Well, this week I have decided to review only stuff on discs as they are cluttering up the place. Not that music is bad mind you, but still.
First we start out with something exceedingly mellow, but well worth your time. Guitarist Johan Randén has a great release in the form of Summary which, while not being very heavy, has a lot of character and passion.
Former At Vance frontman Oliver Hartmann is back with another collection of rock with his namesake band. It is called Balance and is the band's normal quality fare. He even manages to pull off a decent cover of Tears for Fears "Shout". The guy has got a great voice and a stellar band, so consistency is what you get in spades.
Driver is the creation of Rob Rock, a journeyman vocalist, and Roy Z, who is famous for his work with Bruce Dickinson's solo material and Tribe of Gypsies. Needless to say, this potent combination produces a distinctly American-sounding version of power metal-tinged AOR. Whatever Countdown's music is called, this is good stuff that improves with each listen. It is no surprise the Euro-metal festival circuit love these guys.
Bangalore Choir have always been underrated and underappreciated and this release will further emphasize those errors. Metaphor is a quality AOR album that will be hard for any band to top. It hits all the right notes every time. The perfect music for top-down motoring this summer. It is catchy, with choruses that scream to be sung along to. What else do you need?
Fate produce a keyboard-laden, very Scandinavian sound of hard rock which makes sense as they are from Denmark. Ghosts from the Past is their latest effort, but the band have been around in one form or another since the '80s. Scandi-rock done right can be a charming breath of fresh air. You can have a far worse fate than listening to this album, for sure.
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