Frontiers 2002
Review by 6 December 2002

When reviewing instrumental albums, I often get the feeling that some of the songs are just screaming for a great vocal track. With this album it's the other way around. I could very well enjoy many of this songs much more, if it wasn't for the vocals. There are some fine melodies here, imaginative use of keyboards and interesting arrangements, but the vocals...Call me a wimp but I just can't stand death/black/extreme/whatever metal vocals. For me, the kind of shouting and growling that Cadacross favours doesn't really qualify as singing, and thus these tracks would sound much better without the vocals.

The music itself reminds me a lot of Nightwish, most probably due to the heavy use of keyboards. The one track that doesn't rely on keys - "Bring Out The Dead" - has some cool, sharp riffs but just like with the other tracks, the vocals make it really an unpleasant experience to listen to.

I have no doubt that this album will appeal to the "melo-death" fans out there, but for an average AOR fan it has very little to offer, especially if they share my dislike of extreme metal vocals. Still, the intros are great...

BMG 2002
Review by 7 September 2002

""Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling has been one of the finest mainstream hits this year. I instantly dug it when I first heard it, and decided to get my hands on the full album. "Camino Palmero" is that album, and the song featured on it not once but twice - there's an unplugged live version here too.

It remains to be seen whether the band will only become a "one-hit wonder", since that aforementioned song is easily the highlight here. I can imagine the record company people having trouble deciding the next single, as none of the other songs have that instant appeal of "Whenever...". Still, it's nice to see that a good, melodic rock song can make it to the top of the charts, if given enough exposure.

The other songs on this album, produced by Marc Tanner (producer of Nelson's "After The Rain") by the way, range from rather forgettable to quite likeable. Not many of them rise above others, but my bet would be that "Unstoppable", "Final Answer" and "Things Don't Always Work Out That Way" might find their way to the radios and video channels sooner or later. I wouldn't mind that, they might not be as good as the first single but still they would be better than 90% of the crap we're force-fed by the radio stations today.

Stockholm Records/Universal 2003
Review by 3 September 2003

As a child of the 80's I absolutely hated everything what Synth-Pop and their fans represented. The silly clothing, that weird, tiny, pony-tail(?) and most of all, I loathed that awful blip-blop music. You'll have to remember that no-one could ever enjoy both genres back then. The school was devided into two camps and their worlds would n-e-v-e-r meet... rather collide with a clash of heads.

During the 90's as I grew up (!?), I finally re-discovered lots of 80's Synth-Pop and I still do actually. Ultravox, (early) Eurythmics, Yazoo, A Flock of Seagulls, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, and of course Camouflage, came to my attention. They were/are sort of the German version of Depeche Mode, especially since their first effort (The Great Commandment) was released years after The Mode's first hit. Camouflage fell out of the limelight in the mid-90's as private crisis and mismanagment, kind of forced them to stop playing.

Noise/Showtime 2004
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
9 April 2004

"Beyond The Gates" is Joacim Cans' first solo album and it's quite a pleasant surprise actually. I prefer this to any of Hammerfall's releases lately, since the music is not as much 'over-the-top' or ehem... silly as their 'happy' power metal. Sure, you'll find a couple of pure "true metal" tunes here, but the overall material is darker, heavier, and more basic metal oriented.

Cans has been co-writing the material with Mat Sinner (Sinner, Primal Fear), Metal Mike Chlasciak (Halford), Ronny Milianowicz (Dionysus, Sinergy), Stefan Elmgren (Hammerfall), and even David T Chastain. Jeff Waters (Annihilator) contributes with the song "Forever Ends" and some of the special guest are: Gus G (Dream Evil), Mark Zonder (Fates Warning, Warlord), Joacim Lundberg (Infinity), Mats Rendlert (Infinity), and Oscar Dronjak (yet another Hammerfall buddy).

