German rockers HOTWIRE return with their third album and after hearing the first couple of songs, I already came to the conclusion that this is their best effort so far. Their debut from 1995 was a very nice melodic hard rock album, very much leaning towards their countrymen of CASANOVA and BONFIRE (Lessmann/Ziller also produced the band's debut). The second album 'Face another day' was a weaker effort, this record missed some good melodies and was just an average hard rock album like so many others.

Now their new CD 'Middle of nowhere' is released and I must admit that some songs impressed me a lot. First of all, the band switched from lead singer, because new vocalist Andy Scott Urbeck has replaced former singer Werner Stadis. Secondly, the music has become much mature, the band is now entering the AOR/Melodic Rock style of acts like FAIR WARNING and FRONTLINE. Opener "Midnite romeo" is a fantastic uptempo AOR rocker with some great hooks, a very catchy song indeed! Also next track "Middle of nowhere" is very good, this is a rather impressive midtempo AOR/Melodic Rocker.

Then comes the AC/DC cover "You shook me all night long", which has been done quite out of the ordinary as you probably don't recognise it any more. HOTWIRE made an acoustic ballad version of the AC/DC classic, something totally different! Anyway, the CD continues with the rocker "Shania" (BONFIREish). Then comes one of the highlights, namely the lovely semi AOR ballad "Lost in your eyes" that even reminds me of STREET TALK! "Nothing to say" follows and is just a nice rocker. Things slow down on the acoustic ballad "Sometimes she cries" (a la JADED HEART, BONFIRE).

Next track "Danger is calling" is a good melodic rocker. Closing track "Lost in your eyes" is the radio edit version of the earlier mentioned 'best' song on the CD. HOTWIRE has released a very good album that easily beats the band's previous releases. A must for fans of typical German Melodic Rock, although regular AOR fans might also want to check this out as this band has a lot to offer on their new record.

More info at: http://www.Hotwire-rock.de and e-mail at: Hotwire98@aol.com For now you have to wait until the 19th of February when this CD is officially released.

Rating: 8,5/10 (Review by Gabor Kleinbloesem)

This German band is sounding very professional and their two CDs are filled with quality Progressive/Symphonic AOR music. This band is right up there with bands like JADIS, IQ, ARENA etc. although NYL is a bit more leaning towards the AOR side, just like ASIA and JOHN WETTON. The band's latest CD is the 5-track mini album 'Nylon', a good record with some great songs such as the semi AOR ballad "Letters", the progressive AOR song "Searching" and the 80s typed poprocker "I can't stop" (TOTO meets MR. MISTER). The full-length debut CD is called 'View' and this record offers 10 great songs that sound very impressive. The perfect melodic lead vocals of singer Arndt Fiebig combined with the 80s keyboardsounds of Steffen Kahler is making this CD a true winner for fans of that perfect Symphonic AOR sound of ASIA and JADIS. TOTO and SAGA have influenced the band, and although you can also hear these influences, I would rather compare them to the likes of JADIS, ASIA and JOHN WETTON.

There isn't a weak song on the album, this is just a fantastic record that needs to be released by a record label a.s.a.p. My favourite tracks are "Time" (80s porgressive Pomp/AOR), "Crying" (semi progressive AOR ballad), "Stand up" and "Crazy world" (80s AOR a la ASIA). Fans of mentioned bands should get this record as soon as possible and record companies must get in touch with this band, because this is yet another interesting unsigned German band. More info at: http://www.NYL2000.de and e-mail at: Contact@NYL2000.de

Rating: 8,5/10 (Review by Gabor Kleinbloesem)

RICK RAY is coming out of Ohio and his CD 'Guitarsenal' is a live registration from a concert Rick played in July, August and September 2000. He played the concert as support act for Rock legends Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush and newcomers in Metal RIOT ACT. The music on the disc is very 70s typed Progressive Rock, not unlike RUSH and MAX WEBSTER. The best songs are "Looking in your eyes", "Taken control", the ballad "If I had the chance" and "The atom smasher".

