1111. Dream Theater / Distance Over Time. 2019. 4.5/5

While many would disagree with me, my love of Dream Theater has run along two quite distinctive sections. Apart from one or two exceptions I love the era up to and including Train of Thought. These are the albums that I discovered in a short space of time and devoured them. Since then, I have found the albums a bit hit and miss in regards to my love of the music despite the still high level of musicianship. I still look forward to each album being released hoping for something that will reignite that true love of what the band can do. I think I’ve found that with Distance Over Time.

There are certainly two ways to take this album, and I guess in the long run I can only go with the way I have listened to it. From the very first time I put the CD on my stereo I was hooked. It had songs that were just songs, not pieces of a larger conglomerate of story interspersed with talky moments and interconnecting interludes. I could put this album on and just get ten songs coming at me that I either loved or didn’t - and loved them I did. Is it an attempt to reconnect with those fans who, like me, loved those albums from a different age? If indeed this was part of their package this time around, they succeeded with me from the outset.
While The Astonishing was a production and for me often a struggle to get through the whole double album in one sitting, Distance Over Time is a wonderful collection of the duelling keyboards of Jordan Rudess and the guitar of John Petrucci, the amazing bass lines of John Myung, the metronomic drumming of Mike Mangini and the silky vocals of James LaBrie. The combination here of the heavier guitar sound in many songs and the soaring vocalising of LaBrie is perhaps the winning direction. It differentiates itself from other recent releases by doing so. I love each member’s contribution to this album again. Mangini may not be Mike Portnoy but he does his job well. Petrucci’s guitaring is superb and continues to defy belief in sections. So too Johnny Myung’s bass playing, which is still so integral to Dream Theater’s sound.
Does it hold up though? Well, it has been a month now since its release and I still have it on my daily playlist, and that probably says that it has held up well. Having said that, I am not as ecstatic about it now as I was for the first couple of weeks. As the songs have become more familiar, I have found myself picking up on the similarities to other Dream Theater songs, just riff progressions or keyboard fills or even rhythm pieces that blend into other parts of the catalogue. That’s not meant to be a criticism as such, just that as with some other Dream Theater productions, some of it becomes a bit samey as the album progresses, and it is noticeable where the break out pieces that grab your attention more fully are placed on the album.
What will strike most old school fans is that the whole vibe of the album is more favourably directed towards the way those great early albums were written. None of the songs are as deliberately complicated or have 72 time changes every minute of every song however. In that way there is a more manageable way that they songs have been written to suit the course that sets this album apart from recent releases. What these songs do have are the perfect combination of having each member have their moment within each song. There are still those brilliant solo breaks where the musicians have their way and enhance the track, while when the vocals come in it is left to LaBrie to carry the song with his wonderful voice. No one person dominates on this album, every member contributes equally to each song, and this is what creates the best Dream Theater material.

I haven’t felt this way about a Dream Theater album since Train of Thought, and perhaps that comes from both albums having been focused on being heavier albums that the band’s usual output. It’s not all smash and bash, it is still Dream Theater doing what they do best, and revitalising that prog sound that they were such a big part of emphasising during the 1990’s. If you have quietly moved away from the band in recent years, then this would be a good album to come back into. It is a return to form.

Best songs: “Untethered Angel”, “Paralyzed”, “S2N”, “At Wit’s End”, “Pale Blue Dot”, “Viper King”

Rating:  “The world keeps turning as we latch on to the wheel”.  4.5/5

1110. Blaze Bayley / Live in France. 2019. 4/5

Having completed his Infinite Entanglement trilogy with the release of The Redemption of William Black: Infinite Entanglement Part III I guess it was only fitting that Blaze Bayley and his band released a live album to showcase the work they have been doing over those three albums, and how those songs would hold up in a live environment. As a result we have Blaze belting out two discs worth of songs on this release Live in France.

