TANIA KIKIDI – Wings Of Freedom (CD)

Greek vocal powerhouse Tania Kikidi follows up the excellent 2021 album “Rock & Roll Paradise” with a new belter of an album. The album kicks of with the rockin’ “Rise” that almost touches on classic 80s metal and bands like Riot or Metal Church, but with a more 70s sounding chorus. All the instruments, mixing and mastering are handled by the multi-talented Stavros Papadopoulos who does a killer job sounding like a whole band of different musicians. The title track continues and again I have to say vintage Riot does come to mind, and that is in my book by no means a bad thing. On the contrary, the early discography of Riot are among my favorite records. This is definitely classic metal with a new touch. “Loud And Proud” touches on 70s heavy rock and made me think of bands like Rockicks and Hydra, with Tania taking the vocal department to a whole new level. A killer track! “Broken Dreams” is a cool up-tempo classic rocker keeping the pace up going into a kickin’ cover of Sass Jordan’s “High Road Easy”. Tania and Stavros do a great job with it, but it’s almost impossible to surpass the unearthly energy and power of Sass, Brian Tichy and Stevie Salas, but a great version, nonetheless! “Heart Painted Blue” is a cool, heavy bluesy number giving the album another touch of color. “Confession” takes us into a Dio:esque landscape with a touch of Sabbaths “Heaven And Hell”, while “Breaking It Down” kicks off with riff heaven. Heavy, funky and rockin’ with Tania’s voice as the icing on the cake. “Bleed” keeps the riff machine going, while “Pain” revvs up the metal machine again, going back into vintage Riot territory.”Foolish Lover” is a cool, bluesy ballad kicking off with a killer solo from Stavros. The album finishes with the beautiful acoustic ballad “Sea Of Tears”. A very nice ending to a kick-ass album! Killer vocals, awesome playing, killer production and a cool cover to match it! Get it! 

Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard Records

Year: 2023

Country: Greece

Link: https://grooveyardrecords.com/

KING MOUNTAIN – Wrath Of The Gods (CD)

This is the fourth physical album (their sixth in total) in that many years by Greek bluesy stoner rockers King Mountain. On guitar and vocals, of course, the multi-talented Stavros Papadopoulos. The album starts out pretty cool and calm to burst into some really heavy, almost doomy riffs. It evolves into a really nice semi-soft, heavy bluesy number, the ones you usually find in the second half of an album. It almost has kind of a King’s X vibe to it, as well. Interesting! “Firebringer” brings in a bit of classic metal into the mix. “Evil Deadly Nights” is as slow and doomy as they come, while “Midas Touch” is a nice acoustic ballad that turns into a slow epic heavy number. “Until the Day I’m Gone” is another crushing metal number. “Axecalibur” is crushing riff monster featuring some killer bass playing from John Christopoulos and brilliant soloing from Stavros while “Retribution” is another heavy rock hitter. I’m not sure why this band is often labeled as a “stoner” band. This is classic heavy rock with some heavier passages and quite a nice variety in the song writing. A great album indeed!

Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard Records

Country: Greece

Year: 2023

Link: https://grooveyardrecords.com/

Super Vintage – Guardians Of Tradition (CD)

Greece’s most prolific rocker is at it again! Stavros delivers album after album with various projects and bands. Super Vintage hears him rock out in riff rock land. “Guardians Of Tradition” is his sixth album with Super Vintage. The album kicks off with the groovy sleazy blues rocker “Southern Ride”, which leaves off to the Blackfoot sounding “Indian Soul” with some nice classic southern rock guitar solos. “Hero” starts out soft and nice, but kicks in some heavy guitars and turns into a nice southern rock style semi-power-ballad. “Rolling Thunder” kicks it into gear and also features some cool slide guitar. A really nice and very dynamic song with lots of different layers. “Down Down” starts of kinda familiar with a slide guitar but moves into a different direction with some cool finger picking, to again move it up a notch and transform into a cool bluesy southern rock number, with some cool dirty slide and solo work from Stavros. “T For Tennessee” brings it into up-tempo mode and do get a vibe of vintage Blackfoot here as well. Think “Marauder” or “Tomcattin”. “Naked Truth” continues the hard and heavy rocker mode and this one really hits home with me. Powerful and sleazy! Without going into each of the remaining tracks continue in the same vein, except for “Rise And Fall” which is a bit too “country” for my taste. All in all, a kick ass album!

Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard Records

Year: 2022

Country: Greece

King Mountain - Kingdom Of Shadows (CD)

 

One of Greece’s hardest workin men is without a doubt Stavos Papadopulos. Guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, singer, producer, recording engineer, mastering engineer and song writer. His name can be found in relation to bands like Universal Hippies, Hard Driver, Freerock Saints, Super Vintage och Revolution Highway. King Mountain is another one and it rests on the sacred grounds of the hard rocking 70s, with the riff as a word of honor. Stavros is also without a doubt a master in this trade, which he proves again and again. On the album with singer Tania Kikidi, which was released at the same time as this he also delivered a big chunk of great riffs, so I guess his riff account is pretty big. Actually, this album and Tania’s album, aren’t that far apart musically. The biggest difference is in the vocal delivery department, where the vocals here are handled by Stavros himself. If I was to compare this to some contemporary bands, it would probably be The Dead Daisies or Black Country Communion. Hard rock with riffs up front and bluesy vocals to fit the mold. Stavros is a very capable singer who does a great job even if his guitar playing is a few notches better. I truly love his guitar playing, his groove oriented rhythm playing and the bluesy, bleeding solos. King Mountain – check them out!

