LA Guns have the be the single most inconsistent band in rock n roll. The same outfit that delivered classics like their debut, Cocked & Loaded, Hollywood Vampires, Vicious Circle and Waking The Dead are also responsible for the turkeys American Hardcore, Shrinking Violet and the very average albums The Missing Piece, Hollywood Forever and The Devil You Know.

Now have another absolute turd on their hands.

When seeking to defend a particular sound or direction, I often hear words like raw, live, 70s infused, punky… I prefer a more direct approach – like unlistenable, demo quality and shite.

It’s not like all the songs suck, I’m really taken with the heavy ballad ‘Diamonds’ for example and there are some memorable hooks elsewhere. But it all just sound terrible. There’s some of the old school punky vibe of the debut and Vicious Circle in some tracks and some good ol’ LA Guns sleaze elsewhere, but the album is totally unlistenable. It sounds like an audience bootleg of a 1975 Sex Pistols show.

The mix is horrid, the drums sound like they were recorded in the same lavatory Tracii Guns recently played a gig from and the vocals are so hollow, its hard to imagine how they could be so badly recorded then mixed into the tracks.

Tracii Guns sounds like a guitar god on several tracks, he’s a class player; and Phil Lewis still has the voice, but hearing both at their best without risking permanent damage to your ear drums is just not worth it. This album cannot be played at loud volume. Or any volume really.

By now anyone familiar with Revolution Saints would be aware of the lineup change – Blades and Aldrich out and Pilson and Hoekstra in. Despite that kind of major upheaval, there’s not much difference here. The Deen Castronovo fronted project’s fourth album is more or less exactly the same as the last three. Except the songwriting has grown stale.

The music is still produced and mainly written by Alessandro Del Vecchio again, so you can simply exact more of the same again here. And that’s exactly where the problem is. The songs. They are just a repeat of the material available on the first three albums – right down to style, lyrics and sound.

The songs in particular suffer from a lack of personality. I’ve heard all of this before. Not only the other Rev Saints albums, but on Hardline, Sunstorm, Skills and any number of other ADV penned projects for Frontiers.

While the performances within cannot be faulted – Deen sings with his usual melodic gusto; Jeff Pilson drives the rhythm and Joel Hoekstra shreds like the super-talented madman he is. There are some great solos here especially.

But the songs for the most part go nowhere. The first 3 tracks don’t interest me at all.

‘Kids Will Be Kids’ has a bit more bite and a more memorable hook before the album highlight of the ballad ‘I’ll Cry For You Tonight’ and the darker anthem ‘Crime Of The Century’ add some spark.

After that its back downhill to the usual fare and with it goes my interest in the album overall.

Its simply a superfluous addition to the Revolution Saints catalogue. No growth or development in their sound whatsoever. And the fact two albums were recorded at the same time and a third is planned…leaves one wondering at what point fans will vote with their feet and walk away from this project.

Surely this is the heaviest project I have heard Heatland/The Distance vocalist Chris Ousey front to date?

Some furious drumming from Saxon’s Nigel Glockler and the heaviest guitar work I’ve heard from FM’s Jim Kirkpatrick leads the sonic assault. Add in Bass supremo Billy Sheehan, who delivers his trademark sound and keys from former FM man Didge Digital and you get a truly accomplished lineup at work.

With the material all composed together by Chris Ousey and Jim Kirkpatrick, this is a true band project. The only way to have a natural mixing of minds and styles, is to have those involved write their own material and that’s exactly what you get here.

Fans of Ousey’s unique writing style will see the usual rewards come with repeated listens. He’s never been someone to make hooks and melodies obvious or over the top – instead he embeds them within the songs and choruses. And as usual, patience brings them all to the fore.

The opening ‘Dangerous Dawn’ and ‘The Devil He Don’t Care’ showcase the hard rocking approach, while ‘Can I Call It Home’ is a classic Ousey style heartfelt ballad.

The sheer pace of the album is almost unrelenting. It has that The Distance meets Mr. Big vibe, just with added punch.

This is nothing short of essential for fans of Ousey and FM – a glorious slice of high energy British melodic hard rock.

The Swedes have done it again! Following on from a classy 2021 debut, Seventh Crystal have completely knocked it out of the park with this one.

