One quickly understood as a mere rock and roll infant back in the day that certain bands were whispered of in hushed protective tones and with knowing winks and nods.Such bands were generally American in origin and all had achieved legendary statues without too much in the way of lasting commercial achievement. The top three? Angel, Starz and of course Legs Diamond.
Investigation followed and one understood that Legs Diamond had it all, songs, technique, a great singer in Rick Sanford and naturally little in the way of visits from Dame Fortune.
"Out on Bail" is a re-issue of a 1984 album, remastered and with the addition of a few bonus tracks and perfectly demonstrates the band's knack for blending infectious AOR with more Purple orientated pomp and circumstance.
The title track, despite the irritant of electronic drums, is a gritty slice of melodic raunch, Sanford snarling like a driven soul, while the elegant "Walk Away" is AOR writ large, yet "Seems like a dream" hints at the band's more expressive side. A band that deserved more than fate dealt them. A worthy re-issue.

75/100

Andrew Paul

I can hear the disgruntled fans from here , what have they gone and done again?  Changing the hard rock of the past couple of cd's for a more Rubber (ised) kind of sound. This though is what keeps Harem fresh for me, you never know what you are going to get. The eleven songs on offer remind me of Voice Of Reason mixed with Rubber and any of their more modern sounding albums. Does this then make for a good Harem Scarem record?, for me yes for others I'm sure not. When they experimented with their sound in the past it never really bothered me that much, as I could see the progression they were trying to make. As you know though fans around the world were incensed with the bands change of direction. Will this new album go any way to calming anybody down then, I doubt it. As I stated it has a more modern sound than over the last few years, yet is still unmistakably Harem Scarem, songs such as Afterglow / Don't Come Easy and Forgive And Forget are where hard rock  Scarem fans will get their kicks from but it's on songs like Dagger and Rise & Fall where they might again lose the fans of old  again with their darker edged modern angst coming through. 

I myself like this album and have for the most part loved what this band has put out whatever they were called.  So maybe I'm going to be a little biased when I say that after repeated plays this new Harem Scarem cd is a little cracker. Caution though must be taken by any of you out there who have had mixed reactions to the more modern version of HS, I don't want the blame if you buy this album and hate it.

85/100

Ian Johnson

This album is a mystery to me, even after checking out the web - site I'm not sure whether this cd was recorded in the early nineties or this year. The reason for my confusion is that the songs themselves were written in 91 and 92 yet the album according to the record company is brand new? Oh well what of the music well, after only listening to the first track I new I was in for a treat, why you all cry? Well what you have is classic hard rock coupled with some amazing vocals supplied by the likes of Don Wilk ( of White Wolf / Project X ) the brilliant George Criston ( who should still be with Kick Axe ) and Kelly Brock who all put in quite wonderful performances. This album will appeal to all you hard rock freaks looking for a fix of quality aor / rock. The whole project was written and put together by a guy called David A. Petovar who has a an ear for the catchy sing along songs that we all miss from way back when. Though this album won't set the world on fire with it's originality it will I'm sure put a big stupid grin on the faces of fans who can remember the hard rock days of the eighties ( it did mine ). 

Bands like Loverboy / Kick Axe / Santers come to mind when you play through this cd and that's no bad thing. I think this album takes the listener back to the days when this kind of music ruled the airwaves in the USA and we over this side of the pond waited for the import to arrive in Shades. As I said great hard rock full of hooks and a nostalgic goodtime, that will make you want to relive the golden days all over again. (Footnote I've since found out that this is a brand new recording with only the songs written in the early 90's) and I still love it.

88/100

Ian Johnson

This release from the Swedish band Stonelake came as a nice surprise right from the sky. The two guys behind the band (Peter Grundström vocals & Jan Åkesson guitar, bass, keyboard) have a big reputation in different bands and after 15 years they decided to play together again. After a good meal, a few beers and some whiskey the interest grew to form a project once again. The result of this was and still is Stonelake. As I sad earlier this CD is nothing else than a happy surprise and it is nice to get an album in my hands without any major record company or small for instance that have been writing too many big words about a release without living up to it. That is happening to often these days, as long as we have got ears we can see through the cards, so why not be more honest or at least sign bands that they can stand for. However Stonelake knows how to do it and this is how it should be done. A great album filled with passion and melodies over the average. 

