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One of Britain?s top vocalists and frontman of Magnum,Bob Catley is here with his 5th solo album called Spirit Of Man and what an album it is.
I am a huge fan of both Magnum and Bob?s solo albums and this new one will not disappoint his fans in any way, this is his best soloalbum to date.
The previous album "When Empires Burn" was an outstanding album and I never thought that he would come up with an even stronger album but he has managed to do that.
He has used 3 different songwriters and they have especially written for him,they are his longtime collaborator Vince O?Regan(Pulse) plus Dave Thompson and Paul Uttley both from Lost Weekend.
These 3 have come up with a brilliant mixture of heavy rockers and heartfelt ballads.
I think this new album is a bit heavier with more guitars but it has the same metal oriented sound as "When Empires Burn",I have to admit that a couple of the songs has lots of heavier Magnum feel over them.
There is plenty of great stuff on this album and the opener "Heart Of Stone" gives you a hint right away what you will experience with Spirit Of Man,this is a great up-tempo rocker with great riffs and melodies - the chorus will hook you up right away with classy hooklines.
"Moment Of Truth" is filled with heavy guitar riffs and the chorus is catchy with great keyboards. "In The Name Of Cause" is another winner with strong melodies and Bob delivers some outstanding vocals on this one.
"Blinded By A Lie" is filled with pompish keyboards and riffantastic guitars. This is a song that reminds a lot of Pulse at their best moments with a chorus that will catch your attention for sure.
The ballad "Last Snow Of Winter" is about a loss of a dear friend, a very sad song were Bob sings with great deal of emotion. This is one of the songs that reminds a lot of Magnum.
The whole album holds a top-notch quality and never lets you down, every song has something to offer. The albums end with the almost 8 minutes long epic "End Of The Story" in a fine way.
Bob gets older but his voice is still sounding awesome with both power and feeling.
This is an album that won?t let you down and if you own his previous soloalbums then this is a must and I?m sure that even Magnum fans will enjoy this one. What a great new start of this new year of music Bob has given us. |
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Immortal is the 6th solo album from Magnum singer Bob Catley. This time around he has worked with the brilliant Swede Magnus Karlson (Starbreaker, Primal Fear, Allen/Lande) that has written all the songs for Bob.
Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Khymera) has produced the album and when he’s involved the quality is great. So is the case with Immortal that sounds bigger and better than the other solo albums.
This is brilliant Pomp/AOR album where Bob yet again shows what a great singer he is. You will recognize the sound from his previous albums but you can hear that Magnus Karlsson has given his touch to the songs. This is like a heavier Magnum meets Allen/Lande.
Some songs are very Magnum sounding and of course the vocals makes it sound even more like them. The songs are filled with great melodic riffs with a lovely keyboards/piano sound and Magnus can really find the right hooklines to catch everyone’s attention. The start of the album is just stunning with 3 outstanding rockers Dreamers Unite, We Are Immortal and End Of The World.
Yes, End Of The World is something special with heavy riffs mixed with pompish dut-dut keyboards and the chorus is amazing.
Best song of the album.
The Searcher is a wonderful piano ballad that smells Magnum from far and what an outstanding vocalperformance from Bob. One More Night is another fantastic up-tempo rocker with brilliant keyboard melodies and huge hooks. The chorus in War In Heaven is pure heavy pomp filled with strong melodies and the keys and guitars sounds just perfect, what a sound.
This is a very even album with a couple of songs that stands out more than the rest and you can always count on Mr. Catley. Yes, yet again Bob delivers a mighty fine album that I think is his strongest so far and it just gets better for each album. This is something I recommend highly and I promise you won’t get disappointed. A fantastic heavy pompish AOR/MHR album. Get it right away. |
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Born Crain is a 28 year old singer songwriter from Belgium, he reached the 5th place in Belgium´s Idol 2004 and his debut album "Fools rush in" was a top 10 album and included 4 huge airplay hits in his homecountry.
This album is also released in Japan as "Walking in the sun" by Avex Records, Born recently released his 2nd album "The pleasure of your company" feat. the current hit "4 letter word".
The music goes in the same vein as Elton John, Billy Joel and Ten Sharp (do you remember their 1990´s hit "You"?).
I think "Fools rush in" really is an entertaining album and there are a few pearls like "Walking in the sun", "Captivated" and "Right back to me".
I don´t enjoy his odd version of Cyndi Lauper´s hit "Girls just wanna have fun" though, however a really good album. |
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I recently discovered this amazingly cool artist from Belgium called Born Crain and his first album "Fools rush in" with the brilliant single "Walking in the sun".
I continue my hype with his latest album "The pleasure of your company" which is released as "4 letter word" in Japan.