Review by 22 May 2001

Back in the late eighties Mrs. Carlisle released two rather fabbo pop rock albums, "Heaven On Earth" and this one. Produced and co-written by Rick Nowels, this album should appeal to anyone into the likes of Witness or Robin Beck, although it is slightly less hard rock-oriented. Fear not, this is not computerized pop á la Britney or the likes, most tracks are guitar-driven, catchy pop rockers, with songwriting contributions from the aforementioned Nowels, Ellen Shipley, Robbie Seidman, I-Ten duo Steinberg/Kelly and Sandy Stewart.

The quality of the songs is very impressive from start to finish. Pop rock anthems such as the "WHOA-WHOA"-loaded title track, "Leave A Light On" and "We Want The Same Thing" are nested between lighter pop songs like the irresistably catchy "Summer Rain" and "La Luna". Great stuff!

I might add that the list of musicians reads like the "Who's Who of AOR", with names like Bryan Adams, Steve Lukather, Maria Vidal and Kenny Aronoff popping up. Now, what are you waiting for? Go and hit the second hand stores, and, as we say here, "Dig It Up"!

Chrysalis 1996
Review by Kimmo Toivonen

Belinda Carlisle has recorded some excellent pop rock albums (like "Runaway Horses") in the past, but I seem to have missed her last few albums. This one is from the year 1996, but I think there are at least a couple of other albums that I haven't heard.

It seems that Belinda hasn't seen it necessary to change her style dramatically. Rick Nowels is still writing much of the songs, with Billy Steinberg, Maria Vidal and Per Gessle helping out. Indeed it's Mr. Gessle of Roxette fame who has contributed the best track of the album. "Always Breaking My Heart" is a great pop rocker with a catchy chorus, as one would expect from him. Gessle also wrote "Love Doesn't Live Here" which isn't quite as good, but one of the better tracks here anyway.

Other good tracks are "In too Deep", "Listen To Love" and the title track, despite the funny cartoonish background vocals. And speaking of background vocals, "California" features the most horrible background vocals ever courtesy of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. Not a good idea, especially those "Uh-uu's" during the second verse have to be heard to be believed!

In conclusion, an OK album but far from the quality of "Heaven On Earth" and "Runaway Horses".

Jive 2002
Review by 15 November 2002

Here's something I never expected to do really! However, this is indeed a review about the ex-Backstreet Boys (ick!!) dude, Nick Carter. To be honest though, some of the BSB-songs aren't all that bad... ehhhmm, well... kinda. All my credibility as a hardrocker just flew out through the window huh?!

Nevermind, with "Now Or Never" Carter leaves the dance pop behind him and goes for the American Rock/Pop instead. Whatever that means in these troubled days? Don't believe for a second that this will please fans of Judas Priest of AC/DC though. Still, if you enjoyed the latest Def Leppard album (X), the latest Hanson CD, or the ballads of Bryan Adams and Richard Marx, you'd better stay with me just a little bit longer. I'm not saying the whole album sounds like the above mentioned artists, but you can surely find some similarities here. Super-Swede, 'Mad'-Max Martin is also involved in this project, to no-one's suprise.

WEA - Warner 1991
Review by Endre "Bandi" Hübner

The German rock scene of the 80s sucked big time: untalented Beer Metal bands playing Bavarian beer anthems with distorsed guitars. There were some cool heavy metal bands for the absolute metal heads like Helloween, Running Wild, etc. but most of the melodic rock fans did not care too much for them. Some were just laughing when heard the band was from Germany. (Remember, we didn't have PC 69 and we didn't have the MTM bands back then). Then out of the dark came this album (and unfortunately passed a lot of fans of the genre by cuz they haven't even recognized its existence). Michael Voss on vocals (probably known to some from Mad Max, a cult heavy rock band of Germany, their "Rolling Thunder" release was quite a big hype among the faithful fans of the genre in Europe) is the band's main man. The guys manage to capture that great melodic party rock feeling that none of the German bands before.