I was certainly hesitant going into this album, not only for what I was going to hear but how it would be presented. Blaze has shown he loves playing live, and he carries just about everything he does well on stage, and his band has been pieced together for some time. I enjoyed the fact that the song list more or less covered the extent of the three albums that make up the trilogy as it fit with Blaze’s two previous live album releases, the first covering his first two solo albums and the second covering the albums in-between times. But this also concerned me because I wouldn’t get to hear those great songs from the first half of his solo career, the ones that had been so impressive to me at the time. I can always go back to those other live albums for that, but the fear for me was that if this album didn’t stand up it would be a relic if all it contained was songs from those three albums. Fortunately, I needn't have worried as despite the lack of older material this album is a beauty.
As mentioned, there are no less than six songs from Infinite Entanglement, four from Endure and Survive (Infinite Entanglement Part II) and five from The Redemption of William Black: Infinite Entanglement Part III. That’s fifteen of the total twenty tracks on the album from the Infinite Entanglement trilogy, and for the majority they sound better live than on the album. That in itself is not unusual as Blaze tends to be a dynamo on stage and brings out the best in everything he performs. The band sounds great and Blaze’s vocals are supreme. Of the other five songs, four are from his Iron Maiden days. The always brilliant “Futureal” is cracking once again, and comes in brilliantly after the opening of “Redeemer” segues beautifully into “Are You Here”. The always surprisingly good “Virus” closes out the first disc of this double set, while there is an absolutely scintillating version of “Man on the Edge” which almost steals the album by itself. The only downside is the choosing of “The Angel and the Gambler” as his fourth Maiden track. It really is one of the most average songs Maiden has ever done, and Blaze wasn’t even a co-writer of the song! There are so many other better songs he could have chosen to do, and this is a shame. Rounding this out is the title track from his first solo album, “Silicon Messiah” which always sounds great, but oh for just a few more tracks like “Ghost in the Machine”, “Kill and Destroy”, “Ten Seconds” and “The Man Who Would Not Die”. Next time perhaps.

Fans of Blaze Bayley will find this to be an excellent addition to their collection. In giving all of his trilogy songs a live atmosphere to be found in, Blaze has satisfactorily concluded this part of his career. What he moves onto now is anyone’s guess, though no doubt an extended tour with his Iron Maiden material (given his tenure in that band ended precisely 20 years ago this year) is likely. Those that have not heard any of Blaze’s solo material will still find this worthy of listening, but should then move back to his first few solo albums to discover his best stuff. As a live recording of this portion of his musical career, this does a more than adequate job.

Best songs: “Reedemer”, “Futureal”, “Are You Here”, “Man on the Edge”, “Endure and Survive”.

Rating:  “Do you think you deserve all the freedom you have?”  4/5

1108. Queensrÿche / The Verdict. 2019. 4.5/5

Most of the world’s Queensrÿche fans have been waiting patiently for the walls to come down, for pigs to fly, and for the band to deliver us an album that isn’t a carbon copy of their great albums from the 1980’s and early 1990’s, but contains that passion, contains that intensity and replicates the brilliance that the band showed in those great days. No one wanted another Operation: Mindcrime (which we got a poor man’s copy of back in 2005), but what we wanted was another album that had the same energy and drive that we could put on and love all over again. So here we are in 2019, seven years after the great split between the band and their lead singer, and almost thirty years after their last true great album, and we have finally reached the day that that album has arrived in the form of The Verdict.

In many ways this is the polished completion of the two albums released since the introduction of Todd La Torre to the band. While both Queensrÿche and Condition Hüman had good moments and several songs that had promise, it felt as though they both fell short in some way of finding the right ground. While The Verdict is by no means a perfect album it does sound as though many of those loose strings have been attached and brought this back closer to a well-rounded project.
In bringing back a sound closer to their glory days than they have been at any time in the past 25 years there is sure to be some division over what they have brought to the table. Is it reminiscing on what once was, and thus backing their old ground base of support to rush back to the fold, or is it living in the past and not looking to produce an album that looks forward rather than back? To me it doesn’t matter. I think Queensrÿche fans have been waiting for an album that reignites their great love of the band, rather than ones that gain tacit support and keep the fandom trickling along rather than booming in spirit and joy, and this is the closest we have come to a whole package in doing that since those early days of the 1990’s.
You cannot help but marvel over the similarity in voice between La Torre and Geoff Tate, and while it is different enough that you know they are two different singers it still produced enough melancholy that you are reminded of those early Queensrÿche albums.
It’s the power of the tracks that makes this more than what has come in recent years. Everything is out the front of the mix, and it is interesting how much a central piece the drums are, given it is not Scott Rockenfield on the kit this time around by Todd La Torre doing double duty by playing drums as well. There is no loss in the finesse department either, La Torre can really play the damn things, and the drum sound elicited here along with the deep rumbling bass track laid down by Eddie Jackson is just fantastic. Add to this the twin guitars of Michael Wilton and the somewhat underrated Parker Lundgren, who both sound like they are freeing their arms and letting loose with more abandon than has been the case over the years, and you have an album full of songs that are a joy to listen to.
The album opens as a rousing reception, starting off wonderfully with “Blood of the Levant”, which combines the best of Todd’s vocal range and pleasingly the faster pace and hard-hitting drums that were hallmarks of the great Queensrÿche songs. “Man the Machine” and “Light-years” are also both glorious renditions in this way. Like all of the great Queensrÿche albums there is a mix in the emotional state of songs throughout, but unlike during the ‘dark years’ the album is not dominated by a morbid atmosphere or a slow drawn out series of songs. The mix here works perfectly, but most importantly the power behind the tracks never diminishes which keeps it in your face all the way through. Well...
The major sticking point here for me is the closing track “Portrait”, which is the one track that halts this being elevated into the realms of recent great albums from dinosaur metal bands. I will never understand why bands have to end an album with the slower, ‘thought provoking’ type of song when so much great material has come before it. This is no “Anybody Listening” from Empire, this is a really dreary kind of conclusion to an album that had set so many benchmarks before it. Whoever decided on this track being on the album and indeed closing it out made a huge error in judgement.

