Magna Carta 2001
Review by Endre "Bandi" Hübner 27 February 2002

You might wonder if you typed the wrong url? Jazz/fusion-Europe.com or what? Okay Billy Sheehan is involved in this project but he's been involved in so many of this kind of releases lately (see other reviews) that his name is no guarantee for Mr. Big or just generally melodic rock fans anymore. However it is a guarantee for everyone looking for outstanding musicianship and creative playing, so are John Novello (organ, keys) and Dennis Chambers (drums). Don't look for a guitarist in the line-up as there isn't any. Still the sound of the trio and the whole production of the album is thicker than a six piece band.

What you get is 56 minutes of fingerbreaking bass, a thick organ sound, lots of jazz, some great organ riffs (of there's anything like that existing…) and drum patterns and breaks that keep your attention alive all through the album. Provided you are a fellow-musician or generally overall interested in one of the instruments featured here. If you are just an "average" music fan looking for memorable melodies (catchy hooks dare I say?) then you'll be searching for Aspirin (instead of Niacin) after 3 or 4 songs. Progressive rock fans will enjoy the 8 minutes long cover of King Crimson's "Red", the opening "Elbow Grease" would please any listener open- minded enough for some good jazz-rock, funk fans get their treat with "Daddy Long Leg" and "Hog Fun", and my personal favorite was the highly melodic "Glow", a song with beautiful arrangement centered around the acoustic piano, a haunting ballad-like tune. But overall the album is mostly for professionals, musicians, or free jazz and fusion fans.

Magna Carta 2003
Review by 27 June 2003

Who needs a guitarist? or a singer? or songs for that matter? You've guessed it... Niacin is back with a live odyssey of fusion and jazz. "Blood Sweat And Beers" is what Billy Sheehan (bass), John Novello (keyboard) and Dennis Chambers (drums) has been using to make this album complete.

This live CD contains 12 tracks recorded on tour in Japan and Indonesia, along with two previously unreleased studio tracks. Fans of Sheehan from the David Lee Roth, Talas, and Mr.Big era, better be preperd for some major changes here. This has nothing to do with his previous band, something which RockUnited readers should already be aware of.

Spinefarm Records 2003
Review by 11 november 2003

Since the first Nightwish dvd ”From Wishes To Eternity-live” was mostly a live release, it was evident that the second dvd should include the missing document and a history section of the band. You can now find them from ”End Of Innocence”. As a huge fan of Nightwish and enchanted by the songwriting skills of Tuomas, I’m very pleased to see a documentary of the band. The documentary wasn’t done in a hurry and there’s over two hours of material, which is a lot. The dvd first takes you to a finnish island where the Holopainen family spends their time in and where in the beauty of the Autumn journalists Mape Ollila and Timo Halo dig in deeper to the soul of Tuomas Holopainen. Jukka Nevalainen and Tapio Wilska (Nattvindens Gråt, Sethian, etc) also join in the interview, and the emotions vary from sadness to jokes, showing clips from the past, magazine articles and so on. The interview itself, where the name of the dvd comes from, reveals lots of new things to the fans, even scary facts, like the story behind the dvd title. Nightwish has had their share of ups and downs, but with their story of success, fans have only seen them going strong.

The documentary part also includes the usual clips from tours and studio, partying and inside jokes. Some of the shots are too hasty though, making it hard to recognize the people present and follow the whatever is happening at the time, but there were many ”directors”, even bandmembers included, and probably drunk at times when taking the directors chair, so it’s understandable. It might be a bit boring to look at yet another band partying somewhere, as every band has their party-clips in their videos, but as Jukka put it, no one wants to see you jogging, stretching, reading a book or something. And of course the usual schemes between the bandmembers/tour crew/support bands are always fun to watch. A few guests also appear here, like Marco’s brother Zachary Hietala, and the finnish band Charon. I would’ve prefered to see more of the old material from the time before the record deal and why not also hear something from that period.

