R A C E A G A I N S T T I M E

This is one of those 'oddities' I managed to acquire and was introduced to by a friend of mine. If you have any information at all on the band, Banshee, please email me at rainbowchaser@centuryinter.net. Thanks. Now on to the review.

Not knowing the band members names and having none of their other works to compare it to, I will have to approach this review as a strictly "tell it like it is" kind of thing. There are eleven songs on this cd, and strangely enough, the sound is like a thick mixture of Y&T, Motley Crue and Europe's "Wings of Tomorrow" with VERY strong doses of "Somewhere in Time" era Iron Maiden.

The vocalist is pretty awesome, straightforward and powerful vocals in the same upper echelon that Bruce Dickinson resides in. His style tries to copy Dickinson at times and it sounds awesome. On other songs he puts this Vince Neil twist on it that is raunchy and raw simultaneously while retaining that slick melody. The songs are all 80s fare, with a few that would have been comfortable on the already mentioned Maiden album "Somewhere in Time", while the rest could have been peppered through other melodic 80s albums.

The first half of the album is especially of note, with the haunting "All Alone" that has soaring guitarwork, an almost military drum type rhythm at parts, and acoustic and softer sections that build up to the rest of the explosive track. "Race Against Time" is the most Maiden sounding song on the album, with axework that mirrors that of Iron Maiden's as well as the overall rhythm that sounds amazingly similiar to Maiden's "Somewhere In Time" or "Sea of Madness". Backing 'gang' vocals help expand the overall feel of the song. The attempt to sound like Bruce is not too overdone, he fits comfortably in his own style while obviously retaining that prominent Dickinson sound. "Circular Flight of the One Winged Sparrow" is a bit of a medieval acoustic instrumental track, pretty but short, and a nice break from the ragin' rock tracks that have assaulted their way through the disc so far. "Call of the Wild" is a rather typical blistering song that was popular in the mid 80s. Its forwardly rocking overall sound has a raw feel to it that reminds me of Europe's "Wings of Tomorrow" material (like the song "Stormwind"). More gang vocals and guitar shredding all over the place. There's more on it on this one track than you can shake a stick at. Plenty of screaming too provided by the vocalist. The next song, "Precious Metal" is probably what some people would consider as "cheese" but I think it RULES. It does for this album what "Holy Shadows" did for Edguy's Theatre of Salvation, just not speed sounding like Edguy's song was. Its pure glam with a sexy hip swaying rhythm that the band, Ratt, penned so well. The singer puts that Vince Neil swaggering vocal swing on his voice (ie: Crue hit, "Looks that Kill"). "Desire" carries on the sound of the previous song, almost reminds me of Firehouse type stuff, just with a harder backbone to it. The vocal harmonies and chorus take me back to early Def Leppard material from "Pyromania".