Albums that time forgot

Comments are closed.

Sanctuary (2006) Back in 2007 my fellow GRTR! reviewer and pal Pete Whalley, and my aspiring guitar hero son Ben, made our way through a February snowstorm to Liverpool Academy.  It was a fairly low key gig for the Swedish … Continue reading →

InsideOut (2005) For many band members, the band becomes all consuming.  It means, as a result of the constant cycle of touring, writing and recording, they can’t deliver their own solo album.  There are 15 years between John Petrucci’s first … Continue reading →

Geffen Records (1990) At the turn of the 1980′s there was a last hurrah for the genre that had sometimes been called glam metal, or more specifically hair metal.  Bolstered by albums such as Whitesnake (1987) and Winger (1988) the … Continue reading →

Mausoleum Records (Europe) Rubicon (Japan) (2013) Described by GRTR! reviewer Alan Jones as ‘a truly genre-bending tour de force, which, whilst having melodic metal at its heart, makes frequent forays into the diverse worlds of progressive rock, heavy metal, shred … Continue reading →

Music For Nations (1993) Graham Bonnet’s career started in the late 1960s with a conventional pop approach and early solo albums.  It was only in 1979 when he came to Ritchie Blackmore’s attention as a potential frontman of Rainbow (replacing … Continue reading →

MTM (1997) As alternative sounds ruled the roost in the nineties, musical styles that had ruled the previous decade were out of fashion and none more so than the melodic rock/AOR scene which was driven completely underground. In pre-Facebook, YouTube … Continue reading →

Dover/Chrysalis/Starward [1991] Bob Harris has a lot to answer for.  I am sure – like many other musical insomniacs – he influenced our choice of album purchase in the early 1990s.  As mentioned in despatches elsewhere, his overnight show for … Continue reading →

Kadence [1991] In 1993  “old school” DJs at the BBC, such as Bob Harris and Alan Freeman, would be culled as part of a new regime at Radio 1 but that didn’t stop a “golden” period for a few years … Continue reading →

Columbia [1989] Years ago there was a very good record store in the Liverpool area and with a branch in my nearby shopping bolthole Chester.  Penny Lane Records yielded a fine selection of import albums at a reasonable price.  It … Continue reading →

Z Records [1997] The 1990s was a hard time for melodic hard rock bands feeling the chill wind from Seattle.  Joey Tempest from the band Europe told me that they also succumbed to the prevailing trend, and that when visiting … Continue reading →

EMI [1984] Released in 1984 the eponymous album by Keats might be considered as an Alan Parsons Project off-shoot.  It was produced by Parsons and includes the core band members that feature on most of the Project albums, Ian Bairnson, … Continue reading →

Self Release [Release date 31.08.18] We’re currently in lockdown as I write this review. And having been encouraged to pen some reviews of albums that we may have missed for review – but have certainly played – there’s no better … Continue reading →

[2006] Public Symphony is the brainchild of TV music composer (including ‘The Travel Show’, ‘Rogue Traders’) Dobs Vye who, together with James Reynolds, released their one and only album in 2006. When reviewing the album I opined: “‘Public Symphony’ is … Continue reading →

Inside Out [2008] Charlie Dominici may merit a mere footnote in the history of Dream Theater, the band’s original singer who was in the formative Majesty before making the band’s first album. Then in 2005 he produced the first of … Continue reading →

Epic [1982] Often cited by musos as a favourite album, ‘Hughes/Thrall’ was released in 1982. By all accounts Glenn Hughes (bass and vocals in MK III and IV Deep Purple) ‘stole’ guitarist Pat Thrall after seeing him play with Pat … Continue reading →

Sanctuary [2005] In 2005 Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes collaborated on the album ‘Fused’.  It was Iommi’s second solo album.  The pair had worked together on ‘Seventh Star’ in 1986,  with drummer Kenny Aronoff, and this was originally destined to … Continue reading →

Valery Records (2009) Elektradrive is one of the more significant Hard Rock/AOR bands to emerge from Italy. At the very start, in 1983, the name of the band was Overdrive and they had a four-piece line up without keyboards; after … Continue reading →

F-Stop/Atlantic [2010] I do like a good rummage through the charity and record shops bargain CDs to take a punt on an unknown album based either on the cover, band members/instruments played or song titles (the latter can be a … Continue reading →

Back in the depths of time there was a programme on Channel 4 called No Limits. It was a youth culture show presented by Jonathan King (we will gloss over that one!) and a host of new presenters. It also … Continue reading →

Polygram (1991) There was a lot happening at the turn of the eighties and a glut of excellent CDs (and bands) that were destined for obscurity. We’ll feature some in this series, but these were good times for melodic hard … Continue reading →