Album review: HOUSE OF SHAKIRA – Pay To Play

Melodic Rock Records www.melodicrock.com/mrr-preorders.html

House Of Shakira return with their second album featuring vocalist Andreas Novak (of Mind’s Eye fame) and another new record label, this time the one run by MelodicRock.Com guru Andrew McNiece. Hopefully this time their music will get a bit of a push, as like Lillian Axe, the band has produced a string of strong albums only for them to fail to get much exposure due to label issues.

‘Bending The Law’ is a real feel good melodic hard rocker and even cheekily pinches a snippet of a Queen lyric. This is HOS in their prime, big riffs, lots of harmony vocals and a memorable melody. ‘Draw The Line’ keeps the hard rock quota high and those layered, Queen-approved harmony vocals again complement the guitars seamlessly.

‘Talk Of The Town’ with its high vocals reminded me of the Sweet, whilst the title track flies by so quick in a blur of three minutes of hard rock bliss. ‘Dog Eat Dog’, bar the slightly dodgy barking effects, is one of the heaviest songs the band has recorded and has a nice 80’s hard rock feel. The sort of song Bon Jovi should be doing nowadays.

Definitely one of their stronger albums, although to be honest they have only dipped in quality for me with their third album. Andreas Novak fits the band’s music well and fingers crossed they finally get the recognition they deserve.

****

Review by Jason Ritchie

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

Next session: Sunday 19 January

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 1 December 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 3 December 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

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)