Band : House Of Lords

Album title : Come To My Kingdom

Label : Frontiers

Distributor: Rough Trade

Release date : 14/03/2008

Release : CD

No need to get into the whole band history all over again, since I did that when reviewing the band's previous studio ( World Upside Down – posted 17/07/2006) and live ( Live In The UK -posted 10/01/2007) albums. Since they are both still on the website, they are available for your data retrieval necessities and all-round curiosity.

With World Upside Down HOL caused a true stir in the world of AOR and Melodic Hard Rock scenes. With rave reviews from all over the globe, the band toured relentlessly in the US and Europe delivering great gigs which took their peak at Germany's United Forces Of Rock Festival 2006 , where the band performed in front of a screaming audience. World Upside Down was voted "Runner Up Best Album of 2006" by Andrew McNiece in the annual MelRock Awards at melodicrock.com, and figured strongly against strong competition in other award categories as well (for instance: it was runner up in the "2006 Best Artwork" category & no less than 4 songs off the album would appear in the Top 50 of the "Song Of The Year" category, with "Million Miles" coming highest at #2). Listeners of London based Internet radio station ARFM even voted the album "#1 Best Album of 2006". With such high praise, Christian and Co went back to recording with the task of creating a true milestone which would pick up where World Upside Down left off.

Now although mainstay and singer James Christian voiced that he had finally found the people with whom he would continue, Jeff Kent (who handled bass, backing vocals and keyboards on the previous album) was replaced by Chris McCarville for touring needs. Still, Kent is very much considered HOL 's "Fifth Member", because when time came to start the writing process for the upcoming album, he joined the rest of the band. In the words of Christian : "We had an amazing time with this new CD. I can't remember when things flowed so easily in terms of writing and recording. I think when people hear the new record they will be able to to tell immediately that this is a band with direction and vision..."..." Jimi Bell , BJ Zampa and Chris McCarville and Jeff Kent have been an absolute joy to work with. They are my brothers and they share the same passon to write and perform Classic Rock songs that will stand the test of time". More writing credits apparently came from Tommy Denander and one Chris Pelcer (who's written material for the likes of Peter Cetera , Rod Stewart to name but a couple, and seen work of his featured on several movie soundtracks). As far as the lyrics are concerned, the guys took inspiration from life experiences covering a wide range of emotions.

Writing done during the Summer of last year, the album was recorded in the Fall and mixed by Dennis Ward in November/ December. The result is simply solid as a rock! Following the wonderful album intro instrumental "Purgatorio Overture No.2" , you get a total of 12 songs which are simply among the best this band ever created. Although the overall mood is still a revved-up (Melodic) Hard Rock (with an emphasis on both "Melodic" ànd "Hard", as explained in my review of World Upside Down ), there is still enough diversity in approach to please even the most demanding HOL fans: the album opening title song is simply epic, there's more melodic tracks (take "I Need To Fly" ), the obligatory ballad (the somewhat Baroque "Another Day From Heaven" , in the opening of which Christian 's voice somewhat resembles that of Aerosmith 's Steven Tyler ; the European version of the album contains bonus track in an acoustic version of that song), but also the straight-in-your-face Rocker ( "One Foot In The Dark" ). Nice is that occasionally the keyboards are replaced by piano sounds ( "I Need To Fly" , for instance), allowing the keyboard parts to come to the front slighty more than on the previous record. There's really nothing to say agàinst this album! Perfect songs structures and arrangements, great instrumental performances (wonderful lead guitar parts, but also those occasional piano parts where the keyboards come out of their purely supporting role...the whole supported by a solid rhythm section), and the most wonderful vocal deliveries (both Christian 's signature hoarseness and the backings are simply superb). What càn the HOL fan expect more? A sneak preview perhaps? Well, that's not really possible, because nothing off the new album's been posted yet. On the "multimedia" section of the band's website jameschristianmusic.com, you'll find 3 videos for songs off earlier HOL albums and mp3 files of all songs off James Christian 's solo albums Rude Awakening (1995) and Meet The Man (2004). Fan created myspace.com/fanofhouseoflords gets you mp3-files of 4 songs off World Upside Down (plus two videos), but again nothing off the new album. Newly created myspace.com/jameschristianhouseoflords again has 4 songs off World Upside Down (and combined that gives you 6 songs off that album to listen to), but none of the current album. So...there you have it!

Of course, it's really only for those readers who had not yet come in touch with the band's music, that I included the above listening possibilities, because if you're a HOL fan you knów you're gonna spend money this month when the album hits the shops. If you're more into meeting a band's music in live conditions, you might wanna catch HOL on their European tour, which starts on March 19 th (for details, check out the band's website mentioned above; Belgium, go to Verviers' Spirit Of 66 on April 10 th ). Yet another milestone in Melodic Hard Rock, and an absolute must in the collection of any serious fan of the genre! "Album Of The Year" material!!!!

98/100

Tony.