ESTRELLA – Come Out To Play

2012 www.estrellarocks.com

Now every once in awhile you hear an album that puts a big smile on your face and this debut album by up and coming Scots rockers Estrella is one such album. This four piece consist of brothers Paul (vocals), Luke (guitar) and Nathan (bass) Gunn plus drummer Leo McPherson. Handling production duties is former Ozzy/Uriah Heep keyboards player John Sinclair (and I am pretty sure he plays the keys on the album) with Ashley Howe (Led Zep/Queen) roped in as sound engineer. The result is a strong sounding debut and it kicks off in style with ‘Party’, where the chorus reminds you of Dave Lee Roth in his solo prime. There is even a Steve Vai approved widdly guitar solo.

Two stand out tunes for me are ‘Shout’ with a suitably grand keys intro before blasting into another big 80′s influenced hard rock chorus. Along with ‘One Love’ summers were made for songs like these. The other stand out is ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ and again this shows the band know their way around a good, strong hook filled hard rock tune. The ballad ‘Don’t Forget Me’ reminded me of Aerosmith and in particular Steve Tyler’s vocals. At first I really didn’t like this song especially as it sounded out of place with the rest of the album but give a few more listens and it becomes one of the surprises on the album.

Steel Panther fans will dig the not-so-subtle ‘Do It ‘Til We Drop’. It maybe cheesy but the riff just won’t leave your head. Admittedly not all the songs hit the spot but for a debut album Estrella show lots of promise and are sure to appeal to lovers of 80′s hard rock with a modern update.

****

Jason Ritchie

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)