| CD REVIEW TSM/SLW Promotions special, August 2010 : Bronz, Dragon's Cave, Ember's Flame, Gynger Lynn, Sweet Sybil. |
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TSM/SLW Promotions special, August 2010 : Bronz, Dragon's Cave, Ember's Flame, Gynger Lynn, Sweet Sybil. Oh my, it's been a while since my last special...and of course some of that has to do with clashing priorities at Concrete Web headquarters & my own holiday times. As it turned out, this “comeback” special of mine includes a couple of “lost jem” releases (nice coincidence), due on the one side to a couple of new releases by the Eönian Records label, but most importantly by the long-lost sophomore album by British '80s band Bronz...which so happens is the act we'll begin this special with! ----------------------------------------------------- I tell ya, when I set eyes on the artwork of this album, my heart went two beats at a time for a couple of seconds! You see, I was around when this British band delivered their 1983 debut album Taken By Storm (and I am one of the proud owners of a vinyl copy of it). Released through Bronze Records (and licenced to Island Records for the US market), the album would sell in excess of 200,000 copies, and confirmed Bronz as one of the high contenders in the N.W.o.B.H.M. Which is funny, because the band's music was rather a radio-friendly Hard Rock (then again, there were quite a few more bands counted as part of that scene, without playing Metal per say). In 1984, the band was one among the first in the NWoBHM scene to tour the USA. A tour which would lead to the demise of the then current line-up of the band (with guitarist Shaun Kirkpatrick as remaining founding member, the line-up had gone through a couple of changes since the foundation of the band in the mid seventies). Kirkpatrick however persevered. With the full backing of his record company (whom supported him to the point of letting him record what was to be the first complete digitally recorded album - , and with the aid of producer Max Norman (producer for Ozzy Osbourne album Bark At The Moon), he redefined the band's sound (in essence, what he did was fine-tune it even more to the American market, towards a melodic AOR) and recorded Bronz' sophomore album with the aid of a completely new line-up (found after several months of search, during which Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy was heavily involved in the pre-production stages of the album), including drummer Clive Edwards (previously of Wid Horses, Pat Travers and UFO), former Grand Prix' Mickey O'Donoghue (also has Gillan on his curriculum, apparently) on guitar & backing vocals, bassist Lee Reddings, lead singer Ian Baker. A host of guest musicians (including Manfred Mann's Earth Band singer Chris Thompson as backing singer on the album's opening song “Can't Live Without Your Love”, a song which would also feature bassist Charlie McCracken of Taste, Family and Spencer Davies Group fame; Stevie Lange would sing backings to “You & Me” and “Man, Girl & Machine”; and Gary Barnacle would bring saxophone to the album's title song and “Man, Girl & Machine”) added extra luster to the recordings (which, as a whole, took several months). However, with the album in the final stages of recording, Bronze Records went bankrupt, and the album was put on ice! So was the band, by the way, in spite of the fact that bookings for a new US tour to coincide with the release of the album, had already been made. 1998 saw the release of Unfinished Business, an album of unreleased tracks, and in 2000 the band briefly reformed for a couple of gigs to promote the album Bronz Live – Getting Higher (a compilation of old live songs augmented with a couple of new studio tracks). In 2005 the original line-up appeared at the Astoria in London alongside Diamond Head&Jaguar during an evening's celebration of NWoBHM's 25th anniversary. Last year, Shaun together with mastering engineer Gordon Young digitally “dusted off” the original recordings to make the most of this long forgotten AOR/ Classic Rock material! The recordings were first made available as digital download only, but since recently there's also a “hard copy” to enjoy! 