"Don' t Talk About Love", a great up-tempo rocker opens the album. The track has a high-pitched (but not too annoying) refrain and a good, pulsing vibe. By the end of "Burning Love", the second song you're convinced that these guys would have passed in the L.A. rock n' roll scene any day. This one is a cool mid-tempo rocker that has awesome guitar works and hooks big enough to catch fish with. The feeling is the same you could find on the first Nelson release: easily pulled out, melodic rock with big harmonies and sunshine raying form the speakers. And all this from a band from Germany and not from California!

"Living A Lie" is the first ballad of the album. The typical acoustic AOR ballad arrangement. Nothing special just a cool track. "The Girl Is Mine" opens with an up-tempo intro that slows down to a very tasty verse riff and to great, melodic verse and bridge vocal lines but I hate the refrain with passion. Voss gets back to his early screaming style that basically sucks. This is something most of the German singers of the 80s kept on forcing but nobody knows what for. Fortunately he does not pull it too many times on this release.

A short intermezzo with "Rome Burns", a short acoustic ballad and we get to "Love Lies", another highlight of the album. An acoustic driven mid-tempo verse turns into an extremely catchy refrain with a very nice strings-synth pad underneath. The mix is very balanced, all the instruments are at "their place". They speed up with "Bang Bang" again, something to forget easily, an average rocker. But the last five tracks bring the feeling back again. "Sticky Sweet" opens with a slow intro, you'd expect another ballad but soon it turns to a mid-tempo rocker too. Great vocal lines again, the melodies are catchy, you can sing them along for the first listening. "Back To The Wall" begins with a great drum-guitar riff and an awesome solo. The arrangement is perfect in this one too. So are the following two rockers (one of them "Hollywood Angels" brought some fame for the band back then). The guys left the best tracks to the end of the album to leave you with a good "wanna go back to start it all over again" feeling. "Heaven Can Wait" is the last track, a passionate, piano-based ballad that only west coast bands could write before. The Casanova guys proved (with this song and with the whole album) that you don't have to be born in California to be able to play great melodic rock music.

Though most of the AOR fans do not even know about this band they were definitely among the first pioneers of the German melodic scene. Check out their follow-up releases cuz they managed to keep a great deal of this energy on their latter albums.

Red Sea Records 2003
Review by 20 September 2003

Casual Silence, a Dutch prog rock band, started in 1993 with three lead singers from different bands. Rob Laarhoven seemed to be the right voice for the band, so he became the lead singer. In 1997 the band released their first album “Bad Side Memories”, followed by a mini cd called “Shamelessy Dressed”(1999). This year Casual Silence released their first full album and I can only say that it is a bomber.

Nine symphonic rock songs can be enjoyed, and the trade mark of the band seems to be the great diversity in the tracks. So you have “Facing Reality”, which starts with some strange vocalsounds and turns into a rather “heavy” prog song with Ayreon-like melodies. You can also enjoy excellent longer instrumental passages, like for instance in “Weird Promises”- lots of keyboards – or “Foolish Plane”, which has a wonderful, melodic guitar solo. “Dreamweaver” is the ballad and on this track singer Rob is joined by Sandra Peeters and her voice gives this tracks a rather mysterious atmosphere.

Next Records 1999
Review by Kimmo Toivonen

Catchpenny might be called the missing link between REM and Green Day. Their music has the energy of the former and the vocal stylings of REM's Michael Stipe, but unfortunately the songs aren't quite as catchy and memorable as either REM's or Green Day's.

I've played this album several times through, but I can't say I remember too many of the songs. The best ones seem to be among the first five numbers. There are some decent songs there, like "I Wanna Be (On Fire)" and "Stay", but even those are lacking good hooks.

I can recommend this album to the fans of modern rock and the aforementioned bands, but I guess you might want to listen to it before buying...

