Stephen
Marching from one venue to another, Diamond Eye, whose story began somewhere back in 2007, is keeping the glam fire burning by unleashing a high-energy performance of their own music in the style of arena acts legend, Kiss and Motley Crue, and even mixing some classic heavy metal in the process. "Alive And Kickin" is a CD/DVD digipak teaser which was recorded in 2010 as an introductory release before they release their first full-length debut this year.
In my opinion, this is a risky move to go international since people will usually go after a live release after couple of studio albums. What you'll get inside is basically a lot of uptempo, sweat-drippin' raw hard rock, and with singer Will Kelly sounded side by side with Paul Stanley, people will easily called this band a Kiss disciple.
"Been Away Too Long" could be a lost track from "Crazy Nights" session, "Tonite" is my first fave. A great melodic hard rock stuff with a nice harmonic touch. Fawcett crafted an excellent wailing solo to complete the tune. "Machine" is another huge song, a hook-laden smashing track with a tight composition. Apparently this track was included in several compilations and also became their leading single. After three tracks, it's obvious that Kelly experienced a troubling moment to control his voice's pitch, perhaps it's the sound monitor problem on stage, I can hear a lot of vocal slip when he tried to reach some high notes. "Last One Standing" and "Sound of The Guns" are some magnificent heavy metal driven songs while "Waiting For Me" is pretty similar with "Tonite" where they decided to play with some uplitfting commercial melodies.
"Alive And Kicking" is packed with lots of promising and potential songs, the sound production is also good, but the inconsistent singing is really tearing the good things apart. Unless they work this thing out on the next studio album, I'm afraid Diamond Eye will run into trouble later. The band's playing tight, looks like they're having a lot of fun on stage, I can sense the passion they delivered on each songs, it's pure magical. This record is a door-opener and a prologue to what you'll expect in their upcoming album, if you're into Kiss and live performances with cheering fans on the background, "Alive And Kicking" is worth a shot.