About the review
This review page is temporary one. I'm going to launch the english review section soon.If you want to read more reviews, check out the japanes review page.
→ album review (japanese)
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CC-ROCK / CC-ROCK
If you read this month's issue of Burrn! magazine, you will see 2 editors recommend the CC-ROCK EP. I haven't heard the band T'BELL but I can see everybody expects to hear good things from CC-ROCK a lot.
The EP starts from "Wanna Feel Like the First Time." That tension keeps until the end of the EP. Time flies once you start listening to this EP. It's very hard to choose highlights from this EP. All songs have the best tune, strong impressive intros and catchy choruses.
Although the songs have the same pop tune, each song has originality. If you listen to the songs carefully, you will hear they are well arranged.
The Japanese version includes the bonus track, "One Reason Why," which has a really good melody in the chorus. Since I haven't heard this song before, this song sounds very fresh but slightly heavier than the other songs to me. I think it's a good choice for the Japanese market.
Now that they revealed their sound through this EP, I'm very interested in what they will record in their next full length album.
Rising Up From The Ashes / Norway
For a Melodic Rock fan like me, "New Jersey" means a lot. Not only because I'm a huge Bon Jovi fan, lol. There are many great bands from New Jersey. Such as Intruder, Message, Departure, Norway and so on... Especially Departure's "Open Your Mind" had a good reputation among Japanese melodic rock fans. So the news that Dave Baldwin joined Norway sounds very interesting to me.
This album, "Rising Up From The Ashes," starts from Baldwin's song, "Save Me," which has a good melody. I'm sure Baldwin's voice really matches Norway's sound. This song makes me expect the album will be a really good one. The second song, "Anything At All," has a lyrical taste like Shadowman. The first highlight is from "Save Me" to "American Girl." All of those songs have strong and catchy melodies. Especially the dramatic power ballad, "Only One I Need," is the best tune from the album.
The second highlight is "Since You've Been Gone." It's a very brilliant tune. Once you hear this song, you'll sing along with it. "Won't Let You Down" is a good acoustical song and "Haunted" is a very emotional ballad. I really like the guitar sound on "Haunted." Both songs are appropriate for the finalé of the album.
The bonus track, "Bridge Of Faith," was recorded as "New Jersey All Stars" in 2002. Jim Santos wrote the song. The song was supposed to be on a benefit album for Sept. 11.
Saturn Skyline / Last Autumn's Dream
Like I wrote before, Mikael and Andy came to Japan for a promotion. Because of my schedule I couldn't go. However, according to my friend, it seemed to be a really great acoustic show.
Mikael Erlandsson is very talented and has been one of my favorite singers. I still love his solo stuff. I was very surprised when I learned that he started the band with Andy Malecek and members from Europe for their 1st album just before Europe's reunion. So they got a lot of attention from melodicrock fans.
Their 1st album was OK. There were good songs. I like "Movin' On" a lot. But because of some reason, I couldn't enjoy the album. The 2nd album was... I could see some political thing through the album. Why did they include "Heat Of Emotion"? Or did the Japanese record company make them cover that song?
From the 3rd album, I had an impression they became a unified band feeding off one another's talents. There was more unity and more Mikael's solo taste on it. Except "It's Alright." I didn't like the songs they covered from their previous records. But collaboration with Marcel Jacob and Jamie Borger are getting better and better.
On the 4th album, "Saturn Skyline," the bass and drums came to the front and the mix was well produced allowing you to clearly hear every sound. Personally, the hard and heavy sound worked very well for the band on this record. Actually some songs sound like Talisman with Mikael Erlandsson! You must feel the same when you hear the amazing song "After Tomorrow's Gone." (grin) I never expected Mikael's voice could match this kind of sound! It was the biggest discovery from this album.
Even though the heavier sound, it isn't too heavy with Mikarl's voice. "I Know A Lot About Love," "American Girl," and "Still On The Run" are typical Last Autumn's Dream's songs.
Marcel Jacob's bass play is very remarkable. As I wrote before, you can hear his "crazy" bass sound more clearly. Especially his play on "Critical" is so cool!! As well as "After Tomorrow's Gone" and "I Know A Lot About Love."
The bonus track "Skyscraper" is written by the Japanese band Beagle Hat. LAD covered the Beagle Hat song "Echoes From The Past" on the previous album.
Freelight / Final Frontier
If you know me in person, you'll know I've been using "High Above the Sky" for my cell phone's ringtone. As well as waking up to that song every morning for more than 1 and a half years!! I haven't changed it yet. (My boyfriend went crazy because of it though... lol ) I think Rob's voice sounds fantastic on "High above the sky".
One day, Japanese record label Marquee announceed that WOWOW (cable television) will use "Beauty & The Beast" for theme song for a program. I think I bought their CD earlier. But that's how I was interested in them more.
"Freelight" is their new album. It's a really cool album. It's nice to listen to that album when I'm driving. .. The melodies are so catchy and great to sing along. Particularly, I like flow of the melody from "Freelight" to "All The Way." All of them are great songs!! I think there are more mid-tempo tunes on the last half of the album. But I really like a beautiful ballad, "Love Will Rescue Us." It will be sad if that song won't be included in the European version...
Runway to the Gods / Zeno
Back in 1998, I was in a high school. My high school was a bit strange. Somebody broadcasted Hard Rock during the lunch time, like Bon Jovi, Mr Big, Van Haren... I remember there was a big fan of Helloween in the other class. He always wore Helloween cap and T-shirts. My friends recommended me some Hard Rock albums. Such as Extreme, Dizzy Mizz Lizzy, Metallica, Guns and Roses. Even before it, I've heard a lot of AOR or Metal on the radio.
One day, I heard a song "Love in your eyes" on the radio.
Then I went to the CD shop near my high school. It was really strange. They set Zeno's album "Listen to the light" in preview booth for 6 month!! Anyway, it was the first "Hard Rock album" I've bought. (Except Bon Jovi...) At the time, I didn't know about Fair Warning though.
So since 1998, it's been 8 years!
"Runway to the gods" is a REAL new album of Zeno.
One big thing I worried was the singer. Koh Sakai's( Burrn! magazine) told us on the radio that Tommy was supposed to sing on this album. Of course, Tommy would fit Zeno. I know. I worried if Michael Bormann fit Zeno's sound or not. But his vocal completely fit the harder sound of this album! I was amazed. I thought guitar intro of the first tune "Fanfares Of Love" sounds like Ralph Santolla. Yeah, I know Eyewitness covered Zeno before...