The other material features a short interview from Brazilian MTV (with english language and portuguese subtitles), live material from Norway and Summer Breeze 2002 festival (5.1 sound), which is also included as a bonus cd in the limited edition, and the videos for ”Over The Hills And Far Away” and ”End Of All Hope”. Both videos are very professional and enjoyable, with both the band and a story appearing in them. The live show from Norway isn’t the best quality both sound and picturewise, but it’s still a welcomed bonus for the dvd. And of course lots of pictures are included too, though as it says on the back of the dvd ”extremely confusing photo gallery”, it takes some time to go through the pictures (approx ten minutes), as there’s clickable arrows pointing in many directions. Most of them can be seen on the official Nightwish homepage though, but it’s worth scuffling through, as there’s a reward waiting afterwards, like in a game that you’ve just finished.

The other features: finnish language and english subtitles, PAL 16:9 anamorphic, 16:9 & 4:3, Dolby Digital 5.1 & 2.0 sounds and all regions. All in all ”End Of Innocence” is mostly what I expected from it, it’s very entertaining, explores the band deeper than many have before and it’s long enough (approx 200 minutes !) to have enough extras in there. And since the tv programs that presented metal music and the videos are mostly gone today, it’s nice to notice Nightwish didn’t forget to include their latest videos here. Spinefarm features Nightwish in black and gold cover with text only, Drakkar’s cover is different with a colour illustration. The whole appearance is stripped down simple, not even a booklet included, which would’ve been nice.

Nuclear Blast 2004
Review by Martien Koolen,
19 May 2004

This is Nightwish’s sixth studio album and probably it is their most ambitious one, that will exceed all expectations. “Oceanborn”(1999) and “Wishmaster”(2000) were my favorite Nightwish albums so far, but after listening to this masterpiece for several times, I truly believe that this is their best achievement. On this album the band has been able to merge elements of classic and metal almost to perfection and they created a bombastic and powerful album that will set standards for this type of music. So let's describe the songs...

“Dark Chest of Wonders” is a fantastic opener with a great chorus, and here the London Session Orchestra adds its first musical exponent, although the heavy guitar riff dominates the song. “Wish I had an Angel” could also be a hit single, with a radio-friendly chorus, great vocals by Tarja and additional vocals by Marco. “Nemo”, the single that is already known by lots of listeners, is probably the weakest song of the album. “Planet Hell” starts almost classical with a choir and the orchestra, before it turns into a heavy, bombastic power song. The first highlight of this album is “Creek Mary’s Blood”, which starts folkloristic, with flute and acoustic guitar, whereas the chorus of this song sounds like a track from the Aina-album; a great, very diverse bombastic track.

BMG 2003
Review by Kimmo Toivonen,
9 February 2004

He came, he sang, he conquered...The Norwegian Idol Kurt Nilsen won the title of "World Idol" recently, beating the the likes Kelly Clarkson from USA and Will Young from UK, although he to listen to the judges call him "a hobbit" and tell him that he never would've gotten a deal without the competition. Well, he may not be a pretty boy but he sure can sing, and that was enough for the millions of TV viewers who voted for him...

Unlike the Kelly Clarkson album which I reviewed recently, the songs on this album are mostly co-written by Kurt himself. Three of the songs are covers, with Tal Bachman's excellent "She's So High" being Kurt's biggest hit so far. The other two are Andreas Johnson's "Games We Play" and "Ordinary World" by Duran Duran. All of them are performed very faithfully to the originals, and Kurt doesn't do a bad job.

Seymour Records 1999
Review by

We - Europeans - didn't know too much about this guy. To be honest the first time I heard his name was when I got his album from his management. I don't know whether there are any music freaks out on the good old continent who have heard about him before. Anyway, according to the biography sent along with the album he has already opened up for some big names in the states (Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Eddie Money, REO Speedwagon, etc.). Having heard the album I'm not surprised at all. Mostly it is great bluesy melodic rock with strong funky and R&B touches but there are lots of different moods and musical approaches to find here.

My favorites are the funky flavored rockers "Distant Shore", "Get A Life" and "I'm Ready" (some of them include a great horn section to intensify this feeling) but the acoustic ballads "Catalonia Song", "Belgium" and "Jennifer" did very fine in my book too. Michael plays the guitars and does the vocal duties. Both are top notch. His playing is tasty and very diverse and his vocals are confident and have that bluesy smoke. Unfortunately the promo material does not contain any information about the rest of the musicians.

Lyrically the album is very enjoyable and altogether Michael Nitro was a very pleasant surprise out of nothing. If you want to hear a well produced, very diverse, bluesy flavored rock album, this one is for you!