Frontiers Records 2003
Review by Martien Koolen,
2 January 2004

Italian rock singer Chris Catena embarked in a solo project called “Hidalgo”in 1994 and he even played in a grunge band for almost two years. In 2002 he decided it was time to record his own stuff and almost a year later he released his first solo album called “Freak Out”. The guest list of musicians that helped him is rather impressive; take e.g.: Glenn Hughes, Bruce Kulick(Kiss), Tommy Aldridge(Whitesnake), Doug Wimbish(Living Colour), Eric Singer(Alice Cooper) or Dave Meniketti(Y & T). The music on this album is a mix of hard rock of the seventies with funk, metal and blues; so Trapeze meets Whitesnake, or Kiss meets Deep Purple...

Chris’s voice sounds rather like Glenn Hughes or David Coverdale; just enjoy the fantastic opener “Crazy Man” and you catch my drift; a Purple/Whitesnake-ish up-tempo track with a dazzling guitar solo and lots of excellent high screaming from Chris at the end. “Freak Out Tonight” could as well be on the last Hughes solo album; just listen to that remarkable high-pitched vocals. “Lady Starlight”, is a rather bluesy Deep Purple-like song(even the title) with a rather catchy refrain. As you continue to listen to the songs you get a deja-vu feeling every time a new song starts. Take for instance the organ intro in “Take Me Away”...need I say more.

Now & Then/Frontiers 1998
Review by Kimmo Toivonen

Former Magnum vocalist Bob Catley goes solo with the help of Gary Hughes (Ten). Hughes has written and produced the whole album, and one can only wonder how many great songs this guy can write! I have to say that some of these songs are among the best he has written so far. They are original, yet still true to the style of Magnum in its heyday, with a little Ten thrown in.

The best songs for my money are the two first numbers; "Dreams" and "Scream". A slow and moody intro leads into "Dreams", which features a staccato keyboard line (á la Bon Jovi¨s "Runaway"), shamelessly eighties' sounding yet brilliant! The song itself is a catchy hard-edged AOR track. The same could be said about "Scream", except that this song is even better! Definitely a contender for the "song of the year" award, "Scream" is a song that really has it all. Great melody, great chorus, great lyrics...you name it!

I don't have a bad word to say about the remaining tracks either. "Far Away" is The Ballad, very classy and very Magnum-like and "Steel" is another cool AOR track. The title track is the one I would say sounds most like a typical Huhges-track. It reminds me of his latest solo album, even though it's a bit heavier. Also I would like to mention "Fire and Ice", which reminds me of Yngwie Malmsteen's more "radio-friendly" songs, like "Heaven Tonight" or "Teaser".

As you might know, both of the two previous albums of Catley have recieved high ratings from me, so I guess I must say I am little disappointed with this latest effort. Once again Bob Catley has teamed up with songwriter/producer/TEN mainman Gary Hughes, but this time the songs are not quite as strong as on the previous albums, and unfortunately I find the production somewhat disappointing as well. Having said that, standing on its own this is still a good album, just not as brilliant as "The Tower" and "Legends".

Even though I mentioned that the songs aren't so strong, they are by no means bad. The trademark hooks and melodies of Mr. Hughes are still very much on display here, and you can hear that he has again studied the old Magnum albums, taking cues from here and there. Another influence I heard was Jim Steinman, and not only because these songs are just as long as his rock-operas. Take "The Fields That I Recall/Emissary" for instance, I hear a bit of "Bat Out of Hell" in it.

These songs might have been a good foundation for a great album, but I feel that Bob and Gary could have used two or three real killers. "The Wraith Of The Rings", "Where You Lead I'll Follow/Stormcrow and Pilgrim" and a couple of others are very close, and had they been accompanied by a few songs as strong as "The Scream" (from "The Tower") for instance, we'd be talking about a great album. Instead they're accompanied by a few decent tunes and a couple of songs that strike me as being quite forgettable, the eerie ballad "The Fellowship" for instance. In fact, there isn't a real strong ballad on this album, which I think is a shame, as Hughes is one of my favourite ballad writers and coupled with the voice of Catley, they usually are a winning combination.

