Hard Driver - Freedom Machine (CD)

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Stavros must be the busiest man in Greece! Not only does he rock out with Super Vintage and Freerock Saints, now he has also released an instrumental CD with Universal Hippies and, at the same time, let loose another beast. Those of you familiar with Jake E Lee's band Badlands will surely make the connection here (for you uninformed Hard Driver is a song on the first Badlands album). Hard Driver sure do have some Badlands overtones. Bluesy hard rock with a southern touch. This is indeed a pretty solid album. The songs range between good and kick-ass and the band sounds great. The Achilles Heel, for my personal taste, is the vocals. Stavros is a good singer, but there is still something lacking for me to fully embrace his vocal performance. I'm not 100 % sure exactly what it is, but it's most likely a combination of his vocal range, his sound and his overall performing lacking a bit of oomph, for lack of a better word. However, what he lacks in vocals, he makes up for in his excellent guitar work. The songs are solid and the band plays great! Well worth checking out!
Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard
Year: 2017
Country: Greece