It's hard to decide if this is hard rock, aor or prog music, but let's say like this. Hard rock with an attitude and behind of it all a wall filled with aor, flavored with keyboards and put some progressive variations on top of that, very bombastic and powerful sound. This is quite aggressive and has few softer moments. The vocals are very very sharp and the guitars are roaring like a monster in some of the songs, but I can't figure out if the drums are for real all the way throughout the album and that suspiciousness lowers the score a bit and so does a couple of the tracks as well. This could easily have been a disc done by an American band, it got the same feeling over it, straight from a dirty scene or a dusty basement in Los Angeles somewhere. If you liked Dokken, Skidrow and other bands in the same vein this must be something for you. The two tracks “You Strike Me With Love” and “Saint Or Evil” are pure dynamite songs and the album ends with “Tsunami” in memory for the victims in Asia. Please have a look at www.stonelake.se

75/100

Johnny Forslund

Weird that is the only way I can describe this cd . Strange disconcerting music that left me with an unpleasant feeling after I had finished listening to it. This I am also sure is what Midnight ( ex - Crimson Glory ) was trying to do, make you feel uncomfortable and strange. The music has odd patterns to it and has I'm sure loads of hidden meaning that if you listen long enough you may just begin to fathom. Midnight himself plays almost all the instruments on the album with a little help from some of his old friends and he does a remarkable job. Though I don't know if the work he has obviously done on this album will appeal to a lot of people. I get to listen to a lot of rock music and this is without doubt the hardest thing I have had to listen to recently, not because it is bad for I suspect it is far from that. 

It's just that it is so intense and diverse that it will take hundreds of plays before I even understand what is going on. If you are looking for a totally different listening experience then 'Sakada' may be just what you are looking for but for everyone else I think this is a real try before you buy cd as I said at the start weird. Also why not have a look at the web-site just as strange but very compelling.

65/100

Ian Johnson.

I was watching the TV the other day and suddenly these Swedish guys showed up on the screen. I soon realized that I had forgotten about the band Zan Clan and completely that they had a new album out for sale. Fast as the speed of light I contacted the promo department and the day after I got the brand new disc in my hands. The last sign from this bunch was back in 1994 and the album “Citizen Of wasteland”, but the main man Zinny Zan (vocals) started in the beginning of the 80s with the glam band Easy Action and after that Kingpin who later became the band Shotgun Messiah who sold over 500.000 records in the states. 

The Line up for Zan Clan are handpicked by Zinny and contains some well known guys among them Pontus Norgren, guitars. This is party rock´n´roll with glam, sleeze and it's all packed sealed and delivered with hard rock and to get it all in the right place add some very dirty attitude to it all. You can taste the beer and smell the cigarettes. A very cool thing too, is the look of the disc, a picture of a speedometer and the speed is up to 400 km/h...very funny and what do you think about the album title, long enough?  Like it or not, Zan Clan can!

75/100

Johnny Forslund

I am pretty impressed how the label Nuclear Blast have grown over the past years. From being a true metal label into a more melodic field with plenty of strong hard rock bands. They do some interesting signings all the time these days. Gottard is the latest release in the hard rock category and are a well known band to most of you readers. This is a safe album by the Swiss guys and a return to the better days. More basic hard rock and without any strange sounds around the songs. You get a strong personal Gotthard feeling with “Lipservice” , but it needs some extra spins in the player to fall in place. A cool thing is that you know when Gotthard is in the air, they have their own trademark and tools to create the Gotthard sound. 

It's a good album with a great production as always, but I wish it could have been more surprises and variations, also with less downers, there are too many songs in between the top that you forget about too fast. They play their cards very safe this time with a raw Gotthard attitude. 14 songs takes some energy to deliver in a perfect way and Gotthard fails a little here and there with that. I realized while listening that the vocalist Steve Lee reminds allot of Ex: Fair Warnings singer Tommy Heart. Steve Lee has got one of the better voices coming out of Europe, he sure has some sharp tunes and a soulful way to express the lyrics, you can hear some sadness in his voice. Talking about Tommy Heart, I hear some look alike tunes reminiscent of Soul Doctor all over “Lipservice”. Well, for fans this will be a shear surprise, but I'm not sure for the rest, if this is going to be a break-through in any broader perspective around the world.

