Reviews roundup – Bicoloured Men vs. WAMI vs. Hidden Lands vs. Sacred Wind vs. Michael Schenker

Reviews roundup – Bicoloured Men vs. WAMI vs. Hidden Lands vs. Sacred Wind vs. Michael Schenker

BICOLOURED MEN
Hybrid
independent

They’ve got leather trouuuusssers.  There’s a hint of a mullet.  They’re from Italy.  They sing songs called ‘Iron Fist’ (no relation) and ‘Metal Man’.  They used to be called Puddles (eh?).

They play Metal!!!!!!!!!!!!

That would be the oddly (and borderline dodgy) named Bicoloured Men. A five piece outfit, they’ve released this seven track CD, and it’s full on metal old time stylee.  This would have been a proper album in the olden days, but it probably counts as a mini album in the CD age, clocking in at just over half an hour.  But that means it doesn’t overstay its welcome as the look back longingly to a time when Saxon and Iron Maiden ruled the world with a studded wrtistband.

They did release an EP a wee while back, but with new singer Emanuele Gulminelli in tow, the likes of ‘We Need Rockers To Save The World’ and ‘The Bloody Priest’ rock like bastards.  In a good way.

WAMI (White Appice Mendoza Iggy)
Kill The King
Metal Mind

This would have passed for a supergroup back in the day, but here in 2014, it’s left to Polish indie Metal Mind to release an album made up of folk who’ve done time in Whitesnake, Rainbow, Dio, Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzyish.  Not to mention Ted Nugent.  For it was bass player Marco Mendoza (Whitesnake, Nugent etc) who was playing a show in Poland a couple of years back where local heavy metal band Anti Tank Nun were the support.  He was so impressed by their guitarist, Iggy Gwadera, that he whipped out his Filofax and looked up the eighties.

Cue the arrival of Doogie White (Rainbow, Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen) on vocals and Vinny Appice (Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, Dio) on drums to back up the seventeen-year-old Polish prodigy, who must have been weeing himself at the thought of what was happening.

And it’s good.  Mainly because I grew up on eighties metal, and this is rich wirh references to the assorted pedigree of the band members.  There are Dio type bits, Lizzy type bits, Blackmore type bits und so weiter.  It’s even cheekily titled “Kill the King”, so the band know exactly what they’re doing on tunes like ‘Exodus (The Red Sea Crossing)’, ‘Wild Woman (You Oughta Know)’ and even has oor Doogie remembering where he came from with the Scotch rock of ‘The Resistance’

I can’t quite get my head around them finishing the album with a round the campfire ballad, but sequencing aside, this is a cracker.  Buy this and the Doogie White solo album “As Yet Untitled” and they should keep your eighties fetish happy for quite some time.

HIDDEN LANDS
Lycksalighetens ö
Progress

Some Swedish prog now from Hidden Lands and their unpronounceable second album “Lycksalighetens ö”.  At least to people who don’t speak a language with an excess of vowels and umlauts.

Their debut, “In Our Nature”, was quite good, as they set out their neo-prog stall, taking their influences from the eighties rather than the seventies.  They’re still new at this game, so it’s good to see that this one is a step forward in style and performance.  The band – Bruno Edling (vocals), Hannes Ljunghall (keyboards and guitars), Phillip Bastin (bass) and the drummer Gustav Nyberg – have headed into epic territory and, by and large, it works.

The best of the music lies in the longer numbers, ‘Hidden Lands’ and ‘Corsican Daydream’, which sees the band aiming big and coming very, very close to pulling it off.  It’s good, and they’re getting better.

SACRED WIND
Sacred Wind
independent

Have you been missing songs about cheese, farting and sheep?  Then Sacred Wind may be the band for you.

Yes, the world has been lacking in spoof metal bands, as they heyday of Spinal Tap, Bad News and Iron Maiden lie in the past.  But now prepare yourself for the latest genre, and one that is bound to spawn a multitude of followers.  Yes, it’s Welsh Viking Flatulence Metal from Llangollen.

Apparently, there a series of books that tell the tales of derring do represented here, but that would involve reading, and you know that’s not going to happen.  However, I’m more than happy to lend an ear to some NWOBHM meets Manowar meets Terry Pratchett.

Just so you know, the story is set in a time when an evil, New Romantic loving Baron has imposed a set of laws that outlaw both flatulence and cheese sniffing, without consent.  It’s up to four warriors to vanquish him.  And they are The Companionship of Wind. I never said it was funny.

Thing is, they might actually be a bit too good.  Because strip away the lyrics to songs like ‘Metal And Curry’, ‘Frigg’ and the power ballad ‘Hurricane Ass’, and you could be listening to a real power metal band.  It’s a bit like Samson (the band, ask yer grandad) making a concept album about the saddle of a schoolgirls bike.  Oh.  So, well done to Olaf the Berserker (vocals/guitars), Grundi the Windy (guitars), Smid the Merciless (bass) and Agnar the Hammered (drums).

MICHAEL SCHENKER & Friends
Michael Schenker & Friends
Solid Rockhouse

I don’t know* who owns the masters to these cover version recordings of Metal Mickey and an assortment of singers, but they certainly know how to hawk them over and over again.

This has been out under an assortment of titles including “Blood Of The Sun”, and if you’ve managed not to buy it over the years, then you probably won’t want to buy it now.  It was originally touted as an MSG album under the name “Heavy Hitters” back in 2005, and it was OK.  Since then, however, it’s the beast that refuses to die, as it crawls out as “Doctor Doctor: The Kulick Sessions”, “By Invitation Only”, “Guitar Master” and goodness knows what else.

I’ll let you have a tracklisting of this version, and you can make your own mind up.

1. Out In The Fields  (Feat. Gary Barden)
2. Save Yourself (Feat. Robin McAuley)
3. Doctor Doctor (Feat. Jeff Scott Soto)
4. War Pigs (Feat. Tim “Ripper” Owens)
5. Finding My Way (Feat. Sebastian Bach)
6. All Shook Up (Feat. Joe Lynn Turner)
7. Blood Of The Sun (Feat. Leslie West)
8. Money (Feat. Tommy Shaw)
9. I’m Not Talking (Feat. Mark Slaughter)
10. Hair Of The Dog (Feat. Paul Di’Anno)
11. I Don’t Live Today (Feat. Sebastian Bach)
12. Politician (Feat. Jeff Pilson)
13. Doctor Doctor (Instrumental)
14. War Pigs (Instrumental)

*I do – it’s Bob (brother of Bruce) Kulick.