Ignoring this, The Verdict is an absolute winner in the same way that Judas Priest’s Firepower was a winner last year on its release. Here we have a band that has taken the roots of what gave them their most success as a band, and used those elements to produce an album that doesn’t replicate those earlier albums but molds it in a way that it has a presence in the modern day and has recaptured the best that the band can do. No matter what Queensrÿche go onto do after this, they can be proud of what they have put down here, once and for all proving they are a band that still has what it takes.

Best songs: “Blood of the Levant”, “Man the Machine”, “Light-years”, “Propaganda Fashion”, “Bent”.

Rating:  “Why do we face the same thing if change is a constant?”   4.5/5

1105. Last in Line / II. 2019. 3.5/5

For a band that started out a few years ago as a reunion of sorts of the original Dio band, sans their iconic lead singer, to play the songs of that Dio era for a few gigs, this has progressed into an interesting and impressive combination. There has been some shuffling in personnel, but this has become more than just a side project for those involved. The band has grown solid together, and following the release of their debut album Heavy Crown full of original music, it was actually gratifying to hear that we would be treated to a second round and would get a follow up album. And that is what we have here in II.

For those that are wondering – no, this does not sound like those early Dio albums, nor does it sound like any Dio music. Well, actually, there is one exception to that. The song “Sword from the Stone” sounds a lot like the Dio song “Blood from a Stone” off the Strange Highways album in both tempo and vocal character, but only Vinny Appice had anything to do with that 1994 album, and without doubt this is more a coincidence than anything else.
“Blackout the Sun” is a slow beginning, going for the old fashioned (new return?) slow hard beginning – and mirrors some 1990’s Soundgarden in the music and vocals. This could also be said of “Give up the Ghost” and quite possibly “The Unknown”. Peculiar to say the least. “Landslide” has a better tempo throughout until we reach the chorus, but that can be forgiven. Vivian’s solo is a delight however. “Gods and Tyrants” is another song where the tempo is rather tepid until we get to Viv’s guitar solo, where it then gets up to where all of these songs should be sitting. His solo again on this song is just terrific. Herein lies the tale of this album.

I enjoyed the first album. It has some terrific songs on it, mixed with some that don’t work as well. I absolutely came into this album with the hope and desire that we would hear more speed in the tempo of the songs, in the way that the early Dio material had. I didn’t expect it, but I hoped for it, mainly because I knew the four members of the band could do it, and it would stretch them back to a time when they played that kind of stuff on a regular basis.
What we have instead is four very powerful performances. Andrew Freeman’s vocals are fantastic, strong and full of energy, a terrific combination throughout. He is truly wonderful and there is no doubting his quality. Phil Soussan’s bass and Vinny Appice’s drums form the solid base that holds the songs together. Both are veterans and professionals with a rugged and immovable style that dominates the structure of most of the songs. The sound of both on this album is enormous, there is nothing being hidden, they are all up in the mix which provides a huge sound.
If I’m going to be hyper-critical of this, then in many ways what creates the slight ambivalence I feel for this album comes down to Vinny’s drumming. It could very well be the way he has been asked to play these songs (something he had from Dio on many occasions from all accounts), but his staid, staccato style of drumming does tend to emphasise the slower tempo of the songs, and this makes some of the tracks harder to enjoy. That’s an easy thing to say when you are a fan of faster songs and albums like I am, but I do believe in this case it just drags back the album overall. If that’s a writer's call, then the band has obviously gone down this route and they are all in this boat.
But really, why the change of tempo even within songs themselves? “False Flag” is the absolute standout on this album, and I’m not afraid to say that if they had written songs like this for the entire album it would have become a modern-day classic. Freeman’s vocals soar in the way that showcases his greatest attributes, and Viv’s guitar riffs are brilliant, and his solo is a gem. But even here they muck around with the change within the song that just gets to me. I just want them to let go off the reins and let this song (and others) have its head and career off it the distance. For me II lacks that punch that would make it a stellar release. I have no doubt others will find it perfect for their tastes for the reasons I have trouble with it.

