| CD REVIEW Shield Of Steel |
 |
|
Band : Shield Of Steel This British band was formed in late 2007 by former Classic Rock Tribute band Black Rising's members Gavin Coulson (guitarist and UK product demonstrator for Fret-King and Vintage guitars providing demos and clinics extensively throughout the UK; as such appearing regularly in JHS magazine Gear) and Pete Goodfellow (vocals) as a means to touring Coulson's other original take on Classic Rock material mixed with covers from Black Sabbath, Rainbow, AC/DC, Dio, and Thin Lizzy. After a couple of line-up changes the duo eventually settled on Mark Sykes (another former Black Rising member) as their bassist, and local Classic Rock heroes No Quarter's Rod Fearnley as drummer and set out on an extensive gigging schedule with 70 gigs confirmed from April to December of this year (including a slot at the Leeds Guitar Festival), and 33 gigs already confirmed up to December 19 of next year! However, at the time when the band went to Audio Mangle Studios in Dewsbury, they were without a bassist (Gavin taking on those duties as well as backing vocals), and the drummer was one Tim Gillespie, whom not only co-wrote to one of the songs ("Better Place") and played acoustic guitar on an other (the album opening "All I Need Is You"), but was also the recording engineer and producer of the album. In July, contracts were signed for the distribution of the album, originally planned to occur in September. The 8 tracks, two of which are instrumentals ("Brian's Boogie" and "Swedish Chuff"), are all Blues influenced Classic Rock tunes...with a slight Jimi Hendrix influence, I would say (but others may see that differently)...which captures perfectly the mood of times when the first NWoBHM ruled the UK and the world alike (hey, let's not forget that quite a few bands playing Rock rather than Metal were often included to that insurging genre of the late '70s), not in the first place because of Goodfellow's somewhat awkward vocal signature (check it out at myspace.com/shieldsofsteelrock, where the band also posted no less than 4 of the 8 songs on the album (including that nice instrumental "Swedish Chuff" with its heavily Classical influenced passage). Actually, I fear that his voice may well be a negative thing when trying to convince the younger generation of music fans of the band's worth (you know, they've been ever so pampered with high-quality stuff...and vocalist using Alt softwear to improve their vocal outpu), but I'm certain that those of us who were actually around in the NWoBHM heydays are simply gonna lóóve this, unconditionally! 83/100 Tony. |