Reviews roundup – Axel Rudi Pell vs. Dizzy Reed
AXEL RUDI PELL
Knights Call
Steamhammer
Studio album number seventeen from Axel Rudi Pell. And you know what you’re going to be getting once he gets his eighties power metal vibe on. All you need to know is whether it’s a good one or one of the really good ones.
And this falls firmly in the latter camp as Herr Pell has ramped up the pomptastic side of his playing with some epic metal moments. Long time singer singer Johnny Gioli and former Rainbow / Black Sabbath drummer Bobby Rondinelli are still along for the ride with Ferdy Doernberg- Keyboards and Volker Krawczak- Bass and they put on a cracking show that will please anyone sorely disappointed by Mr Blackmores tepid return to rock. It’s chock full of melodies and choruses but overlaid with an orchestral sound that lifts the songs way up there. Even when going for a concise, almost commercial feel as on ‘Wildest Dreams’ there is still a delicious keyboard line bubbling away.
They go all Dio on ‘Long Live Rock’ (yes, really) and turn in a monstrously good power ballad on ‘Beyond The Light’ which features guest American singer Pamela Falcon. But they save the best for last when they majestic epic ‘Tower Of Babylon’ (yes, really) arrives with a fantasy lyric the late Mr Dio would have been proud of. Now despite all my references to the days of yore don’t go thinking this is some hackneyed rip off. It isn’t. The music rises way above that. It’s one of the strongest albums Axel Rudi Pell has put out in a while and those of who love our eighties metal should be clutching this to our bosoms.
It’s out as a Digipak (+ poster), CD, double 180 gram (red with black swirls) vinyl LP (+ CD in paper sleeve), plus limited edition (1,000) Deluxe Boxset, containing the Digipak CD, double vinyl LP, stainless steel skull beer mug, patch, A1 double sided poster, photocard and sticker.
The video promo for the album is only on Facebook so here’s a classic ARP ballad instead.
DIZZY REED
Rock ‘n’ Roll Ain’t Easy
Golden Robot Records
Dizzy Reed, eh? The fella whose played the barely audible keyboards for Guns n’ Roses since 1990.
Away from that he’s toured, recorded and written with supergroup The Dead Daisies as well as a side project, Hookers and Blow. But who knew that he had a rampaging rock’n’roll album tucked up his sleeve. Because this pisses over anything he ever did with the other Axl. Apparently this was only supposed to come out in Japan and the mythical continent of Australasia but someone must have heard that and decided to treat the rest of the world. Because it’s a sleazy blast of old school rawk that is a real treat.
To help out he’s used his little black book to good effect with fellow Guns n’ Roses members Richard Fortus, Frank Ferrer. Tommy Stinson and Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal along with The Almighty/Thin Lizzy’s Ricky Warwick and the two Mikes, Dupke and Duda of W.A.S.P., alongside many others. The opening number ‘This Don’t Look Like Vegas’ (written by Reed, Ricky Warwick and Del James) sets you up for what turns out to be a relentless blast of hard rock from start to finish. Elsewhere he channels eighties hard rock, some poppier Cheap Trick moments (‘Cheers 2 R Oblivion’), chucks in a cracking ballad ‘Fragile Water’, which would have been a huge late eighties hit and a few other choice moments. There are a couple of lesser moments but that’s all they are – moments.
It may be a debut solo album but the decades of experience that led here makes for a rock’n’roll delight.
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St Columba’s Hospice Tribute Fund for Linda Hamilton
http://linda.hamilton.muchloved.com/
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The Rocker - The Artist Formerly Known As Zeitgeist. TAFKAZ 
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