We all came to this band for one reason only. Vivian Campbell. He is the one that we all follow, in the hope that we get just a little glimpse of the guitarist we all fell in love with back in 1983. There is little doubt that this album contains his finest work since he left Dio. That is not to have a go at the way he plays in Def Leppard, Riverdogs and other projects. It is just that here we really hear how he can play without the confinements those other bands may have on his guitaring style. Every single solo on this album is brilliant, without fail. If you could just cut out the rest of this album and have Viv’s solos back to back, it is a five-star album. There are other brilliant riffs on the album, and there are a majority of songs here that are great – but it is Viv’s guitar work that is the top-notch highlight over everything here.

When all is said and done I may appear to be putting down this whole album, and that’s not the truth. It’s not all my style of hard rock or metal, and that frustrates me a little. Everything I hear on the album is fantastic, all I want is a faster pace of song to really get into, rather than the slightly clunky tempo most of these songs sit at. That being said, I am still listening to the album five times a day and have no thoughts of replacing it anytime soon, so it can’t be all bad, can it?

Best songs: “False Flag”, “Electrified”, “Landslide”, “Year of the Gun”

Rating:  “Break our backs, break our hearts, but you're never gonna break me.”  3.5/5

1104. Powerwolf / Metallum Nostrum. 2019. 4.5/5

From all accounts, this album was actually released as a bonus disc on the Japanese release of the Blessed & Possessed album back in 2015. While that must have been gold for the Japan fans, it’s also nice that it is getting a full release for the rest of the world to enjoy as well. Given that this is an album of cover version of Powerwolf’s favourite artists, it also acts as a window to the band’s influences in their music over the past fifteen years, and how that has helped shape their own music over that period.

Unlike the two Northern Kings albums I have reviewed recently which concentrated on redoing 1980’s pop songs, this tribute album is to songs and bands that have obviously heavily influenced the music that Powerwolf produce themselves. The song list is impressive and shows me that the members of the band grew up with much the bands that I loved at that era (though I would be about a decade older than these guys I would suggest). That to me is interesting because the base of their own sound absolutely comes from the 1980’s metal rather than the 1990’s or beyond, and that is where most of the songs reside.
Not only are all of the songs chosen here brilliant and, for the most part, also personal favourites of mine, the versions that Powerwolf have performed are carefully created and in no way denigrate the original versions. There is no attempt to fiddle with the perfection of the original tracks, instead they are given the tweaks that give them the Powerwolf metal sound as they should sound in the modern-day environment.
The album is bookended by two tracks from Judas Priest’s Painkiller – starting off with “A Touch of Evil” and concluding with “Night Crawler”. Both are terrific, maintaining the pace and intensity of the tracks while still adding that Powerwolf influence, especially vocally where they sound great. There is an absolutely cracking version of Running Wild’s “Conquistadores”, which for me betters the original by some margin, highlighted by Attila’s Dorn’s vocals. I don’t know the Chroming Rose song “Power and Glory”, but I do know I like this version so I should certainly track it down in the future if only to be able to compare it to this. Also, it is interesting to note the obvious vocal related differences in this cover of Amon Amarth’s “Gods of War Arise”, and is another great job done by the band as a whole. I am also impressed with Powerwolf’s work on Savatage’s “Edge of Thorns”, which retains all of the angst and emption of the original and is a fitting tribute to Criss Oliva’s memory.
If there is any doubt about the ability of the members of this band on their instruments, then the remainder fo the album should put that to rest. Not only have they chosen brilliant songs to pay tribute to but they have done a magnificent job in covering them. There aren’t too many bands who could pull off such loving and accurate representations of songs such as Gary Moore’s “Out on the Fields”, Ozzy Osbourne’s “Shot in the Dark”, Black Sabbath’s “Headless Cross” and Iron Maiden’s “The Evil That Men Do”, but that is exactly what you get here. “Shot in the Dark” and “Headless Cross” especially for me are just brilliant. Like the other songs they don’t step too far from the template, but they still give it their own voice, and I really enjoy that of this album.