98/100 ----------------------------------------------------- Dragon's Cave is a new Milano based (studio) project by Italian guitarist Steve Angerthal, whom with Elektro Motion brings his debut solo album. If you've never heard of Angerthal as an artist before, maybe you've heard of Fire Trails, the fairly successful Italian band featuring also italian Rock Icon Pino Scotto which released the albums Vanadium Tribute (2003, Underground Symphony) and Third Moon (2005, Valery Records). The band (which broke up in September 2008 due to personal reasons) gave Steve the chance to play at some of the more important Italian festivals (Gods Of Rock, Heineken Jammin' Festival, Agglutination), and play support to some of the bigger international bands (Deep Purple, Dio, Iron Maiden, Glenn Hughes, Joe Lynn Turner, etc...). It also gave him the occasion to be featured as a guest musician on albums by Rezophonic, Myland (2008's No Man's Land), MC Project (2007's XXIX Anima), and Pino Scotto (2008's Daveti Fuoco – Io Scotto Da Pagare). But eventually Steve felt it was time to get some new material of his own out there, showing off his own views on guitar play, mixing his somewhat eclectic skills in musical interpretation and composition, so to say! Slowly but certainly, he composed and recorded all music, involving his former Fire Trails colleagues Mario Giannini ( also known from Belholder and Node, he plays drums on all tracks needing that instrument) and Larsen Premoli (also Looking For A Name & Good Wines, he plays the keyboards – Hammond organ, synths, and piano – on several tracks, and also helped out recording and in the vocal arrangements of the songs...which come with vocals by Steve himself, by the way), and also one Mario Riso (of Rezophonic, Movida & RAF repute; playing the extra percussion on some of the tracks). In late 2009 Steve's search for the best-suited bassist is ended when he gets one Pasko (not an unwritten page in the Italian music scene, having played or playing with Love Machine, Sigma, Rumore, Warlord, Cans, and Human Steps) to perform all duties in that area. The end result is an exciting mixture of Classic Rock with progressive undertones and some occurring Neo-Classical influences. Most of the tracks (10 out of the 16 on the album) are instrumentals with a nice variety. While most of the tracks are obvious displays of Steve's (great) guitar playing skills, velocity-wise...there's also a couple of calmer tracks (like the nice piano/ acoustic guitar diddy “Ghosts Of The Past”, the acoustic guitar + violin – courtesy of additional guest musician Martino Pelegrini – tune “Pearls Under Water”, the dual acoustic guitar album closer “A Gift From A Dream”, and the electrically calmer “Sunny Sky”). In the songs Steve shows to be a fairly gifted singer, and in contrast to so many of his country fellows, he even manages to sing without that typical South-European accent! In essence, this is an album for lovers of quality music in the Classic Rock genre (the slight progressive and/or neo-classical influences should only be a further incentive). Not quite sure yet? Convince yourself by listening to the two songs and one instrumental posted at myspace.com/dragonscavemusic! 92/100 ------------------------------------------------------ This Helsinki based band was formed in 2007 by guitarist Teme Virtanen and bassist Pete Tarkanmäki, a duo whom wanted to make the kind of music they liked themselves, being a modern version of Hard Rock with influences from the '70s and '80s. To complete the line-up, the guys recruited drummer Jouni Sipilä and lead singer Sami Toivonen. Somewhere along the line, the guys found their way about erecting their own label, and somewhere in the summer of 2009 they found themselves recording the two tracks on this single. Now when you'll listen to the title track of this single at myspace.com/embersflameband, you'll certainly agree with me that the one thing wrong about this band, is their awful singer. I mean, I'm not usually one to break down bands, but in this case honesty prevails, right? The thing is, musically the band ain't that bad at all, with Rock 'n' Roll elements coming through the claimed Classic Rock stylings. Of course the songs are compositionally simple, but simple can be good occasionally. With the single already out since late last year, the guys must've had enough feedback to continue, because apparently they've been cooked up in the studio during the first part of this month (August 2010) to record a full-length album. Well, in spite of my somewhat negative criticism, I'm nevertheless hoping the band will be sending us a copy of the album once it's finished. I'm always interested to check on a band's progress, see!? 70/100 ------------------------------------------------------ For this Chicago based band life started in 1989 when bassist Jim Stuppy met up with Cherry Lane's lead singer & rhythm guitarist Dean Pressley for a day's heart-to-heart about the music they liked. That same day Jim introduced Dean to lead guitarist Will Hair, whom in his turn immediately called drummer Frank Paul. Before a month had gone past, Gynger