Indie 2003
Review by Satu Reunanen,
26 february 2004

No more ! Well, I can’t really say so with this band and the name somewhat misleads you. The finnish youngsters No More play heavy/power metal, so forget any ideas about the exhibitious Faith No More or the metal-killer nu-metal bands that their name might lead you to. There’s five tracks plus intro on ”Gone”, and they all carry on their own. As a whole, ”Gone” once again shows how young finnish bands grow better and better all the time. There’s not a dull song here and the band shows good potential in creativity and songwritingwise, the beginning rocker ”Till I’m Gone” already says it all, not to mention the other blasters ”Nothing To Give”, ”One Life To Ruin” and ”Victim Of Rage”.

Among those songs there’s one ballad, ”Won’t Shed A Tear”, which is a normal, heartfelt ballad and could be even better with small, dramatic additions. Some arrangements sounded unfinished on the cd and the vocalist Arto Ala-Seppälä could take a few singing lessons to keep in tune and strengthen his voice, otherwise he’s got the voice to fit this music. The guitars have been mixed way on top though and the mixing is strangely too raw for todays recordings, be it an underground band even. With a proper work this would sound a lot better and as heavy as it should be. These are the things that scream out ”underground band !”. Some solos and the bands music itself at times surprisingly move somewhere in the Death Angel category from ”Act III” period or even earlier concidering the sounds, though their music has influences from all over, even Manowar or Virgin Steele, but main influences being todays heavy/power metal though. The keys are quite plain and classical influenced with a romantic, creepy feeling at times, but in this form they work in the songs.

Kivel Records 2003
Review by 27 October 2003

No More Johnny is an interesting mixture of AOR, bluesy- and melodic rock. Lead singer Paul Hendricks has a strong voice, but big choruses play a major role here too, not to mention keyboards that dominate some songs. In general the songs are well written and they vary from bluesy jamming to straight forward rock.

I’ve always been a sucker for guitar solos and hats off to Scott Miller who does a fine job here. A few times when I was playing this in the background I just had to stop whatever I was doing and say “wow” when it was his turn to show his talent. Still I don’t want to raise him above the others, they are all great musicians.

Perris Records 2004
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallström,
30 January 2004

"None Blacker" is the latest Metallica tribute album with mostly unheard of and/or very obscure acts. One of the biggest names and also the biggest suprise of the bunch, is Lillian Axe's guitarist Steve Blaze, with a rather interesting cover of "Master Of Puppets". Stevie handles the vocal parts too and does a nice impression of a drunken thrasher. The guitar work is nothing but excellent and Kirk Hammett could probably pick up a thing or two here. Not to mention that Metallica wrote great songs with guitar solos back then (hint, hint!). No need to worry though as only the "real" Metallica, which includes all albums between "Kill 'Em All" to "Black Album" (self titled), has been covered on "None Blacker".

"Wherever I May Roam" is actually covered by sleaze rockers 'Every Mother's Nightmare'. One thing's for sure, the voice of Rick Ruhl isn't exactly suitable for this kind of music. No offense Rick, but you do the sleazy thing much better and I believe it's better to stick with that somehow. Something which also becomes clear after a while is that almost "anyone", can play these songs better than Metallica. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of this Metallica era... but Cliff Burton (R.I.P.), was the only genius/real musician in the band. "Kill 'Em All" is actually quite horribly performed (technically) and there were/are tons of better thrash musicians out there.

Adrenaline 2003
Review by 5 June 2003

Nordica do not come from my part of the world (Sweden/Scandinavia) as the name perhaps suggest at first. Nope, these guys come from Porugal and their debut album "Rebel Heart" has recently been released by the Italian label Adrenaline Records.

They've been around the block for quite awhile already though. Formed in the beginning of 1991 by Diogo De Lima (vocals) and Tiago Harry (guitars), you'd think the band would be experienced and all grown up by now. Unfortunately, the major problem with this CD is the more or less childish approach to each and every thing.

Spinefarm/Stockholm Records 2003
Review by 1 May 2003

Who dares to look into the Mirror Of Madness? Well... if you believe in yourself to be strong enough to face your inner fears? I'm not going to say otherwise either as this is quality music a'la extreme. However, I think it's only fair to give you a head's up here! Be preperd for an onslaught of outrageous and furious metal. Neck injurys due to massive headbanging, is only something that goes with the territory, my friend.

