Stephen
The reunited House of Lords with the comeback album, "The Power And The Myth", harvested a bitter poor-reception, and singer James Christian reshuffled the formation and return to the scene with a fresh line-up, strengthened by the talented axeman, Jimi Bell and veteran drummer, BJ Zampa. Original member, Gregg Giuffria, helped the band with his keyboard contribution but unable to permanently join the band. "World Upside Down" signified a new chapter of the band's career, incorporates both melodic hard rock and AOR feel to their musical style, lush of intense guitar solos and crystal keys, encapsulated with a metallic edge on the rhythm section.
The album was opened with a pompous overture, "Mask of Eternity", and blasted with a powerful uptempo harmony of "These Are The Times". Jimi Bell puts an incredible Spanish acoustic intro to the passionate ballad, "Field of Shattered Dreams", but "All The Pieces Falling" is a better ballad with a lot of beautiful melodies. "I'm Free" has a darker edge and inspired by "Demons Down"-era arrangement. "Rock Bottom" is an adrenaline pumper and the heaviest track of the album. This is my fave track of the album along with the gigantic melodic rock, "Million Miles", and a haunting mid-tempo power ballad, "Ghost of Time".
Overall, this solid record answered the doubt of House of Lords' fans that their days are over, in fact, this marks the new era of the band, which is in my opinion, are better than their 80s era. The mixing production was handled by Dennis Ward, and as usual, you'll get a killer sounding album. James Christian's voice is better than ever, the whole band delivered a perfect and tight performance, and couple of decent songs but most of them are very good, making this an absolute mind-blowing release of 2006.
Bottomline : The grand revival of the Lords!