Lynn (the name taken from one of the porn industries' babes) hit Chicago (smaller) club circuit. Local management and producers began taking notice, and the band recorded their two first demo tapes with Joe Bader at The Playroom. Playing 6 to 8 shows per month, and rehearsing 5 days a week, the band was slowly gaining local momentum, an eventually caught the attention of Columbia recording artist John Hunter, whom would become the band's long-time manager. He would later take the band to Chicago recording Company to have the band record some of their best material with Chris Sheppard. While already sharing the stage with such local recording artists as Smash Alley, Ript, Little Venus, Nikki Foxx, and Onyx among others, the band also started opening for more international artists like Doro, Tony Macalpine, Tuff, Lillian Axe, Helix, and Blue Oyster Cult, and would've gone better ways, if it wasn't for the fact that both Dean and Frank also occupied themselves with solo projects. Frank eventually lost interest in Hard Rock, and decided to go for different musical avenues. He went on to become a fairly successful recording artist in Country, Pop, and Christian music (check him out at frankpaul.com). Somewhere in late 2008 or early 2009, Eönian Records had gotten wind of the fact that this band had a couple dozen of tracks recorded, contacted them, and as a result a first selftitled Gynger Lynn album saw the light of day in May of 2009. Regretfully, we were not in contact with the label back then, and I couldn't find any info on that album's material. About the material on this new album however, I can tell you that the 14 first tracks were recorded at during 1993, in a production by Stuppy, Pressley (they also provided the occasional additional keyboards on the album), and Will Hair, and then mixed by Joe Bader at The Playground. Two additional tracks (signed as “P.S. Project”, but even if they're a Pressley side-project, the songs hardly differ from what GL offered, except for the somewhat different sound on the guitar – a bit more Proto-Punk, perhaps) were recorded again at The Playroom (only Stuppy & Pressley producing) with mixing done by Bader at the same studio. To commemorate the album's release, Gynger Lynn was reformed in its original line-up, paying their comeback show at the Chicagoland event during October 2009. they've been playing shows on a somewhat regular basis since, I gather. Now, if you'll bother surfing over to myspace.com/gyngerlynnrocks, you'll find an ample amount of (full-length) tracks posted off bóth albums (5 off the first and 4 off the new one), giving you an insight on the very nice vocal signature (medium high-pitch with a quirk) of the lead singer, and of course of the band's great writing skills. From the interviews posted at yourtunerecords.com, I gather the singer's voice hasn't suffered a bit, in spite of the 15 years' aging. Fans of '80s Metaled-up Hard Rock, take heed, and check this band out in live conditions when the occasion arises! 90/100 ----------------------------------------------- Just like Gynger Lynn, Sleeze Rock/ Metal act Sweet Sybil hailed from The Windy City, Chicago, but although they formed slightly earlier, their reign was a bit shorter, as the band disbanded in late 1992. Founding members Sam Carava (aka Sami S., lead vocals) and Michael Parker started the band Fontalis in September of 1988, recruiting brothers Jimmy (bass) and Shawn Nolan (drums) to complete the line-up. Within a month the foursome had written over 10 songs including “#69” and “Sweet Sybil” (both of which would become significant to the band's future. The band entered a band contest as a favor to a local promoter, and the announcer mistakenly named the band after one of the songs on the set-list he'd been given. The band won, the mistaken name-giving somehow stuck, and SS used their prize (12 hours of recording time at Chicago's DKP Studios) to record their first 4-track demo with engineer/ producer Bob Pucci. The demo gained play time on local radio, and was received warmly by listeners whom would give it massive call-in support, wanting to enjoy the boys' raw and fun Sleeze Rock. With the demo still going strong on the airwaves, SS started playing gigs throughout the Midwest, became the first Rock band to have played Chicago's Gateway Theater, and were hailed “Best New Band” by readers of The Chicago Rocker (for which they were handed over an award at the magazine's annual awards show. During Summer 1989 SS parted company with the Nolan brothers, and welcomed new bassist Wayne Carlson and local drum sensation Randy Matthiesen to the line-up. The band also signed a management deal