Journey – Freedom (CD/LP)

 

Already in the opening track “Together We Run” I start looking through the promo material to see if Journey have changed lead singer. Arnel doesn’t really sound like he used to! A bit raspier, a bit scarred, which I’ve never heard before. To be honest, I have no complaints about it at all! It gives a nice edge to his otherwise quite polished voice. The song itself is quite classic melodic hard rock. “Don’t Give Up On Us” (we haven’t!) sounds like they’ve borrowed a bit from themselves, but not too obvious and not too much. It however feels like his struggling a bit to get the vocals to cut through, and I’m missing the edge. “Still Believe In Love” is a different type of ballad, almost with a 10CC:ish vibe to it, while in “You Got The Best Of Me” they again put the pedal to the metal and Neal lets his guitar rip. A really nice one. The however take the tempo down again already in the next song, the bombastic and more traditional style Journey ballad, “Live To Love Again”. The power returns again in “The Way We Used To Be”, a really good rocker with a cool bluesy solo from Schon. Here Arnels voice is more in its right element. ”Come With Me” continues the rock streak and there are some pretty brutal riffs going on with a bit more attitude in the vocal department as well. Another kicker! Then we’re back in ballad land again. I wish they would maybe not go full on go-stop-go but throw in some more mid-tempo songs in-between to ease the ride a bit. “Let It Rain” starts with some almost Steve Vai style riffs from Schon and they again take it down into the heavy rock ditch (I like being there, I should add). “Holding On” keeps the tempo up and here I get a vibe of the first three (pre-Perry) albums. Another killer! I’m not 100 % into the production, though, which I feel is a bit messy at times. “All Day And All Night” is a prime example of the mid-tempo segment I mentioned before. “Don’t Go” is the first song yet where I feel – yeah, this is pure classic AOR. “United We Stand” takes us back to the “Trial By Fire” era while “Life Rolls On” starts off as a soft typical Journey balld but 1:40 into the song, Schon breaks loose and rocks out and the song changes style, which is cool! The 7+ minutes “Beautiful As You Are” offers many surprises. It starts off as a sensitive soft balld with acoustic guitar and strings and with Arnel singing softly, but an minute and a half into the song all Hell breaks loose and the tempo rises. New drummer Narada Michael Walden is busy as a bee in the last part of the song and almost turns it into a drum solo while Neal throws in some heavy guitar chords. It ends in the same soft manner as it started. 15 songs. To be honest, I feel it’s a little too much. 11-12 songs would have been a solid killer album. The production may be a matter of taste and doesn’t get top scores from me, but it’s not bad, just not to my full liking. The playing and the performances are definitely there, and yeah, the songs are, too!

Janne Stark

Yeah: 2022
Label: Frontiers
Country: USA

Cirkus Prütz - Blues Revolution (CD/LP)

 

Swedish quartet Cirkus Prütz (named after something as unusual as the bass player! Well, there’s gotta be a first, nudge nudge wink wink) now releases their second album and already the opening numbers makes you happy. Highly addictive boogie rock with the diesel tank filled to the brim. The band is fronted by The Quill guitarist Christian Karlsson, here also on lead vocals which he handles more than well. He has a cool bluesy voice that fits that band’s style perfectly. The band is also equipped with a second guitarist who knows his stuff, Franco Santunione formerly of Electric Boys. The band’s front bassist Jerry Prütz has earlier released a bunch of albums with hard rockers W.E.T (not to be confused with the current unit featuring Mårtensson and Soto). ”Boogie Woogie Man” has a bit of ZZ Top vibes in the intro riff, but definitely stands on its own legs. Also the subsequent “Modern Day Gentle man” flirts with the beards with a fitting “every girl wants…” thrown in. A nice rocker! ”Let’s Join Hands” takes it all in a totally different direction with its country vibe making me think of a mix between the theme songs for “True Blood” and “True Detective” with vocals reaching down to Christian’s cojones. Next up is the highly Muddy Waters influenced “The Devil In Me” with a classic riff and some other feathers borrowed from Willie Dixon. ”Howl Like A Wolf” takes the tempo up and struts along with some cool licks. “Headache” is a heavier and also really cool number, also one whose riff teases the memory, while “Gotta Quit Drinking” is a classic slow blues with piano as an extra ingredient. ”Death Knock Blues” is a classic Molly Hatchet style southern rocker, and it actually now dawns on me that Christian does remind me a bit of Hatchet’s original (late) singer Danny Joe Brown, which is a good thing in my book! The album finishes off with what could’ve been a cover of Chuck Berry, classic 50s style rock & roll. It does take guts to play something as simple and straight ahead today. Kudos for that. This is car music, top down, a party rocker and a really nice energy injection if you need it!

/Janne Stark

Year: 2022

Label: Metalville

Country: Sweden

Last Chance – Last Chance (digital)

 

Last Chance is a new US based hard rock band featuring singer Frankie Rage, guitarist Dave Baron, bass player Rob Phillips and drummer Jordan Cannata. 

