| CD REVIEW The Trophy |
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Band: The Trophy In late 2006, guitarist Thomas “Todd” Wolf of Hannover (North Germany) based Power Metal band Human Fortress (who’ve now released a total of 3 studio albums – 2001’s Lord Of Earth And Heaven’s Heir on Limb Music Products, plus 2003’s Defenders Of The Crown and 2008’s Eternal Empire on Massacre) started making work of developing the more melodic side of his songs into something new: cool songs with very catchy hook lines and groove-laden drums, in a radio-friendly style! In late 2008 he finally started to look out for suitable musicians, and eventually chose once Bonfire and Jaded Heart frontman Michael Bormann (also known for his participations in Rain, The Sygnet, Silent Force, Letter X, the Jurgen Blackmore band, and then some…). Todd’s musical visions were immediately shared by Michael, and he immediately joined the “band”, also bringing in keyboard player Marco Grasshoff (who’d played on and produced Michael’s two last solo albums) as third and momentary final element into the band! Although Todd and Michael did most of the work in the studio (they worked with loops, down-tuned guitar riffs and keyboard effects), Marco’s expertise in songwriting and recording was welcomed warmly! The end result is a contemporary Melodic Rock album (11 tracks, 44 minutes playing time) with elements from Pop, Crossover, AOR, and a bit of modern Metal, embellished with Bormann’s typical raspy but warm voice. You can find samples of some 6 songs off the album at myspace.com/thetrophy (don’t ask me which ones, because that’s not a fixed thing, the band having just exchanged samples for 2 songs – one of which you can still find in the multimedia section at frontiers.it). Nice stuff…véry nice stuff! 90/100 Tony. |