Recommended if you're into 70s Progressive Rock. Check out Rick's website at: http://communities.msn.com/GuitaristRickRay&naventryid=100 and e-mail him at: Hobbelshnimp@hotmail.com

Rating: 7/10 (Review by Gabor Kleinbloesem)

BRUNO ROCK from Italy is back and on his latest demo CDR we can hear 4 songs sung in English. Musically it isn't so much 80s AOR Rock orientated, but it still sounds pretty melodic, although at some points it's pure 90s mainstream pop/rock but always with that AOR influence. Anyway, the best songs are "Let's call it blues" and "Silhouette", two great melodic pop/rock songs with AOR influences. Both songs feature excellent melodic choruses and are very pleasant to listen to. . I think the future will bring us a lot of interesting stuff from this talented guy. Check out Bruno's website at: http://www.brunorock.com and e-mail him at: info@brunorock.com

Rating: 8/10 (Review by Gabor Kleinbloesem)

This is part two of the 80s recordings of the UK band ABRAXAS. Part one featured some great melodic rocksongs such as "Going away to California". Part two is also filled with nice melodic rock, although the sound quality is not that good. Musically it also is a bit softer, but still songs like "Free dialling numbers", "The other side of midnight", "Let's live in peace", "Wave on the ocean" and the live version of "Going away" are nice songs to check out if you're into 80s melodic pop/rock. It's a must to have if you're a fan of LOST WEEKEND, as ABRAXAS features the lead singer of that Scottish melodic rockband (currently signed to FRONTIERS RECORDS). Check it out for yourself at: http://www.mp3.com/abraxasuk and e-mail at: a.greenwood@salford.ac.uk

Rating: 7/10 (Review by Gabor Kleinbloesem)

I don't have any complaints about the cover of the disc, as this looks pretty good to me. As for the music, RIFF MASTER GENERAL is playing Metal the 80s way. They are the first band I ever review that comes out of Northern Ireland. There are two songs on their CD single 'We like that'. Both songs are melodic heavy metal songs in the style of ACCEPT. Check it out for yourself at: http://www.riffmastergeneral.com and e-mail at: drew@riffmastergeneral.com

Rating: 7/10 (Review by Gabor Kleinbloesem)

This band from New York is pretty interesting as they feature a very good powerful female vocalist called Maggie Reinhart, an experienced guitarist Chris Calamera and a violinist Mike Capriotti. Together with bassist Mark Weldon and drummer Fred Scragg they form the band EXIT 22 who are bringing us radio-friendly melodic pop/rock. The overall sound is updated for today's rock market, but it is very melodic and will also attract the regular fans of female fronted melodic rock (HEART/VIXEN). Opener "Day's end" is a good example of this melodic radio-friendly updated sound of the band. This song has a very catchy sound and could easily turn out into a massive hit if it gets radio-airplay.

Next track "Second time around" is a great semi melodic rockballad and is another very catchy song. The other two songs on the disc are a bit weaker, "Young angel" and the instrumental "Window on the heart". In general, this EXIT 22 is a nice welcome and recommended if you're into female fronted melodic pop/rock a la LIZ LARIN, CHRISSY STEELE, ZIA LINDBERG, VENUS AND MARS (their debut). More info at: http://www.mp3.com/Exit22 and e-mail at: Exit22Band@aol.com

Rating: 7,5/10 (Review by Gabor Kleinbloesem)

MR. VEIN is a Canadian band and their debut 'No big deal' is a nice melodic poprock record. Actually the band has an own style that has 80s influences, but on the other hand it just sounds like MR. VEIN! Anyway, the first couple of songs are also the best tracks, namely the uptempo melodic poprockers "Kiss my heart", "Giving all up" and "Trying to get by". These songs remind me of THE OUTFIELD and LITTLE AMERICA. The second part of the disc is weaker, especially the songs "Feel so good", "Sesbir" and "Ode to Maria". Not a bad band, but I rather hear some more uptempo rockers like they performed at the beginning of the CD. Check it out for yourself at: http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/202/mrvein.html and e-mail them at: mr_vein_2000@yahoo.com

