Here are some suggestions for your listening pleasure this week.
Royal Hunt have released what has to be a great value for money the 20th Anniversary Special Addition of their "best of" album. There are a total of 34 tracks for 173 minutes in this three-CD set. And it is not just crap they found in the attic or lots of duplicate tracks. There are new recordings and unplugged versions aplenty, as well as a DVD with videos for many of the tracks. There is enough here to make this both a good purchase for old fans and those wanting to check out the band.
Snakecharmer have their self-titled debut about to be released. It is a supergroup with Micky Moody (of Whitesnake), Neil Murray (journeyman bassist), Harry James (from Thunder) on drums, Rick Wakeman's kid Alan on keys, and Chris Ousey on vocals. I have seen previous iterations of the core of the band (The Snakes, Company of Snakes) with people like Jørn Lande on vocals and I have to say I prefer a grittier vocalist for this sort of music. It remains to be seen if Ousey has got the pipes to sing Whitesnake songs with proper gravitas live. That said this is a decent blues rock album, more in the style of Bad Company than Coverdale's bunch. This is certainly a grower of an album but one that rewards repeated listens.
Something a hell of a lot less bluesy and a hell of a lot more middle of the road is Tell Me Something by Paul D'Adamo. It is mostly pretty mellow fare, broken up by Toto or Supertramp-like tracks like "Like It or Not". At times there is even a Genesis (later incarnation) sound to it, mostly because of the Phil Collins-ish vocals. There is enough musicianship on here to make it a guilty pleasure for rockers and proggers.
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