(See also album nr.3 filed under "Southern Rock")

On this album, ARS 5th, they finally found their sound after experimenting with various styles in rock and pop on the previous albums. They moved towards an Southern Rock-sound similar to The Marshall Tucker Band soulinfluenced and laidback style but with distinctive electric guitarplaying that lifts their songs. The quality of the songs are not yet top notch but they were moving there... An absolutely wonderful cover, really love it! Ronnie Hammond passed away in march 2011.

1)Jukin (7,5) Nice start with a Texan Lynyrd Skynyrd-type of up-tempo. "-it used to be the Texas playboys, now ole ZZs Tops keeps on smokin".

2)Mixed emotions (7,0) A heavy blues with an effective simple riff.

3)Shanghied (7,5) Very good heavy southern rock but the 2.14 minutes is way way too short!

4)Police! Police! (7,0) Just an okey rocksong.

5)Beautiful dreamers (6,0) A ballad. Nothing special.

6)Oh what a feeling (6,0) An ordinary rocksong.

7)Free spririt (6,0) Nice refrain but otherwise nothing happens.

8)Another man's woman (5,5) Almost 10 minutes long and lots of time to do something special at the end of the album but they totally missed the target here. Just some guitarplaying with no soul or feeling that goes on and on...

Score: 6,56

Ronnie Hammond-vocals (d.2011)

Barry Bailey-guitars

J.R Cobb-guitars (b.1944)

Paul Goddard-bass

Robert Nix-drums

Dean Daughtry-keyboards (b.1946)

http://www.atlantarhythmsection.com/index.htm

I first discovered the Irish guitarist Gary Moore in the 80's when he released the hardrockalbums he firstly became known for. These albums were very good  and suited well the taste me and my friends had at that time. Suddenly in 1991 Gary released a bluesalbum and it was this one together with  the Stevie Ray Vaughan-albums from the  80's that made me start listen to blues and I havent stopped since! Sadly Gary died of a heartattack in Spain in february 2011, only 58 years old.

This is among the best bluesalbums I have ever heard and it's a real pleasure to listen to Garys incredibly sensitive guitarplaying and songs that can't leave anybody unaffeced. If you do, then you maybe should keep to listening to pop and hip hop that's in the charts... After Gary first broke ground the year before with his stunning Still Got The Blues-album, he even made a better one with After Hours.

The bassist Will Lee is best known for playing with the studioband in The David Letterman Show and has recorded with a long string of known musicians.

Bob Daisley, born in Australia, played in Garys band in the hardrockyears in the 80's and recorded with Chicken Shack, Mungo Jerry, Widowmaker, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osburne, Uriah Heep and many other bands.

Johnny B. Gaydon is a true bluesman, he played with Son Seals, Albert Collins and has played on about 100 albums in he's career.

Anton Fig, born in South Africa, is also known for playing with the David Letterman band, named the CBS Orchestra, and recorded with numerous bands.

Graham Walker has played with Albert King, Albert Collins, George Harrison, B.B King, Hubert Sumlin, Mick Jagger etc.

Tommy Eyre recorded with among others Alex Harvey, Greg Lake, Wham, Michael Schenker, B.B King and John Mayall. He died of cancer in 2001.

1)Cold day in hell (9,0) Superb albumopener! A midtempo bluesrocker with blistering guitarplaying, strong vocals and a hornsection and female backgroundsinging wich fill out and lifts the song.

2)Don't you lie to me (I get evil) (8,0) A short bluesshuffle that is just great!

3)Story of the blues (10,0) One of the best bluessongs that's ever been recorded. Slow and sad and you can really hear the pain, the blues in this song.

4)Since I met you baby (8,5) A jumpblues with Gary and the king himself, B.B King on vocals and guitar. A great song!

5)Separate ways (9,5) An incredible song about broken love. Don't know if I've heard a sader song than this and Gary's singing is so full of feeling it sends chills down somewhere...

6)Only fool in town (9,0) Rockin' the blues! Full of energy and another great song.

7)Key to love (John Mayall) (8,5) An uptempo stomper that's getting the feet moving!

8)Jumpin' at shadows (Duster Bennett) (10,0) So much feeling in this song that it could make anyone cry. Awesome.

9)The blues is alright (9,5) Includes Albert Collins on guitar. An incredible jumpblues that rocks and rolls and twists and shakes and and...

10)The hurt inside (9,5) A mellow midtempo rocksong with a distinctive bluesfeeling. Again with the most sensitive guitarplaying you can imagine.

11)Nothings the same (7,0) A ballad that would have suited better on Gary's hardrockalbums from the 80's.

