Stephen
Kee Marcello, a familiar name after Norum decided to leave EUROPE around The Final Countdown era, is now back in action again with his latest solo album, 'Judas Kiss', which revolved around hard rock and some heavy metal feel, but not really the modern downtuned thing that EUROPE seems to favor lately.
'Zombie' sounds a little punkish but it managed to keep the album's motor running. Followed by, 'Dog Eat Dog', a heavy and tense track with splendid guitar works and overall a good hard rock tune. 'Starless Sky' is a nice power ballad, started slow and exploded with a great verse, but perhaps the chorus could have been better. 'I'm Stoned' reminds me of METALLICA's 'Sad But True' style but sadly I think this is the weakest track here. 'Dead End Highway' is also quite average but better.
'Judas Kiss' picked up again and I'm impressed with the deadly solo guitar. 'And Forever More' introduced Akane Liv and this is a mid-tempo ballad duet which I'm not sure whether it's really necessary. On the later part, you'll find a song called 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and man what a beautiful song that is, I can claim that's the best song here, delicate and magnificent! The second half is somewhat better, thanks to the great stuffs like 'Get On Top' which has IRON MAIDEN riffs style on intro, 'The Harder They Come' and 'Dead Give Away' are also both good songs too.
Overall, this album is a good effort by Kee Marcello, but I'm hoping for more melodic songs in the veins of his EUROPE days for old time sake, but at least what he's doin' here is better than what EUROPE did on their last two albums.