The production isn't as strong as it could be either. Or in fact it is VERY strong, almost overbearing at times. The Hughes' Wall-Of-Sound approach seems to dominate the album, and nearly every song is full of choirs, keyboards, guitars - just full of everything. A little variation would have been a good thing. Even though this is a concept album (lyrically based on "The Lord Of The Rings" by Tolkien), I don't think that it means that almost all the songs have to be carved from the same wood, musically and production-wise.

Granted, Hughes and Catley seem to have tried to bring in some fresh ideas. "Against The Wind" features guest vocalist Tracy Hitchings, who adds a folkish flavour to the song. It's not one of my favourite songs, but does add a bit of variety.

Frontiers/Now & Then 2003
Review by 1 May 2003

After three successful albums with TEN mainman Gary Hughes, it was decided that it was time for a change. Enter one Paul Hodson, keyboard player in Bob's live band, who took on the responsibility of writing and producing the fourth album. As Hodson isn't too familiar to me (or to anyone) as a writer, I didn't really know what to expect. The fact that Frontiers described this album as being "DIO-like metal" didn't exactly make me tremble with anticipation though.

Now that I have heard the platter, I can safely say that a)Hodson is one hell of a writer and b)this doesn't sound THAT much like traditional seventies/eighties metal. Fans of earlier Catley albums need not to worry, there isn't a big change in style and the production by Hodson is just as huge as Hughes'.

"The Torment", a piece of classical music opens the album in gradiose style, followed by "Children Of The Circle", one of those tracks that does sound a bit like heavier than the earlier Catley-songs. It does have fine melodies though, just like "Gonna Live Forever", a majestic, melodic number that is surely going to please all Catley fans. "The Prophecy" is the closest thing to DIO here, a very heavy track - not necessarily one of my favourites. "I'll Be Your Fool" and "Every Beat Of My Heart" are more in the AOR vein, with lots of melodies and harmony vocals - in fact "Every..." has almost too much of them, as the chorus sounds a bit too "full", if you get my drift.

The next three tracks are most probably my favourite tracks here: "When Empires Burn" is an uptempo, heavy track, yet it's blessed with catchy melodies and a killer chorus, while "Meaning Of Love" is a semi-ballad in the finest AOR fashion. The third killer is "This Is The Day" with a Royal Hunt-like keyboard fanfare and strong chorus.

"Someday Utopia" is again one of the heavier tracks, a good one but pales in comparison with the previous three tracks, and saved for the last there's a celtic-styled ballad "My America", which sounds like it could've come from Gary Moore's "Wild Frontier". The limited digipak version includes also two bonustracks, but my promo copy doesn't include them. If they are as good as the best of these tracks, they do make this even more an essential purchase - most probably worthy of the full points!

Aerial Music 2004
Review by Endre ’Martien Koolen,
14 June 2004

Cea Serin, a progressive metal band, was started by composer and multi-instrumentalist J.Lamm. Soon guitarist and sound engineer Keith Warman joined the band, but prior to the release of their debut album Cea Serin was also joined by several other musicians to set their music to a live stage.

This new album has it all, metal, prog, you name it and it definitely is music that you cannot name or cage in one sentence. It is not death metal, although you can “enjoy” some heavy grunts and screaming in e.g. “Scripted Suffering”, it is however very technical music and very complex and mind racking. Some musical influences are without any doubt In Flames, Dimmu Borgir and Children of Bodom. This therefore means spooky aggressive vocals, pumping bass hooks, staccato guitar riffs and lots of bombastic musical elements.

Scarlet Records 2002
Review by Martien Koolen 5 October 2002

MTM Music 2002
Review by 10 October 2002

Welcome to the land of tomorrow, the Chameleonation, where Chalice have twelve stories to tell and will travel. I'm not quite sure about the story behind the album here, but one thing's for sure though. This German 5-piece band have really managed to create some nice and Adult Oriented Metal (AOM?) with their latest release at MTM Music.