My age-old philosophy on tribute albums, I believe, still applies here – that no matter how good the versions of those songs that are performed here are, eventually you will drift back to the originals because they will always be the best. Still, several weeks after first listening to this album it is still in my rotation, and I am enjoying it as much as ever. Anyone who knows these songs and enjoys them should check it out, just to see what fans like you who are also pretty handy musicians play them like.

Best songs: “Touch of Evil”, “Conquistadores”, “Shot in the Dark”, “Headless Cross”.

Rating:  “All men are equal till the victory is won.”   4.5/5

1103. Avantasia / Moonglow. 2019. 4/5

Avantasia started off as a pet project that had a wonderful concept – a metal opera – and when the initial stretch of two albums was completed it was appetite sating. When the next trilogy came through it also was exciting. Two further albums have since surfaced and have been well received. Following the album and tour for Ghostlights Tobias Sammat expressed he was tired and would need to do something different for a time. Some thought it would be a solo album, I hoped for a return to form with Edguy. Instead, surprise surprise, what eventuated... was another Avantasia album. Not that I’m complaining, it just seemed a little too predictable to stay with the supergroup concept than to return to the band he began with.

Tobi isn’t reinventing the wheel here. He is using a well-worn formula that has worked for him and his cohorts over the past three or four Avantasia albums. Listening to Moonglow you will come across plenty of sections of songs or chorus lines or vocal melodies that will remind you of several songs from the Avantasia catalogue. That’s probably always going to be an end result of this kind of project and with plenty of similar people being involved throughout. I have only been listening to it for the past week since its release and can already pick out the similarities. This is nit-picking of a type as none of it matters if you enjoy the songs and album as a whole.
Try it for yourself. Apart from Tobi’s sweet high range throughout each song of the album, you can pick out the usual suspects. Ronnie Atkins and his soft but strong vocals range, Eric Martin still crooning like it is the early 1990’s, Bob Catley piercing through the speakers every time he has his piece and Jorn Lande’s honeyed booming vocal chords dominating front and centre in each song he is a part of. It is the familiarity of these vocalists within the project that makes Avantasia what it is, and not just a different sounding album with every release. Their consistent contributions add that stability to the group and allow the newcomers who arrive on each album a chance to make their own contribution without having their toes stepped on.
The addition of Candice Night is a winner, and the harmonies between she and Tobi on the title track “Moonglow” are worth the admission price alone. It’s a shame she isn’t given a part in one of the heavier song to really give her something different to work with. The small part that Kreator vocalist Mille Petrozza adds to “Book of Shallows” is also terrific.
The introduction of Hansi Kursch to the mix is an inspired one. His unique vocals go a long way to not only giving the songs he is involved in a point of difference from the others on the album but will also be the watermark down the track when Moonglow is compared to the other Avantasia albums. “Book of Shallows” and “The Raven Child” are lifted by his presence alone.
I don’t much like songs like “Invincible” which is very much of the ballad variety, but what does mark this as special is the vocal performance by Geoff Tate, who makes this his own. Sadly this is the route Geoff has taken his own music over recent years, but he does a terrific job with this song and makes it better than it would have been. The much heavier and faster paced “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” has him join the whole ensemble of well-versed Avantasia vocalists, and he shines here as well which is gratifying to hear.
As ever, Michael Kiske’s appearance and performance is one of the starring efforts of an Avantasia album. His amazing vocals lift every song he is a part of, and this is once again the case with “Requiem for a Dream”. The song itself is upbeat and lively, filled with the double kick and racy guitar riff that are the best elements of the best Avantasia songs, and yet Kiske’s vocals kick it up a further notch. His high pitched perfect notes, well supported by Tobi, make this probably the best song on the album for me. It’s interesting that Kiske’s contribution was left to the end of the album, no doubt his involvement with the reformed Helloween cut down his ability to contribute more heavily this time around.
The music itself is once again a revelation even if in places it does sound a bit formula driven, that a drum beat and bass riff is found and is drawn out to the ends required. Long time collaborator Sascha Paeth again contributes all the guitars on the album and Edguy drummer Felix Bohnke again does double duty here, while Tobi holds the bass guitar once again.

