza and Castronovo gives the band an awesome bottom end. This band is indescribably good and one does hope they will manage to produce some more material. It may be a wee bit early to declare this my AOR album of the year, but I can't see anything topping this.
Rating: 5/5
Article comments
1 - Yensid
Interesting, I didn't know he sang vocals on the Rockstar disc. I thought that was the guy from Steelheart? Am I misunderstanding you? Anyway, this is a great album but check out Jeff's latest disc and you might be surprised to find your favorite album of the year!
2 - SFC SKI
How many sappy power ballads fill this album among the actual rock songs?
3 - Marty Dodge
None...there is one ballad...almost everything else is very rocky.
4 - JasonR
WOW! This album is way better than I expected and being a big Journey & JSS fan I set my expectations high.
From the brief guitar into we’re off on a rocking ride with ‘Highest Ground’ and ‘New Position’ (Van Halen meets Brian May). ‘Another World’ hits a Led Zep grove as the song builds nicely to a crescendo at the chorus and Marco Mendoza drives it along with some neat bass runs. Ballads are kept to a bare minimum, which must be unusual for Neal Schon as the last two Journey albums have been ballad heavy to say the least. ‘Soul Goes On’ is the pick of the ballads and Soto again steals the show. ‘Alive’ catches you out as it starts with a harmony vocal before kicking in with a big guitar riff and is the sort of song Journey will hopefully try to emulate on their new album. ‘Friends To Lovers’ wins my track of the album award, as it is so damn catchy. Schon’s soloing is so damn heavy that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a metal guitarist in the band, whilst Virgil Donati’s drums ring clear in the mix and his playing on this album proves he is one of the best drummers around at the moment.
Neal Schon whips up a veritable storm on guitar with Jeff Scott Soto at the top of his game vocally. Hopefully this album will sell lots and more importantly break out of the obvious Journey/Soto market into the wider rock scene. It really is a classic and I’d be surprised if any other hard rock album tops this release this year or indeed in the near future.
5 - Marty Dodge
Jason, its Dean Castronovo who plays on the album, Donati joined post-album release. This album does get better and better with each play.
Hard rock pedant here...sorry :p
6 - JasonR
...I thought that as well but my Frontiers press release says they re-recorded the drum parts for this European release. Seems a strange move as Castronovo is a good drummer anyway. Have to ask JSS at the London gig won't we :)
7 - Andrew Ian Dodge
Yes we shall!