This is very much in the German tradition of Pink Cream 69, Axxis, Casanova and sometimes even Helloween in the late 90's (with ex. Pink Cream 69 vocalist as the frontman). I can't say I've been all that impressed by these guys in the past. However, this is almost like a brand new start and producer Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Angra etc.) have done magic with the band and their overall sound here.

ALV Music 1996
Review by Kimmo Toivonen

Challenge is two-piece band from L.A. featuring guitarist Arno Verstappen and vocalist Allison Lindsay. "Acoustic Universe" is their first album, and no prizes for guessing that it has been recorded "unplugged".

I find it quite original that the band have chosen to introduce themselves with an acoustic album. The focus is put on to their songwriting, and I am glad to say that the band have come up with a handful of good songs. My favourite track is "When Love Finds A Fool", a song with a very dynamic, stunning chorus. Other highlights are "I'll Fight For You", which sounds a bit like the unplugged version of "Layla" by Eric Clapton, and "Don't Look Back" (a bit of a Diane Warrenish lyric there?). And that's just to name a few...

However, maybe it's just me but I can't help wondering what these songs would be like with a full-blown production. Don't get me wrong, they are good just the way they are, but I think some of them would be even better with a more "electrified" production. Anyway, if you're in the mood for some acoustic laid-back AOR, check out this album!

Alv Music 2003
Review by 30 January 2003

It's been a while since we last heard from Challange. The due consisting of female vocalist Allison Lindsay and guitarist Arno Verstappen. Recorded the independent, acoustic based album "Acoustic Universe" back in 1996, which received world wide recognition.

Mainly due to the classy vocals by Allison's and the beautiful music of Verstappen. However, that was a very "laid-back" album and with "Spirit" they rock things up a bit. Vocalist Allison wrote in the press release "We had a blast recording the stripped down tunes and playing a lot of acoustic coffee house gigs. Then after a while we were itching to plug our guitars into a big Marshall stack and crack it up"

Ace Of Hearts Records 1999
Review by Kimmo Toivonen

According to the accompanying letter, Chaotic Past from Boston is an "exciting melodic hard rock band", yet they are also described as "Black Crowes meets Smashing Pumpkins" and "Led Zeppelin goes Grunge". Those comparisons may be closer to the truth, as my idea of "melodic hard rock" is something quite different.

Even though the material is quite diverse, I am afraid that I can't really find anything that appeals to me on "Yer-in". Sure, the sonic storm the three guys (Chris Neumann - voc/bs, Jon Petrow - gt and Steve Kilroy - drs) can create is quite impressive, but the songs just don't do anything for me. The only song that made any impact was the opener "Tube", which reminded me a bit of the Drew Barrett album reviewed here recently. The rest of them were a bit too "grungy" or otherwise unappealing for my taste, sorry!

Don't let my words put you off, if you're into the sound of nineties mixed with some elements from the seventies. There are soundclips of this band widely available in the net, at least MP3.COM should have some.

Spinefarm/Stockholm Records 2003
Review by 30 October 2003

Charon started out as a pretty average death metal band in the early 90's. I remember hearing their debut album "Sorrowburn" and decided to write them off as boring and unoriginal. However, last years "Downhearted" showed some improvement (to say the least) and with "The Dying Daylights", these Finns are ready to take on the world.

Global domination is just a shot away as every teenager needs her daily dose of melancholia, right? What could be easier than selling music with catchy melodies and gothic "depression" to youths on dope? Icecreams in Sahara perhaps? Charon's homeland Finland has already taken them under their wings though, and the first single "In Trust Of No One", ended up at the #1 position at the finnish chart.

Geffen 1990
Review by Endre "Bandi" Hübner

Indie 2003
Review by 7 May 2003

OK! Let's make this clear once and for all. Yes! Greg Cherone is the brother of Gary (ex-Van Halen/Extreme), and No! He's not trying to sound like his brother or Extreme. They are obviously both inspired by the 70's rock of Queen and such. Not that strange either since they were brought up in the same house. They were bound to hear what the other was playing on the stereo... one way or the other (turn down that crap you piece of....).