“Light The Fire” kicks off the album in an 80-oozing sleaze-oriented vein, with an almost punky vibe to it, a bit like MC5 meets early Skid Row (the US band that is). Cannata is really driving the song with Frankie’s practically spitting out the words. “Sick Of It All” takes it in a totally different direction with a heavy funky, sort of Last Crack type vein, with a chorus that throws it all in a totally different direction almost going into Cheap Trick’s pop-melodic territory.  “Breakin’” continues even further into the funk territory. A strange and quirky song that made me think of Fishbone, with yet another Cheap Trick style pop chorus. Great funky slap bass playing from Rob. “Gotcha Back” offers yet another variation in style, more of a shuffle style mid-tempo rocker with a garage rock vibe to it. For some reason, the letters OMFUG appears before me (well, if you know you know). Cool shreddy solo from Dave, too! The musical schizophrenia continues when “Human Eyes” suddenly takes us into southern style pop/rock territory with singer Frankie adding his almost punkish vocal attitude to the mix. “Tattoo” takes us back to CBGBs garage rock vein and it reminds me a bit of a modern Tuff Darts (a band I really like). “Don’t Wanna Be Your Man” starts out a bit heavy but turns into an acoustic number which reminds med quite a lot of Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” and here Frankie does sound a bit like Brett Michaels. “Tough Titty” is another piece of sleaze-oriented rock in the vein of heavier Poison or Faster Pussycat, while “Anything But That” is a semi-ballad, leaning more into the reign of southern rock but they do lose me in the chorus with the vocals following the guitar chords too closely. The album ends with another funk-oriented quirky thing entitled “Kamikaze” with a straight ahead almost punky chorus, and a shredding solo from Dave. In conclusion, I will admit this is not really up my alley and I do have a bit of a problem with the vocals which have a bit too much punk attitude for my taste, but the album does have some highlights.

/Janne Stark 

Year: 2022
Country: USA
Label: self-released

King’s X - Three Sides Of One (CD/LP)

 

King’s X has been one of my absolute favorite bands ever since I first heard “Gretchen Goes To Nebraska”. I shall however admit that there are a few albums I still haven’t fully taken to heart, “Please Come Home... Mr Bulbous” and “Manic Moonlight”, but I haven’t written them off. There have happened way more on the members’ side/solo projects than with this band who haven’t released a studio album since “XV” in 2008. They signed with the highly odd label Golden Robot a few years ago, but fortunately they switched over to the way more solid Inside Out. “Three Sides Of One” opens with “Let It Rain” which really kicks off the album with some heavy rock and even some hints of Led Zeppelin, plus a really cool backwards guitar solo from Ty. It kinda leans more towards Dug’s solo material, and it doesn’t have the big vocal harmonies, but a really good start! “Flood Pt 1” starts kinda strange, but soon kicks into gear with some really heavy riffs and staccato rhythms, but soon jumps into a soft verse with strings and really nice harmony vocals. I can’t say this reminds me of anything they have done before, but I must say I really like it. They are taking it down a few notches with “Nothing But The Truth”, which starts off with soft plucking guitars and this definitely reminds me of old school King’s X, especially the harmony vocals in the chorus, while the verse is almost a bit bluesy. Dug still has a voice that gives me goosebumps! After a fake ending, Ty rolls in with a classic, long, and fantastic solo. “Give It Up” pushes the tempo up and this is definitely King’s X in their prime. The first time I heard it I was totally thrown by the key change in the chorus and had to go back and check what they did. A really cool thing, indeed! They’ve also thrown in a bit of Wally Farkas Yoko imitation for good measure. A killer track indeed! “All God’s Children” starts off soft and nice with a twelve string guitar. A brutally heavy guitar riff rips it all up, but it returns to the soft verse with Ty on vocals. The chorus is based on the heavy riff, fat and simple but great. Harmony vocals – check! Interesting ending as well, where I had expected a long guitar solo there was just plucking guitars and bass runs. I do miss that solo, but I won’t complain. “Take The Time” is an acoustic ballad with a Beatlesque feel to it, sung by jerry. Next up is the rocker of the album, “Festival”. It almost touches on new wave with tongue in cheek lyrics about wanting to arrange a festival, but someone else must do the work. “Swipe Up” is another staccato riffster, a bit different and not the traditional King’s X format, but a really cool song. It sure does have some classic King’s X elements woven into the web. Next up is “Holidays”, also sung by jerry. A cool semi-heavy number, again with some Beatles vibes in the chorus and really nice harmony vocals. “Watcher” definitely has a “Dogman” vibe to it with the cool heavy groove and Ty’s vocal. The guitar sound has Ty’s classic Strat-type touch and he again delivers an outstanding solo. One of my favorites off the album! “She Called Me Home” does also sound like classic King’s X with drop-D tuning, Strat-style plucking and a big dose of nice harmonies. The album finishes with “Every Everywhere”, which sounds like a typical Dug tune. Kinda odd, but nice harmonies and a big chunk of nice melodies in the chorus. I really like the production of the album, which feels very analogue and dynamic. It does sound like real drums and tube amps. All in all, a great return I’ve been waiting a long time to hear! The X is back!

/Janne Stark

Year: 2022

Label: Inside Out