Earlier this week I shortly reviewed 4 new Progmetal bands worth a try. Now I go somewhat further back in time with 4 bands I liked in the eighties and had on either LP or even cassette. As they all four proved recently their total relevance until today, herewith some pointing into the right direction:
Europe - War of Kings.
I turned a great fan of Europe as from their debut LP. Being Swedish, but very much aligned to the British Classic Hard Rock bands I loved their first two albums. And then came The Final Countdown, which made it less cool to like Europe. It took them some time, but they came back stronger than ever some ten years ago and new album War of Kings is a total Classic Rock album. With Joey, John and John from the original line up still there they play this Bluesy hardrock that goes down easy, while displaying the class act they are. Europe touring all over Europe this summer and I might catch them first time ever.
FM - Heroes & Villains
FM was Britain's answer to the hundreds of AOR bands coming out of the USA in the eighties. I have their LP Indiscreet and opener That Girl still stands strong as a must have AOR song. They also returned years ago, or never fully disappeared, but I lost track of them. Now they released Heroes & Villains and basically nothing changed from 30 years ago. Top level AOR that is what we get. Opener Digging up the Dirt still reminds me strongly of Def Leppard, but than we get FM as we know it with mid tempo rocksongs and some ballads all thriving on Steve Overland's remarkable voice. Of course Frontiers is behind this release as this label is keeping the eighties alive.
Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock - Spirit on a Mission
Michael Schenker is god on guitar. His UFO and early MSG years even made me pick up a guitar (to very little succes I must admit) and lately his live shows are better than they have been the past 30 years. Now with a stable Temple of Rock line up he even manages to release an album as good as their recent live work. Doogie White is the perfect vocalist for the current band and with a Scorpions rhythm section and Wayne Findlay on Guitars and keyboards we get 12 hard rock songs at highest level. Not really found a favorite yet, I feel the end is even better than the begining with some more uptempo Findlay cowritten work. Schenker has a long and bright future ahead it seems, who would have thought that not so very long ago.
Trespass - Trespass
I never owned a Trespass LP, since as far as I know they never released one in the eighties. When some years ago I got a collection (The Works) I did recognize some songs and found I had these on cassette form Metal for Muthas II. One being their "hit" One of These Days, while Stormchild also sounded familiar. Bright Lights I knew from taping Stampij a hard rock show from the radio, when Hard rock still got some exposure in Holland. Learning their other work I found that all to be among the best released in the NWOBHM days. Now they reformed, played Brofest and received a review from John Tucker pretty similar to my last year's Stampede experience. Releasing this CD with new versions of old songs shows how good and timeless their songs are. As they are going to commemorate their return in a small theater in their hometown Sudbury early July, I decided I want to see history happening and booked ticket and flight already. Very good Melodic Heavy Metal, tragically ignored by the labels and thus masses.
I turned a great fan of Europe as from their debut LP. Being Swedish, but very much aligned to the British Classic Hard Rock bands I loved their first two albums. And then came The Final Countdown, which made it less cool to like Europe. It took them some time, but they came back stronger than ever some ten years ago and new album War of Kings is a total Classic Rock album. With Joey, John and John from the original line up still there they play this Bluesy hardrock that goes down easy, while displaying the class act they are. Europe touring all over Europe this summer and I might catch them first time ever.
FM was Britain's answer to the hundreds of AOR bands coming out of the USA in the eighties. I have their LP Indiscreet and opener That Girl still stands strong as a must have AOR song. They also returned years ago, or never fully disappeared, but I lost track of them. Now they released Heroes & Villains and basically nothing changed from 30 years ago. Top level AOR that is what we get. Opener Digging up the Dirt still reminds me strongly of Def Leppard, but than we get FM as we know it with mid tempo rocksongs and some ballads all thriving on Steve Overland's remarkable voice. Of course Frontiers is behind this release as this label is keeping the eighties alive.
Michael Schenker is god on guitar. His UFO and early MSG years even made me pick up a guitar (to very little succes I must admit) and lately his live shows are better than they have been the past 30 years. Now with a stable Temple of Rock line up he even manages to release an album as good as their recent live work. Doogie White is the perfect vocalist for the current band and with a Scorpions rhythm section and Wayne Findlay on Guitars and keyboards we get 12 hard rock songs at highest level. Not really found a favorite yet, I feel the end is even better than the begining with some more uptempo Findlay cowritten work. Schenker has a long and bright future ahead it seems, who would have thought that not so very long ago.
I never owned a Trespass LP, since as far as I know they never released one in the eighties. When some years ago I got a collection (The Works) I did recognize some songs and found I had these on cassette form Metal for Muthas II. One being their "hit" One of These Days, while Stormchild also sounded familiar. Bright Lights I knew from taping Stampij a hard rock show from the radio, when Hard rock still got some exposure in Holland. Learning their other work I found that all to be among the best released in the NWOBHM days. Now they reformed, played Brofest and received a review from John Tucker pretty similar to my last year's Stampede experience. Releasing this CD with new versions of old songs shows how good and timeless their songs are. As they are going to commemorate their return in a small theater in their hometown Sudbury early July, I decided I want to see history happening and booked ticket and flight already. Very good Melodic Heavy Metal, tragically ignored by the labels and thus masses.
All good albums = great choices. FM have been pretty active and growing in suppoprt again for the past 6+ years. I saw them play the whole of Indiscreet in London 4 years ago - great memories - i think it was the 30th anniversary of that album. No Didge Digital though!
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