The Melodic Black/Death metal Finns of "Norther", is now back with their second release at Spinefarm. I must say that last years debut album, was only a taster of things to come really. Looking back only the Europe cover (The Final Countdown) and a couple of other tracks, sticks out from the rest. This on the other hand is a "real" album, with smashing material throughout the whole CD.

Spinefarm 2004
Review by Satu Reunanen 22 March 2004

It’s a deathmetal week here in RockUnited and Finns keep on spitting that material out. Norther is the case now, going on their third album that isn’t so Children Of Bodom-like anymore as they used to be. This time they’ve gone even further, the songs are more brutal and raw if you can imagine. The song structures are much wider now though, having some warmer and slower elements in the music now, which gives the album more base to attach to. All this just proves that years and experiences also bring improvement, if you’re not living under the rock and being ignorant that is.

Even after the band has gone more brutal, the melodies are standing out very strongly here, which makes this their finest album to date. And the keymelodies aren’t just typical Bodom-notes anymore, sometimes they can be dreamy and beautiful, having some sense in them instead of just getting the notes out. But this doesn’t mean they’ve gone and spoiled the fun from deathmetal fans. The keyword is still brutality, but it’s clear that "Mirror Of Madness" already showed which way the band was going next. The recordings were done at Astia-studios again, so the sounds stayed the same.

Rock Inc 2003
Review by 27 October 2003

This is a re-release of the original album of 1993, only it has 4 bonus tracks. Furthermore, if you also have the album “Best Of JK Northrup(2002)” then you will notice that seven are also featured on this album; so maybe it is a bit too much...

MTM 2004
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
20 May 2004

"Afterlife" is the brand new title with vocalist Paul Shortino (Rough Cutt, Quiet Riot, Badd Boyz), and guitarist J.K. Northrup (King Kobra, XYZ, Cage). They have once again teamed up to work together, eleven years after the somewhat successful Shortino album "Back On Track". And they have even managed to come up with a couple of classy rock songs this time. The title track was included on a MTM sampler earlier and I still find it similar the Quiet Riot album with Shortino (the closing of the song is definitely Whitesnake though). I was actually surprised to find out, exactly how much this reminded me of Whitesnake/Blue Murder on certain tracks. Check out "Gypsy Soul", "Slave", or "Prisoner", for your daily dose of Coverdale/Sykes material.

There's unfortunately not enough goodies to go around the entire album. Shortino's voice is quite shot and raunchy nowadays, I guess he's not actually supposed to sound like Brian Johnson (AC/DC), every now and then? (a bit harsh I know). Nevertheless, dull and boring moments like "Crossfire" or "As I Fall", doesn't add much to the big picture either. "Crazy Mind" is (boring) rock in the Led Zep tradition, and the fact that ex-King Kobra/Foreigner vocalist Johnny Edwards, sings on this duet, doesn't really help much I'm afraid.

Z Records 2002
Review by 15 August 2002

Quick! How many quality hardrock bands from France can you actually name? I've been up all night puzzling with the pieces here and I can't imagine that Trust (?!), would still be the biggest export from over there? Nevertheless, Northwind is one of their latest exports though and also the first band from France, to be signed by Z Records in UK.

This is something we haven't really noticed at Z before, the music of Northwind is a mixtue of soft progressive metal, some power and melodic hardrock. With a keyboard player (Nicolas Ory) who rather works in the tradition of prog with a very bombastic sound than anything else. The other band members are Franck Midoux (vocals), Chris Savourey (guitars), Giles Thiebout (bass) and Yannick Pierre (drums).

In 1997 former Europe/Dokken guitarist John Norum put together an all-swedish band and went on to tour Japan. This album was recorded on that tour, and features tracks from all of the John Norum solo albums up to that year, plus a couple of golden oldies from the Europe years. The vocals are handled by Leif Sundin, and he does an excellent job, stepping into the shoes of Glenn Hughes, Kelly Keeling and Joey Tempest. John does sing himself too. The band, completed by Hempo Hilden on drums and Anders Fästader on bass, gives a solid performance as well.