How can anyone resist his upbeat and sunny piano driven pop like a mix between Elton John and Gregg Alexander?
I really do think Born Crain deserve to be famous and tour the world, if artists like Mika and Gavin DeGraw can make it big - Crain really has all that it takes to be successful.
Just listen to the superb opening track "4 letter word" or the addictive "Let´s ride the carousel", does these sound like major hits or what?!
Open your eyes for this lovely singer that makes positive music in a media obsessed world of only negative news!
We need Born Crain, YES! |
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| This CD is quite lowkey and Brads voice is more to a James Taylor and Stephen Stills kinda voice, with newer guys like Duncan Sheik in mind as well. Beautiful acoustic soft singer songwriter country with one foot in the midwestern rock tradition. Really Good CD that you can buy on www.cdbaby.com and a CD that could have been on the country page as well... |
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| To put Brad Colerick under one genre is quite impossible. He is somewhere between alt-country, softer midwestern rock and all spiced with a singer songwriter touch. This man sits on a bunch of really strong songs and a good production, but first and foremost, he has a voice with a very own and beautiful identity and soul. On the disc, he got help from - among others - two heroes of mine - Larry Klein and Rob Laufer, and this is a disc I can warmly recommend all of you who like Lyle Lovett and Loudon Wainwright III and these sort of guys. Brad plays in the same league. Just listen to the softers "Anisia Valentina" and the uptempo "When I ´m Gone" and I´m sure you all will agree. |
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| A decade ago, I couldn´t stand death metal but then Opeth opened my eyes and since I already listened to numetal with plenty of growls, it was quite easy to soak in melodic death metal with clean vocals in the choruses. A few years ago I was introduced to the Italian death metal band Necrodeath and their dark "Draculea" which was a pleasant surprise in this genre, so now I understand this demanding genre a lot more than I used to. The Italian band Cadaveria features Marcelo Santos from Necrodeath and singer Cadaveria and in early 2012, they will release their 4th album "Horror metal" which the band describes as the most obscure, raw and horror filled album ever produced by the band. Their massive death metal sound is made of 60% Necrodeath, 30% Entombed and 10% of early Black Sabbath. The best tracks are "Flowers in fire", "The night´s theatre", "Assassin" and "The days of the after and behind". Too bad some of the other tracks couldn´t match these ones. |
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Imagine country artist Vince Gill singing with Lynyrd Skynyrd or why not Jon Bon Jovi writing country flavored rock tunes and let Georgia Satellites perform them, then we?re pretty close to the sound of Caddle?s debut "Raise ?em high".
Fans of country rock band Big & Rich might wanna check out this band because they know how to make those cowboy boots stomp along to the rocking beat of these songs.
Steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, harmonica and flying V guitars sure is a good receipt for a great sound and when they go out on a picnic with The Eagles in "Meet me at the bar", I have no further comment and just crank it up.
Caddle is the Silvertide frontman Walt Lafty?s favorite band, maybe they will be yours too?! |
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| These powerpoprockers from "down under" deserves a record contract because I feel this 5 track demo should be available on a full length album together with 5 more songs in the same genre,plus with a better production. The only thing that keeps the rating down is the demo quality but just looking at the songs, they?re up there with other strong powerpop bands like Marvellous 3 and American HiFi! "Teasing" is great,it sounds fresh and 21st century rocking like it could?ve been written by Butch Walker. "She?s beautiful" has a nice hook that gets into your head and I can only imagine a good production on that one plus a cool video...the result can only mean HIT time! So,where are you labels..don?t let these guys vanish into the void. Cade has the future ahead of them,take my words for it. |
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| Cadet is another nice Christian pop/rock act that I received last week, but feels a little weaker than the Kutless and Jeremy Camp, which also got. But those albums are really good so to say that this is a little weaker isn?t bad in this case. Musically we find those guys in the same landscape as Jars of clay with a portion of Gin Blossoms and Rembrants here and there. Nice pop/rock with an edge an a catchy package. Best songs are the ?3?, which could have been on the lastest Jars effort and the opener ??? with anice mix of an acoustic verse and an edgier chorus. We also have handful of other nice tracks on this album and overall Cadets album feels like a fresh wind in the autumn. It?s not an album that will change the world, but it?s good for what it is and could be interesting if you like the groups I mentioned them with. |
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Cafu (Ca-foo):
A mixture consisting of two parts caffeine and one part kung fu,or if you like-the Brazilian football player that plays in Europe these days but the CAFU I?m talking about is the new bandname from ex.Stuck Mojo members Rich Ward and Co that did the album "The Way I am" in 2002 under the bandname Sick Speed.
This summer they changed name but the style is the same,many great guitar riffs and supermelodic songs with one foot in the 80?s land while the other stands on numetal ground.