Score: 8,95

Gary Moore-vocals and guitars (b.1952-d.2011)

Will Lee-bass (b.1952)

Bob Daisley-bass (b.1950)

Johnny B. Gaydon-bass (b.1953)

Graham Walker-drums

Anton Fig-drums (b.1952)

Tommy Eyre-keyboards (b.1949-d.2001)

 www.gary-moore.com

I remember my uncle had an album with Hound Dog Taylor in the 80's and I was fascinated by the old thin bluesmans look on the cover. I don't remember that I listened to the album but now I found this one at the musiclibrary here in Gävle and decided to give it a go. This was Hound Dog's 1st albumrelease and also the later worldfamous blues recordcompany Alligator Records 1st release. He was born in 1915 with 6 fingers on each hand but he cut off the extrafinger on the right hand with a razorblade on a drunken night. In may -75 he shot his bandmate Brewer Phillips with 2 shots from a rifle but Phillips survived. In december the same year Hound Dog, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer only 60 years old.

This album shows Hound Dog's heavy, hardhitting and loud boogie-blues. He played bottleneck with hard, loud notes and he's voice was somewhat weak but loud and clear. The recording is very rough and defenetely live and with no overdubs. The rawness of the recording makes the scores lower and the songs are not the best that's been recorded. The starter She's gone, Held my baby last night, Wild about you baby and It's alright are the best.

1)She's gone

2)Walking the ceiling

3)Held my baby last night

4)Taylor's rock

5)It's alright

6)Phillips theme

7)Wild about you baby

8)I just can't make it

9)It hurts me too

10)44 blues

11)Give me back my wig

12)55th street boogie

Score: 5,13

Hound Dog Taylor-vocals, guitar (1915-1975)

Brewer Phillips-guitar (1924-1999)

Ted Harvey-drums

http://www.keno.org/hound_dog_taylor/hdhomepage.htm

This is a really good hardrockalbum! The guys from Switzerland goes back to their rocking roots and makes it really good on this album with exeptionally strong songwriting and Steves vocals is on top form. His strong, rasp vocals is very important to the Gotthard-sound. I will not comment on each song on the album because they will get pretty the same review and same scores. The best song is the opener All we are, and also Dream on, I'm alive, I've seen an angel cry and And then goodbye, is all above average. The rocking song really rock, the melodic songs are strong and the ballads are as sweet as they can be. The only complaints I can think of is that it would be nice with more guitarsolos, I mean Leo CAN play the guitar but I don't hear it on the album. The songs also tend to be taken over by the refrains after a strong start, otherwise the score would have been higher. And it's too much with 15 songs on an album. 12 would have been more than enough. Sadly Steve Lee died in october 2010 while travelling with his motorbike in USA. A trailer hit him when he was standing beside the road. He's music and commitment to rock'n'roll will be missed and remembered!

1)All we are

2)Dream on

3)Lift u up

4)Everything I want

5)Cupid's arrow

6)I wonder

7)I'm alive

8)I've seen an angel cry

9)Stay for the night

10)Anytime, anywhere

11)Said and done

12)The other side of me

13)Nothing left at all

14)And then goodbye

15)Can't stop

Score: 7,63

Steve Lee-vocals (1963-2010)

Leo Leoni-guitars (b.1966)

Freddy Sherer-guitars (b.1966)

Marc Lynn-bass (b.1964)

Hena Habegger-drums (b.1967)

www.gotthard.com

This must surely be the worst Aerosmithrecord there is. The guitarist Brad Whitford left the band during it's recording and formed his own band Whitford/St. Holmes together with Derek St. Holmes (from Ted Nugent's band) with who he recorded one album. Joe Perry had left earlier, already in 1979, to form his own band The Joe Perry Project. Singer Steve Tyler's drugabuse led him to collapse on the stage and in 1980 he was hospitalized for 2 months after a motorcycleaccident. The songs sound Aerosmith but the quality is really poor on the most of the songs even if there is some okey ones. The new guitarist Jimmy Crespo earlier played with Flame and later with Billy Squier and Rod Stewart. The other guitarrist Rick Dufay had released an album prior joining Aerosmith and actually played guitar on one track on the special Walmart-version of the 2012 Aerosmith-album Music From Another Dimension.

Rock In A Hard Place reached nr. 21 on the Billboard chart, very bad for a band of the status they had had a few years before.

1)Jailbait (5,0) Has the typical Aerosmithsound but it's too repetive and boring even though it's a fast and crazy albumstarter.

2)Lightning strikes (7,0) Midtempo, monotone but an okey song.

3)Bitch's brew (7,0) Nice driving rhythm but nothing happens.

4)Bolivian ragamuffin (5,0) Just a hysterical mess. No feeling and other things that makes a song good.

5)Cry me a river (2,0) This is truly terrible! Some kind of jazzballad with vocals so bad that it hurts. Tyler must be high on dope because he can't be serious here.

6)Prelude to Joanie (-) Some spaced-out fill out.

7)Joanie's butterfly (5,0) For 1.30 acoustic, then just a strange midtempo song.

8)Rock in a hard place (Cheshire cat) (7,5) Wonderful driving rhythm which I like and a happy song that would have been better with some horns. Unfortunately chaos at the end.

9)Jig is up (5,5) Slow and boring.

10)Push comes to shove (3,0) Terrible theatermusic. Glad the album is over and I won't listen to it again.

