All songs on this album by former Uriah Heep-keyboardist and guitarrist Ken Hensley have a strong Uriah Heep-feel to them.The songs tell a self-biographical story about the rise and fall of a rock'n'roll-star. I like this album even if it looses tempo at the end. There are some strong hard rock-songs on it and norweigan Jörn Lande (ex.Masterplan) makes a really good job on lifting them. Also ex. Uriah Heep-singer John Lawton and my favorite-singer Glenn Hughes (ex.Deep Purple, Trapeze etc.) and Eve Gallagher sings on it.There's lot of melody and organ. The album was recorded in Spain with spanish musicians.

1)(This is) just the beginning (8,0) A really good melodic start with Jörn Lande putting on some strong vocals.

2)Were on our way (7,5) Uptempo rocker. Hensley and Lande sharing vocals.

3)Blood on the highway (8,0) A beautiful and laid back rocker.

4)You've got it (The american dream) (8,5) A great uptempo rocker!

5)Doom scene 1 (-)

6)It won't last (7,0) John Lawton (ex. Uriah Heep on vocals)

7)Think twice (Is it the music or the man?) (6,5) A Meat Loaf-style symphonic laid back rock song. Eve Gallagher on vocals.

8)Doom scene 2 (-)

9)There comes a time (8,0) Hensley sings this sensitive song just like former Uriah Heep-vocalist David Byron. Cool.

10)Okay this house is down (8,0) Uptempo rocker with Lande on vocals again.

11)What you gonna do (6,5) Glenn Hughes on vocals.

12)We're on our way...Postscript (solo) verse (-)

13)I dit it all (6,0)  A ballad that just makes it above the cheesy-level. Too many soft songs at the end of the album.

14)The last dance (El citano viejo) (9,0) 8-minute pompous and epic ballad building up to a chaotic end. Glenn Hughes on vocals.

Score: 7,55

Ken Hensley-vocals, guitars, dobro and keyboards (b.1945)

Ovidio Lopez-guitars

Antonio Fidel-bass

Juan Carlos Garcia-drums

Vicente Ruiz-piano

+

Glenn Hughes-vocals (b.1951)

Jörn Lande-vocals (b.1968)

John Lawton-vocals (b.1946)

Eve Gallagher-vocals

On the 4th album by Savatage. On this album they began experimenting with progressive elements of the music and the album is considered one of the first progressive metal-albums. It was their new producer, John O'Neill that inspired the band to play a more symhonic kind of heavy metal. For metal it is! It's raw and heavy and full of killer songs that makes my head move up and down! I really like this album. It was also their first commercially successful album.

1)24 hrs ago (7,5)

2)Beyond the doors of the dark (8,5) The band really sets the standard with the first two songs. Aggressive, heavy and powerful and aggressive vocals like Metal Church's David Wayne.

3)Legions (8,0) Heavy, slow and I really like the attacking guitarriffing and singing.

4)Strange wings (7,5) Very melodic but very good.

5)Prelude to madness (-)

6)Hall of the mountain king (9,0) Incredible song! Starts with a blistering guitarsolo and a solopart in the middle is just superb!

7)The price you pay (7,5)

8)White witch (8,0)

9)Last dawn (-)

10)Devastation (7,5)

Score: 7,94

Jon Oliva-vocals and piano (b.1960)

Chriss Oliva-guitars (1963-1993)

Johnny Lee Middleton-bass (b.1963)

Steve Wacholz-drums

+

Ray Gillen (Phenomena)-backing vocals on 4. (1959-1993)

The third album from this melodic hardrockband from USA. The album consists of pompous, melodic hardrock with big choruses and orchestral arrangements and operalike female singing. It is also influenced by nu-metal and goth rock. Too bad that these influences aren't developed to make good songs. They sound exactly the same and to listen to an whole album with this is just too much. After 3 songs I'm bored and the music goes in in one ear and out through the other. Amazingly the album reached nr.1 on the US Billboard-list. Just another sign of the americans bad taste in music.

1)What you want (7,0) Powerful and melodic short hit-song.

2)Made of stone (7,0) Okey but there's not much happening.

3)The change (6,0) Quite boring. Same slow pace all the time.

4)My heart is broken (5,0) Another one...

5)The other side (6,5) Heavier riff and more power in the vocals but same pace as all song so far.

6)Erase this (6,0)

7)Lost in paradise (5,5) A powerballad that just goes on and on.

8)Sick (6,5)

9)End of the dream (6,5)

10)Oceans (6,0) Same same same...

11)Never go back (6,0)

12)Swimming home (4,0) Cheesy ballad.

Score: 6,00

Amy Lee(Amy Lynn Hartzler)-vocals, piano, keyboards and harp (b.1981)

Terry Balsamo-guitars (b.1972)

Troy McLawhorn-guitars (b.1968)

Tim McCord-bass (b.1979)

Will Hunt-drums (b.1971)

Love the cover! It really shows that this is a hardrockalbum with guts. And is it? Well, some of the songs are big arena-favorites and I have always liked this album. But if you relly listen to the songs they are very simple and not very variating. Since my musical taste has changed and developed through the years the old hit-Scorpion-albums don't touch me that more like they did in the past. But it's a good and rocking album, no dout!

During the recording of the album Klaus Meine had to undergo surgery on his vocal chords and the some vocals were recorded by Don Dokken. The album reached nr.10 on the Billboard-list.

1)Blackout (8,0) Great start. A live-favorite.

2)Can't live without you (8,0) Good rocker but the refrain gets repeated too much.