I’ve always looked forward to each Avantasia release and have enjoyed them all. This time around it was more exciting given they are finally touring Australia and I will see them live on this tour. It means I will be listening to this album a lot more over the coming months as I prepare myself for what is to come. And while this isn’t their most outstanding effort it still ticks most of the boxes for anyone who enjoys this genre of the artform. And that’s the key to this album. Someone coming in having not experienced the previous albums is at a disadvantage because the way you listen to the vocals on this album is directly tied to what has come before. You can listen to this and enjoy your favourite vocalists for their contribution, but it is the combination of all as a part of their characters in the story that makes this the full experience rather than just an album full of songs. It’s a small concession, but I do think fans of the Avantasia experience will get more from this than a first timer coming in at this stage of the game.

Best songs: “The Raven Child”, “Requiem for a Dream”, “Book of Shallows”, “Moonglow”

Rating:  “Everything you've come to dream is gonna turn out real.”   4/5

1096. Lazy Bonez / Kiss of the Night. 2019. 3/5

Until I began searching through the Rate Your Music charts list last week, and came across the very early stages of the best metal albums released in 2019, I had never heard of the band Lazy Bonez nor heard any of their music. Probably not surprising given that they are from Finland which is half a universe away from Australia. However, early posts on the album had given it a few raps that encouraged me to search it out, and with the magic of Spotify in this wonderful digital age I was able to discover Kiss of the Night.

Their music is very non-confrontational. Based on a similar format of other power metal bands with a European heritage, the sound is much like contemporaries like Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius and various projects that Jorn Lande has been involved in. Whereas those bands have since developed their sound into something more unique, what I initially enjoyed about this album is that it doesn’t try to be something it is not, or to try and be overtly ambitious with their music. It is good basic power metal, almost on a hard rock scale as the songs have a good basis of the rhythm of drums and bass holding the song together while the guitars and keyboards play fluently and pleasantly together. On top of this is the excellent vocals of Tommi Salmela who does have an uncanny knack of singing in a similar vein to other vocalists of the genre. Together this package has put together a collection of songs that are very easy to listen to and enjoy.
The album flows wonderfully well from one song to the next. It has a rock emphasis that is different from other power metal albums, the biggest asset for me is the 'almost’ absence of the power ballad that bogs down albums on a major scale. Because every song here has its own solid continuity and doesn’t look to change things up too much throughout the album, it means that there are no dull moments that could slow up the momentum of the track list. I for one believe this is one of the great positives of the album. If you are looking for blistering solos or orchestral keyboards or seventeen time changes within a few bars, then you are in the wrong place. If on the other hand you enjoy your power metal in its simplest form without all of the improvisations and experimentation the you will get a kick out of this.
The opening three songs set the platform for the enjoyment to follow. Opening track “Everlasting” is a good introduction to the album, and is followed by the catchy “Run” which has you joining in singing the lyrics in quick time. The double kick and happy guitars come out on the title track “Kiss of the Night” to give the middle section the boost that power metal albums can give.
After an excellent opening the album settles down into the solid basis of the power rock that I spoke of. Some may feel that it is a bit humdrum given that it doesn’t offer anything outstanding to hang their hat on, and that is possibly a fair comment. Putting on the album to listen to as a background experience makes this very listenable, but to others who are looking to have their socks blown off it may come across as humdrum.
There does come eventually the moment all power metal bands must indulge in – the power balled. “Forever Young” is this album’s version of this horrific part of the genre, and though it is my least favourite part of this album it is tolerable in this instance.

If you have listened to any of the Allen/Lande project albums you will have a sense of deja-vu listening to this album, as there are touches of the format and the vocal style throughout this album – not a copy I rush to add, but just a similarity in song structure and singing pitch. Whether it is a deliberate thing or not I don’t know, but it kept me listening to this album long enough to enjoy it as its own entity rather than comparing its style to other bands. It may not be the best album released this year but it is one that you will be able to reflect on in later months and years and think it was worth finding in the first place.

Best songs: “Everlasting”, “Run”, “Kiss of the Night”, “Tears of Gold”

Rating: “There’s nothing in this world that I can’t do”. 3/5