with Northstar Productions (known then for publishing comic books and having produced b-movies). It was a unique winning combination, because the band could use the artists to create a new logo, backdrops and other visual aids which nicely added to the band's promotion and already exciting live shows. The band took things even further, recruiting a professional stage crew led by stage manager & 5th member Mark Messner, and an announcer by the name of Monte, whom was given free reign to entertain the crowd during the band's performances. Along with the band's strife to make each show memorable, it made each show different from the other...and those witnessing the events would spread the word, resulting in stories of the band (both on and off stage) circulating in local Rock magazines month after month. The band then started making short mini-tours opening for the likes of Extreme, Alice In Chains, and King's X, as well as headlining at such infamous Chicago venues as The Avalon Night Club, The Thirsty Whale, and many others. Evidently the band's rising popularity led to a demand of new recorded material, but the band line-up was still unstable, and in Fall 1990 Carlson was exchanged for stage veteran Jeff Malas. They also decided to add a second guitarist, eventually choosing Berklee student Brian Unger after numerous other auditions. With the usually rather deep-thinking Malas suddenly exposing a far more energetic hidden personality (at one point he even stripped on stage) and the new guitar dynamics, fans of the band were evidently thrilled to see the changes come to pass, and it's this line-up which would eventually be most personified with the trade name of Sweet Sybil. It's also the line-up which would enter River North Studios with producer Roy Vombrach to record a 6-track EP (besides a new version of “#69” with nicely added horn section, it would also include the tracks “Remember When” and “Downtown Suicide”, later to become the band's biggest hits). The EP release happened at local record store Beyond The Limit saw so many eager fans pass by to purchase the long-awaited item, that it became the store's most selling item ever by a local band. The EP also got international recognition when it was released in Europe, even reaching #1 on Holland's Rock/ Metal charts! With the success growing ever steadily (and the band getting frequent cover stories from both The Chicago Rocker and Windy City Rocks magazines, the band was getting attention on a national level. Negotiations were started with entertainment lawyer Owen Sloan (whom at the time represented such biggies as Warrant and Kenny Rogers) and even major labels, but eventually fells through. As a result the band parted ways with their management, and Mike and Sam decided to take on management independently. SS again entered the studio to record a 3-track EP (2 songs from that recording session would eventually land up on the 1992 compilation Loud & Plowed), this time with engineer/ producer Johnny K. (later to gain fame for his work with Disturbed, Staind, Three Doors Down, Avenged Sevenfold and others). However, the band's independent status would also become its downfall, as labels in general don't like to deal with self-managed acts. On top, it was time when in America the music industry was looking more and more towards the ever more popular (a status to which they seriously aided) Seattle Grunge sound, and SS eventually threw in the towel due to increasing internal conflicts. In October 1993 the possibility of a possible reunion of the band's trademark line-up was made impossible when drummer Randy Matthiesen died in a tragic mishap. As for the material on this album, it is a compilation of the band's 6-track & self-titled '91 EP, enhanced with the two songs of the above mentioned compilation album...and an additional acoustic ballad (no drums needed) recorded in 2009 at Mark Messner's own studio (may even have been just Parker & Cavara in the studio). One immediately hears that Sami's voice hasn't lost any of its nice nasality with aging. Of course, back in the days he would occasionally deflect his voice to resemble Axl Rose (Guns 'N Roses) somewhat, and no matter whether he did that on purpose or not, it makes for a nice variety in the vocal department. If you're into the whole late '80s Sleeze Rock/ metal scene, you definitely need to check it out for yourself by listening to the 6 songs posted at myspace.com/sweetsybil2008...and having done that you'll probably head out to buy the album, you know! Because there's something weirdly attractive about this band which a true lover of this type of music simply can not set aside! 92/100 Tony. |