3)No one like you (8,5) Superstrong refrain and another good song made for the big arenas.

4)You give me all I need (7,5)

5)Now! (8,0) A crazy oozin' rocker!

6)Dynamite (7,5) Another furious rocker.

7)Arizona (7,0)

8)China white (6,0) Like always, they have a kind of strange song on the album, and this is a slow and heavy version of that. Not the best I've heard.

9)When the smoke is going down (8,5) Wonderful ballad.

Score: 7,67

Klaus Meine-vocals (b.1948)

Rudolf Schenker-guitars (b.1948)

Mattias Jabs-guitars (b.1955)

Francis Buchholz-bass (b.1954)

Herman Rarebell-drums (b.1949)

Well, this isn't a hardrockalbum but since Thin Lizzy is considered such, I put it in the 70's hardrockcategory. It's the debutalbum from this Irish band and the music is very laid back with strange progressive rhythms here and there. They were formed in Dublin in 1969 by Eric Bell  and Eric Wrixon (b.1947) wich both hade played in Them. They went to see a gig by the band Orphanage featuring Brian Downey and Phil Lynott and after the show suggested them to join their new band. The band released a single in 1970, "The Farmer" which sold 283 copies. Wrixon left the band before the single was released.

1)The friendly ranger at Clontarf Castle (3,0) Talked intro and very laid back.

2)Honesty is no excuse (4,0)

3)Diddy Levine (5,5)

4)Ray-gun (5,5) Very Jimi Hendrix-inspired.

5)Look what the wind blew in (6,0)

6)Eire (6,0)

7)Return of the farmer's son (6,0) Progressive hardrock.

8)Clifton Grange Hotel (5,0)

9)Saga of the agening orphan (5,5)

10)Remembering (Part one) (4,0)

Score: 5,05

Philip Lynott-vocals, bass and acoustic guitar (1949-1986)

Eric Bell-guitars (b.1947)

Brian Downey-drums (b.1951)

This band is from San Francisco, USA and this is their 5th album. They sound like a product of a popular type of music at the moment since they seem to be riding on the progressive metal-wave of the 2000's. Ufortunately this album isn't very good, in fact most of it sucks. It sounds like someone said to them: -Play progressive metal, it sells at the moment. The singing is very lame and they sound like they are trying hard to play progressive music even if they don't like that kind of music. This is crap like most american hardrockbands at the moment.

Joe Hutton and Leila Abdul Rauf are new in the band.

1)317 (3,5) Terrible start, almost instrumental.

2)17th street (4,5) Very progressive with strange vocals and a steady but boring rhythm.

3)The grain (5,0) 7 minute boring song that just goes on and on. Only the refrain is melodic and nice.

4)Staring (The 31st floor) (5,0)

5)The day the city died (6,0) Intense and better song.

6)Romance valley (7,0) Much better. Very intense and some nice male/female vocals.

7)Summer tears (2,5) Truly terrible. Why?

8)Grey wednesday (5,0)

9)Going somewhere (5,0) How can 10 minutes of progressive hardrock sound so boring?

Score: 4,83

Joe Hutton-vocals

John Cobbett-guitars

Leila Abdul Rauf-guitars and vocals

Max Barnett-bass

Chewy Marzolo-drums

Sigrid Sheie-piano and organ

Michael Hossack
October 17, 1946 - March 12, 2012

Michael Hossack was a rock drummer who is perhaps best remembered for his tenure with the Doobie Brothers.  After serving in Vietnam for the US Navy, Hossack returned home where he joined a band called Mourning Reign.  He soon caught the ear of the Doobie Brothers who invited him to jam at one of their shows.  The year was 1971, and the band was impressed enough to hire him to play alongside John Hartman as dual drummers.  Hossack went on to play on such classic Doobie Brothers albums as Toulouse Street, The Captain And Me, and What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits.  In 1974, he left the group to take a break from the grueling tour lifestyle.  He continued on with other acts for the next several years.  In 1987, the original Doobie Brothers got back together for a series of shows to benefit Vietnam vets.  Hossack, a Vietnam vet himself, was asked to come along.  The tour was such a success that  the group officially reunited and signed with Capitol Records for their comeback album, Cycles, of 1989.  Hossack continued to record and perform with the band until 2010, when he left after being diagnosed with cancer.  Michael Hossack ultimately died of the cancer on March 12, 2012.  He was 65.

Absolutely wonderful cover on this melodic debut hardrockalbum from German Pink Cream 69. They were formed in 1987 in Karlsruhe, Germany. They won a newcomers competition arranged by the magazine Metal Hammer in 1988 and got a recordcontract through that. This is a melodic hardrockalbum but there is also a considarable amount of heaviness in the songs with heavy guitars and hardhitting drums. It has been a favouritealbum of mine for many many years but lately I have lost intrest in it even though it is a good and even album without bad songs.

1)Take those tears (7,5) A good and intense start!

2)Sugar for love (7,5) More melody in this one.

3)Rolling down a thunder (7,5) Intense!

4)One step into paradise (7,5)

5)Close your eyes (8,0) A very good powerballad.

6)Welcome the night (7,5)

7)Partymaker (7,5) Doublebassdrum at high speed!

8)Hit the bottom row (8,0) Heavy song with a nice bass/guitarriff.

9)Parasite (7,5)

10)I only wanna be for you (7,5)

Score: 7,60

Andi Deris-vocals (b.1964)

Alfred Koffler-guitars

Dennis Ward-bass

Kosta Zafiriou-drums