Rating: 7/10 (Review by Gabor Kleinbloesem)

Another Independent band from the Minnesota area. This band is called KAT BLU and they are playing the raw hard rock in the 80s tradition of KIX and DANGEROUS TOYS. The best songs are "Too wild to tame", "Rock'n'roll again", "Animal" and "Freaks'n'geeks", although if you like one song than this whole CD will be yours to be played loud on your stereo! Last year I reviewed a band called DEAD END KIDZ and this KAT BLU is playing in the exact same style, so anyone enjoying that New Jersey band should also look out for this Minnesota band.

Fans of 80s Hard Rock a la DIRTY LOOKS, KIX, DANGEROUS TOYS, BULLET BOYS… should surf to: http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/186/kat_blu.html and e-mail at: katblu@clear.lakes.com

Rating: 7/10 (Review by Gabor Kleinbloesem)

LA BLUE is based around one man, namely multi-instrumentalist Art Peterson from California. His CD 'Aftershock' contains both vocals and instrumental tracks. The vocal tracks are pretty nice to hear, such as the 70s typed rockers "Only you", "Laguna", "Sexy girl" and "The speed of sound". The instrumental tracks show the diversity of Art's musical capabilities. More info at: LA blue and e-mail him at: art_peterson@hotmail.com Currently Art is looking for a band to form around him.

Rating: 7/10 (Review by Gabor Kleinbloesem)

Fans of hook laden keyboard driven German melodic rock take note as this band rocks in a similar vein to Fair Warning, Casanova and Bonfire with touches of Europe and PC69.

Frank Breuninger is a wonderful vocalist with a huge range of vocal abilities; his singing is very powerful but also subtle on Dark Sky’s power ballads. There’s also a lot of pompy keyboard action from Claudio Nobile, non-more so than on the Europe flavoured ‘Rock Me’

‘Rock Me’ is a chanting melodic rocker that can easily be described as ‘The Final Countdown Part 2’, the chorus is catchy and the hooks make for a potential hit single. Glorious stuff!

Dark Sky have put together fourteen tracks on this album, I have to say that the production equals any of the releases by Fair Warning, Casanova and Bonfire.

So with that in mind, I advise fans of this genre to buy it. And you’re in for a treat of superbly crafted melodic rock and AOR songs.

Check out ‘In The Name Of God’ which is the albums best track. Listen to the wonderful chorus on this song, it hooks itself into you from the first listen, forcing you to sing a long to every note that Frank pours out of his mouth, awesome stuff!!

‘Living In Paradise’ is another killer song that is very much in the eighties vein, the keyboard melodies make the song sound similar to bands like FM, Loverboy and Giuffria, the phrase "I’ve heard it before" comes to mind, but who cares, this is quality melodic rock baby!

Also check out ‘Magna Quaedam Spectare’. This song is very catchy and starts with similar keyboard phrasing to Whitesnake’s "Here I Go Again" (original 1981 version and not the remixed ’87 version).

The song also reminds me of Dokken circa "Under Lock And Key" mixed with Hardline and Styx circa "Edge Of The Century". ‘M.Q.S’ is another highlight (strange how the band left the lyrics out for this song, but included all the lyric sheets for all the other songs)

The ballads ‘Jane’, ’On And On’ (subtle vocal similarities to Mr.Big’s Eric Martin and Jorn Lande on this song) and the funky pop vibes of ‘Tell Me Why’ are all pretty good with ‘Jane’ being my favourite. A lovely song in the Bonfire mould that makes your back tingle during the emotive chorus.

Track three ‘Masih Ada Rindu’ is another subtle ballad sung in the bands native German language. This track features oriental and Celtic influences, the song is in a similar vein to Talk Of The Town’s ‘Sing To The World’ meets Zeno and Uli Jon Roth, Frank sings in an almost operatic phase and gives Tommy Heart a run for his money.