/Janne Stark

Year: 2021

Label: Grooveyard Records

Tania Kikidi - Rock & Roll Paradise (CD)

 

Greece has presented some good stuff now and then, unfortunately not that often. However, in the last 6-7 years there’s been a bunch of good stuff with a nice 70s vibe coming out with bands like Universal Hippies, King Mountain, Hard Driver, Freerock Saints and Super Vintage. One guy has a finger in each of the pies, guitarist, singer, producer Stavros Papadopoulos. So also here, meaning my expectations are quite high. Tania kicks off the opening track and immediately shows how things are done! Power-rock, hard rock, riff rock – classic hard rock with great melodies, fat guitars and Tania’s rocking voice as the icing on the cake. This starts out really good! “Queen Rider” continues in the same vein. It’s kinda hard to describe the style more than saying it’s 100 % rocking classic and quite timeless hard rock in the same musical territory as classic Dio and Victory, but with Tania’s voice as a new element putting them in a lane of their own. “Freedom Highway” invites you to some serious riffing with a nudge to the old Zep school, but a chorus closer to southern rock. “Night Burner” fills upp the riff account again and this one brings classic 70s bands like Teaze, Moxy and Riot to mind, and a riff that made me think of Whitesnake’s “Still of the Night”. Without going through each and every track on the album I’ll say that the overall quality is high, the song material is quite uniform but still varied enough to make it an interesting album. The fact is that the album rocks my world in every track! If you like classic hard rock with great riffs and a singer with the right rock edge, this album is a must The production, as Stavros’ productions usually is, is dynamic yet fat and powerful with kick ass guitars and drums that sound natural. High scores there as well! 

/Janne Stark

Year: 2021

Label: Grooveyard Records

Sakis Dovolis Trio – Cross The Line (CD)

Man, it seems the blues has really hit Greece! They have produced the fantastic talent of Stavros Papadopolous (who has also co-produced this album), with his Universal Hippies, Freerock Saints and Super Vintage. Here, his fellow country man Sakis proves he too can deliver the goods! It does say “trio”, so of course he’s got two fellows taking care of the bass (Fotis Dovolis) and drums (Nick Kalivas), and they do it with power, groove and assertiveness indeed! The album kicks off with the riff rockin’ “All Over You” in same same territory as Robin Trower, Craig Erickson, Philip Sayce. Lance Lopez and with a touch of Stevie Ray in his leads. Sakis is a phenomenal guitarist and also a great singer! If someone had played it to me without saying the band name, I would have said 100 % American. Well, Sakis also knows how to deliver crunchy and groovy riffs. “Everything” is as groovy as they come with Sakis letting that Strat rip the air a new one! Damn, this guy does rip!! He also manages to keep the momentum up delivering one number after another. There’s some heavy, detuned riffing going on in the title track giving it a different vibe, some more mellow, funky and almost jazzy playing in “Show Me Your Love” and he does it a really cool version of ZZ Top’s “Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings”. The album closes with Sakis’ tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a fine one it is. A cool, bluesy ballad with outstanding guitar playing. A killer of an album, indeed!

Janne Stark

Year: 2018

Label: Grooveyard Records

Country: Greece

Link: www.sakisdovolis.com

Super Vintage – Destiny (CD)

Our favorite Greek guitarist/singer Stavros Papadopoulos is at it again! How many hours does this guy have in a day me wonder? Now it’s time for a new Super Vintage album, Stavros heavy bluesy, 70s influenced power unit. He kicks off with southern tinged “Rock N’ Roll Saviors” and continues with a cool Bad Company vibe in “Brotherhood Of Blues”. The tracks ends with an extended, cool bluesy solo. “Edge of Time” continues in the southern vibe, actually combining the brit bluesy Bad Company vibe with a touch of vintage Lynyrd Skynyrd and a cool slide guitar to top it off. “Naked Tree” keeps it up in the same vibe, while “Streets Of This Town” has a sleazy, heavy edge to it. “Everything You Wanted” picks up the southern up-tempo vibe. The album finally ends with the slow acoustic “Destiny”, a classic southern rock ballad. What can I say? Stavros hasn’t made me disappointed before, and he didn’t this time either. A great bluesy, southern rock album, from Greece of all places!  

Janne Stark

Country: Greece

Year: 2018

Label: Grooveyard Records

Freerock Saints - Electric Passion (CD)

Greek band Freerock Saints follow up their first album ”Blue Pearl Union” with yet another slab of bluesy hard rock with a steady seventies backbone. Female singer Areti Valavanopoulou sure has the voice of a black winged angel, sassy, bluesy, powerful and truly convincing, while her colleague Stavros Papadopoulos delivers the fat guitar licks with the same power and conviction. Try imagining Bad Company with Sass Jordan on vocals and you’re in the ballpark of what Freerock Saints sound like. The mix is fat and powerful, yet ambient and well separated. I am a big fan of the debut but still feel this one is a tad bit better and more even. It’s hard to pick any favorite track, but one that immediately grabbed me was the groove oriented ”Passion City”. A killer release well worth spending your hard earned cash on.

Janne Stark

Year: 2017

Label: Grooveyard Records

Country: Greece

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