75/100

Johnny Forslund

12 Songs, 8 Years and 1 Dream. That´s what created this album. With music like this I hope they will do it in two or three years next time. Cry Holy is a six piece band from Seattle, WA. A superb second release and for me I count this as the first real studio album and there's nothing at all to complain about. Cry Holy is a Christian AOR band with a very high potential and the ability to write strong melodic songs. They combined the best of the 80s with the AOR/Westcoast attitude of today and it will melt in to you like ice cream in the sun. I go crazy by just listening to the stunning vocal harmonies, they are all over the place and so is the rest of this marvelous American band. Cry Holy melodies are like strong glue and it can't be washed off. I must admit that I even do my workout with this band in the speakers. Cry Holy together with Final Frontier and Shy are 2005 AOR winners, so far anyway...I just hope that they sell enough albums to continue their musical journey to reach even higher heights. I also hope they know how good they are, because they are.

80/100

Johnny Forslund

Too often the term prog-rock indicates no progression at all, and a good deal of faithfully rendered homage to Genesis and Yes, which rather defeats the object.
Miami based Little Atlas on this their third album, manage to side step most of the usual pitfalls. Of course influences are drawn from the usual suspects but there are also elements of bands such as Rush, Spock's Beard, splashes of latter day Kansas along with latin elements that complement the moods and twists of "Wanderlust"'s course.
Another strength is the clear expressive vocals of keyboard player Steve Katsikas, hints of James La Brie and Sebastian Bach- both apparent on the melodic lilt of "Higher"- removing matters from one of the usual prog weak spots.
"Weariness Rules" has a Spanish undertow, Roy Strattman's guitars hinting at Steve Stevens while the insinuating vocal melody draws the listener in, while the stark bright riffing of Strattman and the creative drum patterns of Diego Pocovi move "The Prisoner" into Rush territory.
Mastered by Rodney Mills, "Wanderlust" is a wholly satisfying album irrespective of the label slapped upon it, and is a another feather in the cap of ProgRock Records.

75/100

Andrew Paul

Return goes Worldwide. With less Scandinavian appeal they have done it again. Give it some time and it will crack big time. This is (American) melodic rock from the deepest of the heart. No one thought they would do another album, but after several years and instant touring lately, they found the joy in making new music again. The right feeling was finally there. I give you a warning. The first two tracks “Every Little Step” and “Save The  Heart” are almost dangerous, they won't leave your head, and it's even hard to fall asleep at night. The production is perfect and the bands experience in song making is fabulous. This is a more straight forward album than what we are used to hear from Return and I must admit I miss some of the older song writing skills (don't worry most of it are still there) with enormous choruses and catchyness like no none else, but on the other hand they have done a solid classic rock album with a tuffer melodic and maybe even better attitude. 

Return deliver a broader perspective in their song making and it will appeal a bigger audience for sure. You can feel that this is a new and stronger band than ever and Return have been taking a big step in to the future and you can hear that they are happier than ever before. This is anyway one of the stronger releases this year and it won't let anyone down. Return is still and will be a paradise for any melodic rock fanatic out there. Some extra points for the mega cool booklet.

85/100

Johnny Forslund

Shannon Noll is I believe from Australia, he is also I think the winner of their version of Pop Idol and has a lot in common with his fellow countryman Rick Price, chuck in also influences from Bryan Adams ( when he was good ), Rick Springfield, Jude Cole, Eddie Money and any of those singer songwriters that had their hand on the aor / westcoast pulse and you will know where Mr. Noll is coming from. What he does have in spades is good songs twelve on this cd, you know the kind of thing, songs that make you want to drive your car with the top down on a long hot sunny highway ( as long as you a: have a convertible, b: the weather, c: don't live in sunny old England ). Though that may over simply his music because on other visits to this album I found hidden depths, great lyrics a real love of the music in each and every song that he performs and on top of all this a great voice ( God we get Brookstein the rest of the world get talent ). 

Out of the twelve tracks on offer look out for opener Drive ( written by Bryan Adams, the wonderful ballad What About Me, Promises , the rocky Prove or Wise ( that reminds me in places of Extreme when they did a love songs ), or the closing cut The Way That I Feel again a great slice of soft aor that sets the feet a tapping. All in all for a debut album this guy hits all the right spots. Shannon Noll deserves your attention if any of the above acts have had a place in your life , he also deserves to make a big impact outside of Oz , Let's help him make it.