Seventh Crystal was put together by singer Kristian Fyhr (Perpetual Etude), a guy who has a sensational, soaring, powerful and melodic voice, is perfect here, but it is the sum of all parts that makes this band great.

The album is dominated by big riffs, in a slightly progressive hard rock style that is driven by guitars but accompanied by some brilliant piano and keyboard parts and a hard-hitting rhythm section.

Best of all though – is the quality of the songs. Every single one is a winner, with a strong melody and chorus hook. Nothing better than prog-rock with choruses! More pleasing is that of the albums 13 songs, there is so much freshness and a dynamic production that really blows the songs up.

Its so great to hear something fresh and engaging and original, while still remaining true to the genre of music it represents.

I can’t recommend this one enough. Pure melodic bliss in a hard rocking package that should appeal to many.

Consider mixing the progressive elements of Threshold with the vocals of HEAT and the keyboards of One Desire. A tasty proposition.

A delightful debut EP of classic AOR here. The British lads FIRST LIGHT is a musical partnership between Dave Hardman (Guitar) and Carl Sharples (Bass), two lifelong friends and lovers of all things Melodic Rock. They are joined on the 7 tracks by New York City based vocalist Warren Passaro, himself of the Journey vein of singers plus FM’s keyboardist Didge Digital and drummer Andy Jakeman.

The production may be an indie – but they’ve done a great job getting it to the level they have and the mix is balanced and even.

Classic 80s influenced AOR and melodic rock is the order of the day, but I’m pleased to say the lads have a sound distinct enough to call their own. The mostly uptempo release features some very fine lead vocals and most importantly, some really catchy songs on hand.

Take ‘Revolution’ for instance – there’s an instant hook if you’ve ever heard one. The opening track ‘Gravity’ is just as good. But all songs have hooks and memorable melodies.

I’m hearing some early House Of Shakira here, plus FM, Journey and the like. Very pleasant listening all-round. Available on digital and a limited-edition CD.

This English melodic rock outfit sound anything but. At times they have that polished American modern rock sound of someone like Nickelback (just with better vocals) and when they really turn on the melodic charm and chorus harmonies, I can hear big Harem Scarem influences and harmonies going on.

Production for an indie release is of the highest quality and while the band skip between harder and more melodic styles, the songwriting holds up and sees this as one very fine debut album indeed.

I personally would eat up their Harem style modern AOR even more if it filled the whole album, but others might prefer the varied approach.

Nickleback meets Harem Scarem with a touch of Bon Jovi is about the closest I can come to describing the sound here.

The guys are back and rocking at full tilt once again. After the success of HBO’s Peacemaker TV show using ‘Do Ya Wanna Taste It’ as its stunning intro, I thought the guys might turn back the clock a little and head back into the glam-anthem territory of their earlier albums.

But no, here they are as heavy as ever, picking up where the last album Never Say Die left off – that is, heavier straight-ahead hard rock, albeit with that quirky Wig Wam delivery. That’s not a complaint, its just painting the accurate musical picture that is this album.

There are glammy moments of course, the hands in the air anthemic ‘Forevermore’ is classic Wig Wam and the Do Ya soundalike ‘High & Dry’. The belter ‘Bad Luck Chuck’ is as heavy as the band has been, as is the thunderous riffing on ‘Uppercut Shazam’.

Its Wig Wam. Its needed.

Turkish Delight is an all-star project, the culmination of multiple years’ worth of work and a tribute to the life long dedication and passion of Escape Music’s boss Khalil Turk.

To celebrate his time in this crazy business, the respected label owner and A&R man has put a great deal of his own money into assembling a cast of musicians he admires and has worked with over the years.

The hardest thing to do in these circumstances is to remotely record 30+ musicians, multiple players and vocalists for each song in some cases and still make a record sound cohesive and of the one body of work.

Mick Devine, Steve Morris, Steve Overland, Lee Small and Steve Newman are responsible for the bulk of songwriting duties, while the cast of musicians has to be read to be believed.

On vocals alone you have Jeff Scott Soto, Robin McAuley, Billy Greer, Chris Ousey, Mick Devine, James Christian, Jerome Mazza, Lee Small, Robin Beck, Tony Harnell and more.