You can’t ignore quality like this where almost every song has massive addictive hooks. Only a couple of songs fall short of greatness, namely ‘Call Me’ and ‘Gimme A Try’, even so these two songs are still a cut above most of the melodic rock clan.

I have a very strong gut feeling about this band and I think we are gonna hear a lot more from Dark Sky this year. They will indeed be heir to Fair Warning and Bonfire’s throne, Dark Sky are just fantastic so be sure to buy this album, you won’t be disappointed – you’d better believe it!

Email : atm.management@bluewin.de or visit http://www.goodlife-records.de

Rating: 9/10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

"Timebomb" is a collection of superbly crafted pop songs with the emphesis based around acoustic guitars and brilliant hook–laden vocal melodies.

The title track itself and ‘Watching The Moon’ are songs I couldn’t stop humming along to, the choruses on both songs are similar to Jon Bon Jovi's solo outing 'Queen Of New Orleans', with the latter being my favourite of the two songs.

Another strong song is the gorgeous ‘I’ll Be Waiting Here For You’, whist ‘Marigold’ brings back memories of missing in action Little Angel’s frontman Toby Jepson

‘Just A Little More’, ‘Little Angel’ and the excellent ‘Paper Doll’ keep the listeners interested, making for a very entertaining superbly produced debut album that is well worth investigating.

www.davidisaacs.net

Rating: 7,5/10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

Eperimental funk/pop based project put together by keyboard player Jesse Bradman who is best known for his work with Nightranger and Poison.

Bradman handles the majority of the vocals and instuments himself and he does a fine job, particularly on the intriguing 'Much Better' a guitar-based piano led ballad that sounds deep and brassy. One of my other favourite songs is the eye popping 'The Times' - a groovy tune with down driven bass sounds that changes tempo to suit the songs spacey mood.

Now and again Bradmann is helped out by producer/guitarist Bright on songs like ''Long Walk Home' which sounds very gospel orientated.

For the most part this album happily dabbles with diverse funky/pop based material like 'Sammi', 'Another Shade Of Blue' and 'I You We' which all work alarmingly well. The aforementioned 'Sammi' is a very catchy song with killer axe work in the Kotzen/ Salas vein.

'The Electric Chair' represents a dramtic change of direction for Bradmann and took a few spins to fully appreciate, whats great is that the music shows Jesse growing as a musician which can only be a good sign of good thing to come. Jesse Bradman will also be appearing on the fourthcoming Jason Becker Tribute CD, and you can email him direct jessbrad@jps.net

Rating: 8/10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

This German melodic rock outfit has already released two albums. This nine track affair sees Hotwire setting their sites at the acoustic market (unwired get it?), which may dissapoint some of the bands exisiting fans.

Frontman Tom Glais has a voice similar to CJ Snare, that can't be faulted especially on the title track that has a bloody good melody but lacks substance and tends to become a trifle yawnsome after repeated plays.

The band then totally rip apart the classic AC/DC song 'You Shook Me All Night Long', how on earth can they expect to get away with this? I mean come on really guys!!

'Lost In Your Eyes' is a rather good up-tempo catchy ballad that has a touch of Bad English and Firehouse about it Older fans may cheer in delight at the only melodic rock songs on the record - namely 'Nothing To Say', 'Shania' and the aforementioned 'Midnite Romeo’ which in itself dosen’t stand up to Hotwire's previous efforts

‘Middle Of Nowhere’ is a rather poor album that sounds deliberetley put together because other bands like Von Groove, Firehouse etc are doing it.

This is a shame, as we all know that Hotwire are a damn fine outfit when they put their minds to it. Come on guys you know you can do better than this lacklustre afffair!

www.hotwire-rock-de

Rating: 6/10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

Some of you may recall that this US singer was one of the chicks who appeared on Vai's 'Flex-able' album and also recorded with Frank Zappa amongst other noted musicians. Interestingly for her debut album, Thana Harris has mustered up the respective talents of Vai himself along with Stuart Hamm and Axe duo Bob Harris and Bobby Barth.

Loosly based around acoustic driven pop-melodies, the albums material is delivered with a quality production sound, whilst vocally Thana is a likeable singer who does justice to her songs.

