An argument could be made that Journey should have headlined but no matter. It was a great night of hard rock and a good example of how healthy the scene is these days. I am grateful to the several punters who attended MoR and freely gave their opinions of the performances. Let's hope the promoters are happy enough to do MoR 2007. It was well worth the long wait to see my first MoR.
CD Reviews
Dragonforce: Inhuman Rampage
Classic heavy metal as done by a bunch of young English upstarts sounds like a recipe for disaster and dullness. Like Trivium, Dragonforce proves both live and on record this is not necessarily the case.
A cynical ol' heavy rocker like me just wants to hate this lot for being "derivative," but I just can't. It's hard to be a cynical bastard when you have a smile on your face a mile wide. Dragonforce are the offspring of classic New Wave of British Heavy Metal with a dash of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Diamond Head with a sprinkling of pre-rubbish Metallica to make it current.
The cheeky sods have released a CD of only 8 tracks; which is sheer genius. There is not one lame track on here; they even get away with a cracking ballad in the form of "Trail of Broken Hearts". The only thing that gives me a bit of a shudder is how much lead singer, ZP Theart, sounds like Vince Neil on this track; letting down his macho vocal guard for a brief moment. Rifts, catchy chorus, and pace abound on this slab o' metal. Oh sod it; if you like your metal, go get the bloody thing, okay? It's that good.
The Vincent Black Shadow: Fears in the Water
After the utter lameness of Bif Naked, I was wondering what the rest of the BoDog stable would be like, and when I found two of them were female fronted groups, I worried even more.
I needn't have. The VBS is a most impressive group with a lead singer who sounds like Gwen Stefani if she headed the way of Nightwish as opposed to Bling-Bling. Cassandra Ford has a sultry voice, which just works on any sort of tune even a big band-esque ballad like "Don't Go Soft". The track sounds like it's an outtake from Grease or some other "era" musical. Not the singles but the stronger album stuff. "House of Tasteful Men" has that ska meets Big Band feeling with a Stray Cats feel to it. This album is full of solid songwriting and musical performance that just makes you want to listen.
Article comments
1 - Tim Hall
Were Queesnryche that bad? I saw them on the Sunday night in Manchester, and I'd describe them as good rather than great. Perhaps they put on a better show when they were headlining their own gig.
Still, Monsters of Rock traditionally have one otherwise good band that dies horribly on stage. It happened to Blue Oyster Cult once.
BTW, Hurricane Party have now changed their name to Roadstar.
2 - Mark Saleski
wouldn't it have been weird for Journey to headline? i suppose they were the "biggest" band but they probably rocked the least out of all of them.
...though i did see them open for Ted Nugent way the heck back in the "Wheel In The Sky"-era. they rocked pretty freaking hard back then.
3 - Tim Hall
Didn't see them at Donnington, but did see them at Manchester on Monday. They rocked pretty hard (and played "Wheel in the Sky").
4 - Andrew Ian Dodge
Yes QR were that bad. I think an editor got to Roadstar and changed it to Hurricane Party :p. I know the lads and they deserve to do well. The good review in this month's Classic Rock probably helped their cause greatly.