Joining them are Mike Slamer, Jeff Pilson, Billy Sheehan, Gary Pihl, Vince DiCola, Alessandro Del Vecchio, Ricky Phillips, Josh Devine, Marco Mendoza, Jim Kirkpatrick, Chris Childs, Steve Mann, Mark Stanway and so many more.

What you’re getting here is a superbly crafted ‘various artists’ melodic rock compilation, featuring the artists involved doing just what you want them to be doing – each one delivering a fan favourite performance. A retro tribute if you will but sounding ever fresh thanks to the efforts put into making this record sound as good as it does.

How do you follow up a career defining masterpiece, that itself was an album that followed any number of critically acclaimed records before that?

Take your time…

So Threshold did just that. Some five years since the perfect ‘Legend Of The Shires’, the band resists the temptation to record a sequel to that epic record by just doing what they do best – delivering another brilliant progressive hard rock record filled with hard hitting, memorable songs.

Threshold have always had their sound and this album continues to deliver exactly what fans would expect, but with the usual subtle changes that help each album the band delivers, carry its own identity.

This time around the mood is a little darker, the songs a little heavier and the harmonies buried a little deeper into the songs. As is always required, multiple listens over several days is needed to fully appreciate any new work from Threshold and this album reveals itself beautifully.

The formula of four heavy rockers and a mid-album epic is repeated in the second half of the album, ending with the second epic Defence Condition.

I think the intensity drops off over the last couple of tracks before the closer, but there’s no filler here at all.

The first half of the album is near perfect in anyone’s language, the overall result will satisfy all Threshold fans. Its another brilliant record. Awesome, but not quite another masterpiece.

It could be argued that I have been Heaven & Earth and Stuart Smith’s biggest advocate since the first Heaven & Earth album back in 1998. Stuart told me himself that my review of that outstanding debut put the band on the map back when the internet was just going mainstream and the album itself was only available in South Korea.

I’ve championed the band at every turn and consider the last 2 albums with Joe Retta on vocals, two of the finest sounding classic rock albums of our time.

The line-up for H&E has always been fluid, but on album number 5, things have changed again, with the label gone, Retta gone and in fact, everyone else gone. Stu Smith remains as does his penchant for delivering classic Deep Purple/Rainbow style classic hard rock.

Style wise this isn’t far from what H&E have always stood for and these songs are once again, pretty catchy and feature some sublime guitar playing.

Unfortunately, there are issues the band hasn’t faced before that diminish the end product. First – the production is muddy and at times hard to listen to, with the crisp big dollar sound of the last records missing. The overall sound isn’t even close to the band’s normal high standard.

Secondly - new vocalist Gianluca Pertralia is a major step down from Retta and past vocal guests such as Kelly Hansen, Richie Sambora, Joe Lynn Turner and Glenn Hughes.

I find his voice irritating and off-putting.

The vocals, along with the weak production, put a major dent in the band’s otherwise impeccable catalogue. The songs and the guitar theatrics are still here, but overall, a disappointing release that won’t be played half as much as previous albums.

Shaft Of Steel – surely a metal band with a logo like that…and cover art featuring a medieval candelabra and goblet and even a fish mounted on the wall! Let’s get ready to rocwhaaaat? This isn’t bang your head, it’s more rather gently nod your noggin. These British rockers defy the visuals and deliver a classy bright and breezy, pink and fluffy AOR record that’s more akin to Work Of Art than their name suggests.

Its well worth the time and the effort. For a debut, it delivers more than might be expected and while they aren’t yet in the same league as WOA, anything is possible with a start like this. Just fix the visuals and tighten up production a little.

Shining Black should be a stand out record based on the names behind it. Another staged Frontiers partnership, the ‘band’ features vocalist Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen, Ring Of Fire, Royal Hunt) and guitarist Ölaf Thorsen (Labyrinth, Vision Divine). Both are quality individuals, but for me this album doesn’t work.

It may be the songs don’t have the spark needed to be a high-profile release and it pains me to say, but Mark Boals doesn’t have any energy in his vocals. It sounds phoned in. He is a mile better than this. It’s a case of what could have been with this one.