‘Thanatopsis’ does experiment with various forms of spiritual flavoured jazz and country rock baked with bizzare recordings such as ‘Bart & Claire’ that is kinda like ‘Flexable’ circa Steve Vai fodder which sends the albums mood a little more "OUT THERE" so to speak.

With names like Vai involved, one could be forgiven for expecting an eye watering shred-fest, alas no! this album is very song orientated, and I much prefer it when Harris churns out catchy hook driven songs like ‘Fingers’, ‘White Bird’ and ‘Planetry Tango’ that can be likened to Jane Sibbery and Dalbello, whilst the sassy Steve Vai produced ‘Fingers’ is my pick of the album, with ‘Time Gained’ and ‘The Cactus Song’ following close behind

Check out Thana’s website at www.thanharris.com for more info.

Rating: 8/10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

This has been a long time coming, 'Surface of Pain' having released in 1995, and from the first note of opening track 'A me & an I', it's clear Masquerade are back and in crunching business. The band's Alice in Chains/Harem Scarem/Queensryche sound, siffused with their own hugely melodic sensibilities remains intact, although the lyrical content is more introspective and personal than was previously apparent, 'Incomplete' being a goos example of their approach and intent.

Thomas G:Son's guitars create huge swathes of melodic sound, Jerry Cantrell weaned on Brain Robertson and Chris DeGarmo, whilst the ever excellent singer, Tony Joannsson delivers Mats Levin with melody vocals, a point emphasised by what should be a single, the gorgeous 'Back on Earth', a song that should be over the radio like a rash for months to come. The guitar solo alone will have you reaching for the much abused tennis racket. Enough of my whittering! It does not get much better than this. Buy or Die Brothers and Sisters!

Rating: 9,5/10 (Review by Andrew Paul)

At the time of writing your humble (ha!) reviewer has yet to lay ears upon Yngwie's latest opus featuring Mr Boals, but, it will have to rather good to measure up to 'Ring of Fire(which has artwork supplied by Eric Phillipe who has worked with Virgin Steele, Stratovarius, Riot amongst others), Mark Boals' second solo album.

Assembling a world class band in Tony Macalpine(guitar), Vitalij Kuprij(keyboards)of Artension fame, and drummer Virgil Donati, has allowed Mark Boals-always a favourite singer of mine- to craft a first rate neo-classical album, which in feel alone, occupies a niche between Malmsteen circa 'Trilogy', and 'Forces of Nature' era Artension.

From the rampaging myth-making of the title track, the epic drama of 'Atlantis', the light & shade of the balladic 'Keeper of the Flame', to the Rainbow with a bit between the collective teeth of 'The Hunted', this is an album of scope and ambition, and is worthy of your undivided attention, and confirms Mark Boals as a singer and writer of considerable stature.
All that's left to add is the hope that the studio line-up tours!!

Rating: 8,5/10 (Review by Andrew Paul)

With metal's man of the moment Roy Z-producing, co-writing & playing guitar-aboard, Rob
Rock(Vice/Joshua/Impellitteri/Mars)finally steps out into the light in his own right.

Combining elements of Queen-the 'Flash Gordon' soundtrack feel of instrumental opener 'In the beginning'; Iron Maiden, especially the 'Wasted Years' Smith and Murray vibe of 'Streets of Madness'; a more metal Joshua, the rampaging 'One way out'; a melodic Nevermore on the twists and turns of 'Judgment Day'-'Rage of Creation is a classic hard rock/metal album, with Rock's commanding, world class vocals directing proceedings with ease.

This album dovetails melody with considerable crunch-especially when Jake E.Lee joins the fray, and a stunning Dio-esque version of Abba's 'Eagle'( As a tangent an awful lot of rock artists are covering Abba songs,is it some form of guarded homage to Agnetha's curves?)makes a welcome appearance, and confirms my long-held view that Rob Rock should forge ahead on his own. Great stuff.

Rating: 9/10 (Review by Andrew Paul)