These live versions seem to be quite close to the original album versions, with a very little in the way of "crowd participation", except for the encore "Let Me Love You", which features both sing-along section and a lenghty solo. At times you might forget that you're listening to a live album, although these versions sound a bit more energetic than the album ones.

All in all, this album is a good showcase of the talents of Mr. Norum, not to mention the other band members. As for the song selection, this could almost be "The best of John Norum" if it wasn't for the fact that the first album "Total Control" seems to be a bit overlooked with only two songs, and not the best ones by any means. I would have liked to hear "We Will Be Strong" and "Still The Night" from "Face The Truth" as well.

Pier-San Records 1997
Review by

Norway have their roots in the classic AOR/hard rock sound of the eighties. There's a bit of Dokken there, some early Bon Jovi, a bit of Trixter...Some of the songs remind me a lot of Message, as the vocalist Glenn Pierson is a deadringer for Dean Fasano, and they aren't too far from each other musically either.

"Night Dreams" is Norway's first album, and considering that it is a very good album. So good in fact, that the wise people at Now & Then have decided to sign this band. The songwriting is quite strong throughout the album. It's hard to pick out favourites, because almost each and every song is a strong contender to be the Best Song Of The Album! Mostly they are classic AOR-sounding tunes with strong choruses, melodic guitar soloing in the background and a lot of keyboards, like "Heartbeat", "Night Dreams" and "Surrender", to name a few. The only songs that do not stricktly follow that formula are the Tyketto-sounding "Every Little Thing" and "Bad Boys", which I swear has a keyboard riff stolen from some dance tune!

Frontiers / Now & Then 2000
Review by

"Arrival" is the follow-up to the rather promising "Night Dreams", reviewed elsewhere on these pages. Now with the backing of Frontiers/Now & Then team, this New Jersey-based band has been able to produce an album that sounds much better than the debut.

Most of the songs feature strong influences from our favourite eighties' bands. In Norway's defence I must say that they do it all very well, without resorting to obvious cloning. "Givin' It All" starts the show nicely, it's a catchy track in the vein of some early Bon Jovi material. "One Night Alone" is more of the same, but mixed with a strong Survivor-influence. "Someday, Someway" adds some Journey-flavour to the aforementioned mix. "I Don't Wanna Love You" reminds me of Firehouse, while the ballad "I Don't Wanna Live Without You" lead us back to Bon Jersey.

Some of the songs later in the tracklist can not compete with the quality of the first few numbers. However, as we get to the last two songs, the boys seem to find the right track again, and deliver us the very cool hard-edged rocker "Hole In My Heart" and the melodic "Heaven In Your Arms".

This album recaptures the glory days of AOR quite nicely, and should please any fan of the genre. Original it is not, but very well done.

Benson 1994
Review by 21 July 2001

Nouveaux were a christian group and "Beginnings" was their first album (the second being called "This Is How I Feel" and released in 1995 I think). I only got it a few months ago, but as soon as I played it, it became obvious that I had missed a great piece of music.

Stylewise Nouveaux remind me of a more AOR-oriented mixture of Winger, Def Leppard, Kane Roberts and fellow christian rockers The Brave. As for them being a christian group, they are not shoving the "message" down your throat as much as some others, which I think makes this more accessible.

Spitfire 2002
Review by 26 September 2002

I've heard that his new cookbook "Kill It And Grill It" is a bestseller which made it into Los Angeles Times, Top 10 cookbook list. Great!!! More power to ya' Ted!!! Too bad he never wrote the book of how to "Write It And Perform It" back in the 80's or 90's instead. Since all of his releases back then, were pretty much like fried chicken without some real meat on it (skin & bones man, skin & bones). To be honest though, "Craveman" is maybe his best release since the 70's as it does rock hard most of the time.

Ted Nugent have always been the centre of attention over the years due to his loud motormouth and diverse statements. Some people believe he speaks the truth and others don't, this however, is a hardrock webzine and we'll talk about his music only here. The Great Gonzo's best rockin' days date back to the 70's, when he created some kick ass guitar music and classic songs. 'Cat Scratch Fever' is without a doubt one of the all time classic songs with an immortal classic riff. Sadly, it's been a while since he recorded a really great album and many still believe his first three albums (S/T - 1975, Free For All - 1976, Cat Scratch fever - 1977), to be the only ones worth having.