This new 8 track demo sounds almost too good not be released as an album,but ofcourse we need 3-4 more songs to make it complete and the song "Matter of faith" is also featured on the Sick Speed album but for those who haven?t heard it-you?re in for a treat!
Among the new stuff I find "Back to you","Immune" and "Here I stand" as the best songs but the calm and half acoustic track "This moment" is a real goodie too.
Another song that pumps the blood in my veins is "Anthem" with the guitarchords in the verse sounding like a Neal Schon composition,nice! but the machinegunriff on the chorus makes the song spinning like a locomotive.
Awesome demo indeed! |
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| From San Diego, California comes this 5-piece group Cage that has recorded a heavy metal album with traces of modern day power metal. When I listen to this album I was thinking of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Dio but I don´t think these rockers are near those mentioned acts. The album contains 21 tracks, yes your read it right 21tracks. Not every song is songs just intros and talks between the songs but still you get over 78 minutes of epic hammering heavy metal with fast pounding drums and heavy riffs. After couple of tracks I was fed up with the singer Sean Peck that screams his way over the songs and my head was tired after couple of tracks. When he sings with more feeling he sounds OK. But that don´t happen often. They have also managed to get a bonus track for this album called King Diamond. No, this was not a good record and if you want to hear good old heavy metal put on an Iron Maiden or Judas Priest album instead. Next please! |
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| This Kentucky based band is a really cool nuclearpowerfactory. Imagine if Beck jam off with Red Hot Chili Peppers. Everything spiced with a nice cool retro vibe a´la Stones from the late 60´s. Yeah I said it was cool. The band is hyped in both England and the United States and the singles "In One Ear" and "Ain´t No Rest for the Wicked." have become succesful in the UK and minor hits in the US. Try to sit still to them... It is impossible. Damn cool band and a really good record! Listen to the "pianoplink" in the song "James Brown". That one is worth the entire disc. |
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Hold your horses!,this trio that originally comes from Panama is now based in L.A plays tough modern rock right by the book with great hooks and guitar driven songs,very much like hearing Foo Fighters and NickelBack teaming up for some tunes.
Guitarist and Singer Evan Rodaniche has a perfect voice for this type of energetic rock music,he has a powerful way of singing in the same league as Chad Kroeger and Dave Grohl.
When listening to this 5 track EP it?s not so hard to understand why they recently signed to BMG Publishing,it was released in January this year and is available at cdbaby.com ( a goldmine for great new music).
The opener "Planet me" gets you in the mood right away for a lifelong party......and 5 songs later on "Static fight",you start to wonder where time went?
Veni,Vidi,Vici-They came,they saw,they conquered! |
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Location:Panama/L.A,USA
Discography:Master Blaster (1996),Audiophiliac (1997),Human Feedback (2000),Fearful Orbits (2002),The Onyx Inch EP (2004),El Motivo (2005)
Bandmembers:Evan Rodaniche - Vocals/Guitar,Ryan Delfino - Guitar,Gustavo Aued - Bass,Warren Johnson - Drums
Influences:Rush,The Smashing Pumpkins,A Perfect Circle
Will appeal to fans of:Dredg,Depswa,Orange Sky,Edwin
Album tracksTotal length:1,14,38
1.Ice to Eskimoz (3,45)
2.Hearts and stars (3,27)
3.Hollywood car crash (3,53)
4.Further from the truth (4,01)
5.A last lullabye (4,06)
6.Dead letter (3,53)
7.Octopussy (3,25)
8.My doppelganger (3,58)
9.My darling (4,19)
10.Rainy day waiting (3,56)
11.Breaking me down (2,50)
12.(*&% (0,25)
13.Four leaf clover (3,43)
14.Sometimes we must put the cart before the horse (2,29)
15.Wasting away (4,04)
16.Fear and sex (6,19)
17.El Motivo/Hidden track (15,56)
Kaj?s final words:After more than a year of recording and 41 finished songs, Cage9 considers "El Motivo" its greatest triumph of perseverance to date,they picked out 18 songs for the new album and are thinking of releasing a b-sides record with some of the leftovers.
Ryan Delfino who?s last band included members of The Calling has joined Cage9 and there are also guest appearances from members of Ankla and Atlantic artists Big City Rock on the album.
I only have this to say about "El Motivo": Cage9 has recorded their "Physical graffiti",an intelligent and comprehensive modern rock album worthy it?s place in the history books of rockmusic. |
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Did you know that?
Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol has a side project called The Reindeer Section, a supergroup comprising members of famous Scottish bands including Astrid, Belle & Sebastian, Idlewild, Teenage Fanclub and Mogwai. They have released two albums to date on the Belfast label Bright Star.
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