Kev Rowland
Here we have the second album from this supergroup, who are comprised of Matti Alfonzetti (Jagged Edge, Scott Gorham, Road To Ruin, Red White & Blues), Tommy Denander (Toto, Paul Stanley, Michael Jackson, Alice Cooper), J.K. Impera (Bruce Kulick, Graham Bonnet, Vinnie Vincent, John Corabi), Mats Vassfjord (Vinnie Vincent, John Corabi, Grand Design). They say that they got together due to a shared love of Kiss, and that has carried through to some of their music, but it is more the polished Eighties version as opposed to the kick ass 70’s. But, this is a mighty fine melodic hard rock sound with some metallic elements. Apparently Tommy has now played on more than 2000 albums so it is no surprise that he knows what he is doing, while the others all have an incredible pedigree and it shows in how this all comes together, but it is very much a group album as opposed to an assortment of session musicians and they carry a nice bluesy edge which makes this album feel quite ‘real’ as opposed to too much saccharine.
I have to confess that the cover song threw me when I was playing this in the car the first time, as there is no mention of a cover in the press release, and I initially pegged it as Kiss, but somehow that didn’t seem right. A further flicking through the musical files in my head and I realised that “Goodbye” is from Paul Stanley’s debut solo album in 1978, which is probably my second favourite album of the four (Ace being first). But, this is one of the few occasions where they have taken the original and actually made it better, without doing anything dramatic with the arrangement. It is just that here it is sung better, played better, and produced better than Paul managed 35 years ago (now I feel really old – I bought all four when they came out and had the posters on my wall).
Class and finesse from start to finish, melodic hard rock rarely gets much better than this, although to get 5*’s it would have even more balls, but that is probably me just being picky.