Despite Kai Hansen's presence, I did not come into this expecting a heavy metal album, and that is not what this is. The music and songs had to be written in a style that would have pleased the leader - a compromise of styles, if you will. What you get is an assimilation of the band's that all of these members have been in, and an attempt to make that work.
There is plenty to like, and plenty to take stock of. The two major writers are Hansen and bassist Dennis Ward. While the album isn't fractured, it comes across as slightly schitzophrenic.
Hansen's contributions are a standout, and able to be separated from the pack. His are the songs that inject a bit of speed and a bit of grunt in the guitars, as well as the better lead break from both guitarists."Never Too Late" is one example. The similarities to Gamma Ray's "Time to Break Free" from the Land of the Free album, both musically and lyrically (yes, Kiske actually provided lead vocals on the song) are very easy to ascertain. But his contributions have been 'scaled back' from the absolute heavy and speed metal style of Gamma Ray, to fit in with the much more hard rock style that this band is about, no doubt to fit Kiske's preferred style.
On the other hand, Ward's contributions obviously reflect the style of his previous band's, such as Pink Cream 69 and Place Vendome (of which Kiske was also a part). They swing more towards the hard rock ballad style of song, rewuiring Kiske's soaring vocals to be at the forefront of the moody musicianship, much in the way that Whitesnake's "Is This Love?" did a quarter of a century ago. There is nothing wrong with that if you like that kind of stuff, but really, we've heard this before in Ward's afore-mentioned bands.
Compare, for instance, "Renegade" and "My Sanctuary", which are back to back in the middle of this album. "Renegade" is a Ward song, and it has that moodiness about it, and almost floats along with Kiske soaring to that mood. Then comes "My Sanctuary", essentially a Ward song, that Hansen has contributed to the music. It feels like a Ward song, but Hansen has come in and added some grunt, added some metal to it, and the song is all the better for that influence. To me, if this could have been done to the WHOLE album, rather than just the two or three songs that Kai 'helped out' with the music ("Unisonic", "My Sanctuary" and "We Rise") it would have been a better mix throughout. As it stands, the momentum of the album ebbs and flows between the somewhat faster and heavier tunes, and the slower more circumspect soft rock moments.
Michael Kiske has the writing credit for one song on the album, the closing ballad "No One Ever Sees Me". It is the perfect example of the direction Kiske prefers his music in this incarnation of his life. It is pure syrup both musically and lyrically, and even the solo break from Kai can't redeem it for me. I am sure there are plenty of fans out here who will love this song. To me it may as well be Mariah Carey singing it, because it is a travesty.
I wanted to love this album. I wanted it to be a pinpoint, the album that all other bands would have to better if they wanted to have the best album of 2012. That hasn't - and couldn't - happen. Despite the calibre of the musicians collected here, their styles were, for the most part, unable to combine to bring about the miraculous. There are good songs here, including "Unisonic", "Souls Alive" "Never Too Late" and "My Sanctuary", but the average tends to hold back the good. Instead, this is an album that is well worth a listen, but at the end of the day will become a shelf-filler.
No comments:
Post a Comment