88/100

Ian Johnson

I would have done a long review on this all-star melodic rock album, but I get so angry when I hear the production and how it could have slipped out from the label without no one to notice and stop it. We have Fergie Frederiksen, Tony Mills, Kimmo Blom, Rob Moratti, Mikael Erlandsson on here and I don't think they will be happy about this. The songs are all right and some of them have even got huge melodies in them (could have been so great), but they fail because of the production. 

It doesn't matter how much I play with the stereo. The dry sound is everywhere. However. The song “High Above The Sky” with Rob Moratti from Final Frontier is the best one and he is a sensational vocalist, how melodic voice can a man have?

60/100

Johnny Forslund

The sages say timing is everything and with panache driven rock and roll starting to emerge into the mainstream once more, the release of "We are Zan Clan..." suggests that this time Zinny Zan has got the timing right.
Distilling elements of Whitesnake's melodic thrust along with Lizzy's swaggering charm, adding a soupcon of glam and grit all wrapped in a crisp production allows Zan Clan to hit the ground racing, "Go, go, go" being an unholy coupling of Lizzy and Billy Idol, the excellent guitar team of Pontus Norgren and Chris Laney laying a melodic bed for Zinny's best Tom Keifer growl and Ron Keel feral howl.
"Heart 'n' Soul" ain't T'pau baby! It's bump and grind Swedish Erotica with backing vocals in the Marvellous 3 tradition, while "High Speed Junkie" is quite frankly Van Halen teetering on the edge of a leap with Johan Koleberg's thunderous drums supplying the final push.
"Heart died young" rolls on a huge Jekyll & Hyde riff and a monstrous hook, while "Deja Vu" is the kind of grime we all wish Motley Crue would disgrace us with.
Zan Clan. The soundtrack to one hell of a Saturday night.

90/100

Andrew Paul

This is going to be one of my most biased reviews ever ( thought it only fair for me to tell you this before you start reading the review ) . Mainly because I absolutely love Refugee, I love their music their lyrics and the feeling's of joy that they give me even after twenty years, when I listen to the album again. Born at the start of the eighties as Michael Fury the band at the time consisted of Rob Kennedy guitars, Myles Hunter vocals / guitar and bass player Martyn Jones who were joined by ex- Zon keyboard player Howard Helm and Helix drummer Brian Doerner. The band decided to rework the Michael Fury album and change their name to Refugee and so was born one of my favorite Canadian rock bands. The release of Affairs saw the band undertake a US and Canadian tour where they received rave reviews for the show they put on drawing praise for the intense lyrics used on the songs. 

For me this is one of the underlying pleasures of listening to Refugee the words burrow into your mind and stay as they have with me for over twenty years. Just take a listen to the awesome Listen To Your Heart ( about a young girls suicide ), the mesmerizing Affairs In Babylon, or the amazing Exlies In The Dark to see why I think you should all have a copy of this album.You also have some outstanding performances on this record , Myles Hunter and Howard Helm coming in for special praise for their impassioned performances ( but hey all the guys on this album should get gold medals for what did on this recording ).This MTM Classix reissue also contains five bonus tracks that make this album even more essential. As I said at the start I'm biased but feel that this cd is so good that you don't want to miss out on it , find out why Canadian melodic rock is so good AND BUY REFUGEE.

90/100

Ian Johnson

Before you all run to the record store, hoping that you'll be buying the next Asia cd take a minute to read my review. The first Asia album and the classic line up have sold in excess of ten million albums and deservedly so. This new collaboration of John Wetton and Geoff Downes though still containing much of their signature sound is for me full of nice songs that will never set the world on fire, laid back and well played the eleven songs on offer fail to excite me in any way. Don't get me wrong the music is of a very high standard and the musicianship is wonderful but it is so one dimensional that it fails to do much than pass the time. 

I love these two guys and I love Asia, their Silent Nation album being in my top ten last year but what Asia had / have delete where applicable is a variety of songs and hooklines that this Icon record simply doesn't have. One song bleeds into another never really going any where but still put together in such a way that it is hard to really find fault with the album. I just wish that they had beam more adventurous with the music, rocked it up a little paced it differently. I'm sure that many of you out there will disagree with me and will love this album and that's the joy of music and what keeps us listening the different interpretations of songs and albums we all have. This album isn't bad in any way, yet doesn't do anything for me it's a pleasant listening experience that maybe I'll have to live with for a time before it does do something for me.

75/100

Ian Johnson