Score: 4,70

Steven Tyler-vocals (b.1948)

Rick Dufay-guitars (b.1952)

Jimmy Crespo-guitars (b.1954)

Tom Hamilton-bass (b.1951)

Joey Kramer-drums (b.1950)

After a warm-up with hockey, Deep Purple and Pink Floyd with some friends in Hallstahammar we went to Sigurdsgatan to watch some heavy music. Opening act was Stone Clinch from Västerås. They played 4 songs wich were really heavy stuff. Reminded me of Black Label Society's Zakk Wylde-riffing. Not bad not bad, with some re-arrangements of the songs they should be able to get a record-deal in the future.

Sparzanza is a band from Karlstad. They have their 4th album out and play a kind of typical americanized rock/metal with heavy riffing, varying from heavy to soft and strong vocals. They have signed with Spinefarm records in Finland and they have a lot of bands that sounds just like Sparzanza so there's nothing new under the sun really. There were maybe 50 people attending, Västerås is really not a rock-city, it's mostly hip-hop that goes down there. Well, we 4 buddies like heavy rock so we had a good time listening to some heavy riffing that's impossible to stand still to:-)

It was'nt many years ago that I discovered this band from Atlanta, Georgia. Since Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers are among my favourite bands, ARS is also a band that suits my listening pleasure even though they play a softer and more of a pop sound kind of Southern rock that I also have become to enjoy. Their sound is a mix of the mentioned bands and softer bands like Little Feat and Steely Dan. The song So into you on this album rose to number 7 on the charts and was much played on radio in the summer of 1977. They co-headlined a big festival in Atlanta with Bob Seger with Foreigner and Heart as opening acts. This album is ARS's 6th. The singer Ronnie Hammond died in 2011.

1)Sky high (7,5) Strong opener with a strong simple refrain (sky high, sky high...). Rather heavy for ARS to be. Unusual last minute with only guitar and piano.

2)Hitch-hikers hero (7,0) Slow heavy blues with breaks reminding very much of The Allman Brothers well known jazzy/afrikan-rhythm style.

3)Don't miss the message (7,0) This is what makes 70's rock so good; a simple riff, melody, steady drumming etc. Just a simple good rocksong!

4)Georgia rhythm (7,5) The rhythm is a mix of slow rock, honky tonk and country. Very melodic and sweet song.

5)So into you (7,5) Delicious Supertramp-keyboards as the main riff in this slow, sweet and funky rocker.

6)Outside woman blues (Yardbirds) (7,5) A heavy blues again reminding of the Allmans and also Jimi Hendrix. Love it! Such a feeling in the playing on this album and specially here.

7)Everybody's gotta go (6,0) Slow and funky. Nothing special.

8)Neon nites (5,0) Strange slow and mellow countrysong. Don't like it much.

Score 6,88

Ronnie Hammond-vocals (d.2011)

Barry Bailey-guitars

J.R Cobb-guitars (b.1944)

Paul Goddard-bass

Robert Nix-drums

Dean Daughtry-keyboards (b.1946)

http://www.atlantarhythmsection.com/index.htm

I bought this album maybe two years ago by chance. Have no relation to the band in the past but I really like the albums amateur-youth-energy-kick ass rock'n'roll. This band was from Glasgow, Scotland and this is their debutalbum. They were in 1983 voted the 2nd best new band by Kerrang and toured with Mötley Crüe, Kiss and Ozzy Osburne. Brian May from Queen even produced the album so they were really getting somewhere but the band later split and the guitarrist Punky Mendoza said in 2004 that there will never be a reunion. So let's enjoy some good rock'n'roll because the music will always be there!

1)In and out of love (7,5) Strong rocker with a great chorus!

2)Broken heart (6,5) Nice intro that goes into a heavy riff and bass pumping. Irritating singing in the chorus.

3)Love on the run (8,0) Fantastic riff, great vocals, nice break. A great furious rocker!

4)Love times love (7,5) Driving riff, drumming and bassline, good guitar solo.

5)Victims of the night (9,0) I like songs that takes a while before the singing starts. The song builds up in a nice way. A great rocker and in the end the song gets a new riff and then some great soloing and furious tempo until the end. This is rock'n'roll!

6)Rock me (6,0) At first nothing special, then change of tempo that is somewhat a trademark on this album, solo and a nice break. Boring refrain though.

7)Shout it out (7,0) A rocker but does'nt really take off until a great solobreak.

8)Devil in her eyes (7,0) Driving beat after a tasteful intro. Melodic refrain. Too long and too much repetition of the refrain.

9)Hell is beautiful (6,0) A fast rocker but they are trying to hard to make a good last impresssion on the album. Too screamy vocals and guitarsoloing that becomes a mess.

Score: 7,17

Steve "Hamie" Hayman-vocals

Punky Mendoza-guitars

Gordon Bonnar-guitars

Brian Waugh-bass

Gary Moat-drums

Review + fanpage

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=58321

http://www.angelfire.com/rock3/heavypettin/heavypettinmain.html