Band: Herman Frank
Album title: Loyal To None
Label: Metal Heaven
Distributor: Rough Trade
Release date: 27/02/2009
Release: CD

Herman Frank is not exactly an unwritten page in the books of Heavy Rock history. Besides being a somewhat successful producer (he’s been responsible for several albums by the likes of Saxon, Molly Hatchet, Rose Tattoo, Nikki Puppet, Silent Decay, Messiah’s Kiss, Missing Link, Mind Odyssey, The Ordeal and quite a few more) he is also a guitarist of some note, having played for Accept on their 1982 & 1983 albums Restless And Wild and Balls To The Wall (he was even invited to join the band when they reunited for festival appearances in 2005)! After that, he recorded with Hazzard and Sinner, and joined Victory (for their sophomore album Don’t get Mad, Get Even of 1986), with whom he’s still active today. In between he contributed to the second Echopark album Pretty Lies (1995) and then released three albums with Moon’doc between 1995 and 2000. in 2003 he contributed solos to Japanese Heavy Metal act Saeko’s debut album Above Heaven, Below Heaven. He also published several educational guitar-playing DVDs, composes/ arranges music for other acts, and started a band coaching service. One thing he hadn’t done yet, however, is release a solo album! Which is something now “been there, done that”, hahah!!!

In June and August of last year, he disappeared in his own Arena 20 studio with singer Jiotis Parachidis (vocalist for Victory since 2005, with a prior career of having sang for Chateau and Human Fortress), bassist Peter Pichl (of Running Wild, formerly of the Jutta Weingold Band and Yargos), and drummer Stefan Schwartzmann (a veteran holding a degree with the likes of Krokus, Accept, Helloween, U.D.O., Running Wild, Chronos Titan, Voice, and Xwild) to record the 10 songs that would make up this album! A slab full of powerful Heavy Rock anthems which sees the guitarist loading each song with splattering solos that never bore! The man’s roots come through quite clearly on this album, if perhaps in an overall somewhat more aggressive way (more aggressive than what we’re used of him with Victory anyway)…and if it wasn’t for the slightly calmer “Heal Me”, in which Parachidis shows how nice his hoarse voice can sound when singing with a little more…emotion?…sensitivity!!!

The two songs (album opener “Moon II” and “Hero”) off the album (you’ve also got a couple of Moon’doc tracks, see) posted at myspace.com/hermanfrank are of the somewhat more energetic style, but perfect examples of what the combination of these musicians can bring you under Frank’s guidance. At the moment it doesn’t seem like there’s gonna be any live promotion of these songs, although there just míght be some time for it later on in the year (when Victory start promoting their new album, just freshy recorded by Frank between November to January)…Frank might do Victory’s support for instance?

85/100

Tony.