BLIND EGO: “The Hunting Party”

Gentle Art Of Music 

Rating: RRRR 

Review by Martien Koolen 

"The Hunting Party" is Kalle Wallner’s (guitarist of RPWL) fifth studio album since his debut in 2007 and after a couple of spins I can honestly say that this is again a great new Blind Ego album, although I have some problems with the rather “odd” vocals of Kevin Kears. He normally supplies the lead vocals for the metalcore band Cyant.. Fortunately, Wallner’s guitar playing, picking, riffing, shredding, and soloing is again second to none and again the obvious comparison with legendary guitarist David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) is not hard to find. But, then again, who cares about that when you get goosebumps from several Wallner guitar solos on this awesome album. 

Wallner’s new album kicks off with the title track, a song with an extraordinary strong melody and beautiful soaring guitar solos, while follow-up "The Stranger" features a catchy chorus, and "Spiders" is definitely a harder song, a so-called up-tempo rocker indeed. The second part of The Hunting Party features the two longest songs: "In A Blink Of An Eye" – a very emotional track with a stunning guitar solo – and "Breathless"; the latter almost being a prog metal song packed with hard guitar riffs and really dark, mysterious tones. Finally, Blind Ego closes the album with "When The Party’s Over" and this one, a beautiful ballad, has some obvious Pink Floyd influences and of course again brilliant guitar picking by Kalle. 

Overall, The Hunting Party is a very enjoyable album, highlighting, again Wallner’s more than excellent guitar playing, but just for the records, for a new Blind Ego album I would choose another lead vocalist as Kevin Kears’ singing is not really my cup of tea, but as we all know, there is no account for taste; so enjoy this new album and play it LOUD. 

Listening tip: "In A Blink Of An Eye"

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DAYTONA: ”Garder La Flamme”

 

Escape Music 2024

Rating: RRRR

Review by Kimmo Toivonen

Today is the release date of ”Garder La Flamme”, the debut album by Swedish newcomers Daytona. Featuring former and current members of Miss Behaviour, Eclipse and Osukaru, the band has taken on the mission to create an album in the style of late eighties hard rock/AOR scene. That’s an ambitious task, considering that the bands of the era usually had huge budgets, songsmiths and name producers helping them create polished and commercially viable products. 

I would say that Daytona have succeeded quite well. ”Garder La Flamme” is a polished and great sounding album with a strong late eighties vibe. ”Last Of The Runaways” by Giant has obviously been a huge influence, you’ll even find a lyrical nod to ”the days of innocence” in the majestic opening track ”Welcome To The Real World”. As for being ”commercially viable”, I’m afraid that’s not really possible for an AOR album in 2024, but I guess that band isn’t expecting to find themselves on the Billboard charts. Within the melodic rock scene, this is one of the more interesting debuts of recent years.

Apart from Giant, you’ll hear echoes of Toto, Foreigner and many others, but not in a ”copy/paste” way thankfully. My favourite track is the irresistible single ”Looks Like Rain” with ”Town Of Many Faces” being the runner-up. That song sees the band taking a bit of a departure from their chosen ”late eighties”  style, as there are 70’s styled disco elements in the song, similar to The Night Flight Orchestra’s material. 

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Rock Blog #36: a few reviews - A Neverending John's Dream, Timeless Fairytale, Victory, Sam Millar

Here’s a few new or at least not that old albums… let’s start with one of the strangest band names in recent history, A NEVERENDING JOHN’S DREAM. Their album ”Coming Back To Paradise” (RRRR) is a decent slice of keyboard-driven, slightly progressive AOR. Apparently this kind of an album has been a dream of band leader, vocalist/drummer Joan ”John” M. Heredia, hence the name. Thanks to John’s rather unique voice and the interesting arrangements, this doesn’t sound like a generic AOR album, John and co. have a sound of their own. There are touches of GTR, Zeno and Rush to be found here. My absolute favourite songs are the magnificent title track and ”Prisoners Of This Life”. 

TIMELESS FAIRYTALE are another band who have recently released their first album ”A Story To Tell” (RRRr). Masterminded by one Luca Sellitto from Italy, the band also features former Royal Hunt vocalist Henrik Brockmann. That might explain why I thought that ”damn, this sounds a lot like early Royal Hunt” when I first listened to this, without knowing who was in the band. It’s just not the vocals only, Timeless Fairytale definitely operates on the same field. You can hear some influences from Yngwie Malmsteen in his prime and Sonata Arctica. Good stuff, but I’m missing a couple of hard hitters, really memorable songs.

VICTORY have been around for decades, but I haven’t really followed their career since the mid-nineties. "Circle Of Life” (RRR) might be the first Victory album I’ve heard since ”You Bought It, You Name It”. And… it’s fairly standard riff-oriented hard rock. A few of the songs have decent melodies and hooks, but there are quite a few which do not, and they end up being instantly forgettable. Current singer Gianni Pontillo has a good, raspy voice that reminds me of their former singer Fernando Garcia and Marc Storace of Krokus and only original member Herman Frank churns out solid riffs, but it’s not enough in the end.

You know the label Earache? The home of Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Carcass and the likes? One wouldn’t expect them to release one of the finest AOR albums of 2024, but that just what they’ve done! 

At its’ best SAM MILLAR’’S ”Virtual Summer” (RRRRr) is like a breath of fresh air to the genre. It’s a superb mix of 80’s melodic rock and pop, glam, synthwave vibes and modern touches. The choruses are positively explosive, just check out the first two tracks ”The Killing Floor” and ”Fooling Yourself” for example. And how many times have you heard the term ”Neanderthal Man” being used in a rock song, especially combined with a healthy dose of  ”na-na-na”s?