Album review: DOOGIE WHITE & LA PAZ – The Dark and the Light

Metal Mind Productions www.metalmind.com.pl

Doogie White (Rainbow/Malmsteen/Cornerstone) and La Paz are back for their second album, a follow-up to last year’s ‘Granite’. That album wasn’t too bad as it saw the band revisit songs from their original incarnation back in the mid-80’s, however this new album fair blows that one out of the water!

From the romping hard rock of opener ‘Little Black Book Of Songs’ you know it’s going to be a good listen. Doogie White is on fine vocal form and there are two real Rainbow sounding tunes on here in the shape of ‘Don’t Drink With The Devil’ and ‘Sweet Little Mistreated’ (although Saxon came to mind on this one as well).

Guitarist Chic McSheery plays some cracking solos throughout the album and the Hammond playing of Andy Mason is another strong plus point to the album’s overall sound.

The album’s other strength is it sees the band try a few new tricks like on ‘Shadow Of Romance’ with added sax and sounding like one of those good time songs Mott the Hoople used to do at the drop of a hat.

Very impressed by this song and the epic ‘Men of War’, a song that leads into the album’s closing song ‘The Fallen’, an instrumental featuring a drum salute from a pipe band.

Highly enjoyable hard rock album and one with enough musical variety and pace to keep the listener interested. ****1/2

Jason Ritchie

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Power Plays w/c 28 October 2024

THE RASMUS Rest In Pieces (Better Noise Music)
THE PLAGUE What Else Can I Do (FiXT)
STAR CIRCUS Turn The Tide (indie)
DEFENCES Breathe It In (Long Branch Records)

Featured Albums w/c 28 October 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)