Well, what can I say? Words fail me with this band, all I can say is that Finland's newest hot shots Urban Tale are indeed HOT NEWS!! Lyrically and musically "One Way" is a passionate and uplifting piano led love song, wait until the gorgeous chorus crashes in and you will be frothing at the mouth.

Be sure to check these guys out if your into bands like SURVIVOR, JOURNEY, THE STORM and HUGO. If any of the record companies are reading this then watch out!!! because Urban Tale are coming, start your bidding now. Awesome!! Now go read our interview wth Timo Pudas and the band. For more information Email: pudas@saunalahti.fi

Rating: 10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

After the fire' is the second CD of FIREFLY, a band that can be seen as a project, because it features some very well known musicians from the AOR scene. How about Canadian guitarist JOHN THOMAS, vocalist John Pratt (who recorded with LITA FORD, KIM CARNES, JULLIET, GINO VANELLI), drummer Ron Wikso (THE STORM, FOREIGNER, CHER), keyboardist Michael Alemenia (VIXEN, JACK WAGNER, WILSON PHILLIPS), guitarist Bob Gilles (INNOCENT) and bassist Ricky Phillips (BAD ENGLISH, BABYS)?

Actually I was a little disappointed with the band's debut which was just a nice melodic hardrock CD. This new CD starts very good. Opener "Shadow of a doubt" is a classy 80s AOR/Melodic Rocker a la VON GROOVE. This song is quite impressive and is definitely the best song of FIREFLY. The rest of the CD continues in the same melodic hardrock style of their debut. So, you get a nice mixture of Melodic Rock and AOR. I think you can best compare the sound of FIREFLY to bands like JESSE'S POWERTRIP and INNOCENT.

Bands like these do not have a polished melodic rocksound, but have an edge while still enough melodies for the AOR fans. Fans of the debut will love this album, although I had rather heard some more songs in the style of the opening tune.

Rating: 7,5/10

Oh man, these guys rock!!! Black Rose are a great new melodic hard rock band from Sweden who remind me of DAMNED NATION, the excellent and underrated SHAKRA, CRYSTAL BALL, PINK CREAM 69, IRON MAIDEN and YNGWIE MALMSTEEN's RISING FORCE. Promo 99 is a three track ep and serves as an introduction to this bands style, which is just glorious neo-classical melodic rock, the riffs, bass, drums, chrous lines all fit the bill perfectly and leave you signing along to each song as if you have been playing them for years.

I really went for "Always Tomorrow", listen to the melodies on this song and prepare to biased!!! This is similar to bands like NARNIA, BRAZEN ABBOT, MILLENIUM and RAINBOW and is a marvelous piece of music to get your teeth into, very neo-clasical. The IRON MAIDEN guitar sound is aired on track three "In Your Eyes", this is superb and very catchy, again the guitar work catches the eye, blink and you will miss it. Black Rose are very exciting , and on the strength of these songs, the band should have no problems in linking a secure and well deserved record deal.

The only thing to really make any critical comment on is that the production makes the music sound a little quite and level, if the reverbs can be bounced up to warp factor 12 or whatever, then Black Rose will simply piss all over their contemporaries. Never the less, this is an awesome start!! Watch this space!! Contact: email: peter.haga@swipnet.se

Rating: 8,5/10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

(REK RECORDS/INSYDEOUT ENTERTAINMENT)

November 67 are from Jacksonville, Florida and play blues' hard rock, guitarist Paul Marko has worked with such artists as Joe Franco of TWISTED SISTER, Tommy Burns from BILLY JOEL's band amongst others. This is November 67's follow up to the excellent "Welcome To The Rainbow" released in 1998, and "Electric Wasteland" features ten powerful chunks of hard rock.

The one song that struck me the most was the second track called "Rainbow", this song is like a mixture of BADLANDS, Y AND T, WHITESNAKE, STUART SMITH, DARE and MR.BIG, I must mention that Michael Nagy is a brilliant singer, his range is very gratifying to the listeners ears, with some bands the vocalist screams to high and they blow it, but Michael is note perfect, he bares similarites to DAVID COVERDALE, and THOMAS THORSEN from DAMNED NATION.

In fact alot of the material is similar to that of DAMNED NATION, GREAT KING RAT and SNAKES IN PARADISE. Also coming across really well is the excellent "Find Some Love" a song that throws it roots back to the eighties, "Salvation Day" is another top song with lots of strong playing from all the band, I also found myself really into "Peacekeeper", this would go down a storm live and would make an ideal single, it has a GLENN HUGHES feel to it and is most rewarding. "Last Sunset" round things up, and you are left very impressed by the bands mighty achievement with this record.

I highly advise you to check out November 67, perfectly played hard rock songs with blues tint, no bullshit, just rock n' roll. Contact: insydeout@snet.net

Rating: 9/10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

Fresh breezy and exciting MTM's latest release 101 SOUTH features the hugely inspirational talents of LIVERPOOL EXPRESS, FORTUNE and HARLAN CAGE mainman Roger Scott Craig. On this project Craig has teamed up with Gregory Lynn Hall. Greg used to front a band called "Rat Sally" and is a much sought after session musician. Also joining the project are BILLY LIESGANG (who had his own band simply called LIESGANG) , Chris Julian and Hans Geiger.

The album has been lovingly produced by Craig, with the standout tracks coming at you in the shape of "Run Like A Tiger", "Your Razor Is Sharp", "Boat Out On The Water", and the incrediable "We Took The Wrong Road" which bares similarities to HARLAN CAGE. This song at first sounded as if it was going to be a ballad, but then the song explodes into huge keyboard/guitar driven aor that easily ranks along side bands like SURGIN, 8084, SKAGARACK, ARTICA, METROPOLIS, FREELANCE, FERGIE FREDERIKSEN etc.. Greg sings with amazing passion on this song and could very well become the most talked about singer of the year.

Every song he touches on 101 SOUTH is sung with an unbelievable amount of power and emotion, if AOR is truly dead, then 101 SOUTH are certain to become the band guilty of bringing it back to the frontrow, and they will, it has that potential to leap into larger territories, it may take a while but the album is gonna catch on and become a world wide classic, at least I hope it does.

"Boat Out On The Water", is simply delicious, everything is note perfect and that is the key with IOI SOUTH, each song is unique and magnificently played by all the musicians, it's one of those albums that will be used by writers as a reference point for years to come.

The music is pure keyboard/guitar driven aor and melodic hard rock, like "Live For The Moment", the magnificent "Nobody Moves A Mountain" which is like ROBERT TEPPER, the gorgeous and creamy "You're So Cold", the powerful "Casualty Of Love" whch is very much like SKAGARACK and the ballad "She Walks On Water" which suprisngly is like a mix of PHIL VINCENT, RICHARD MARX, MARK SPIRO. and JOURNEY, a huge ballad to die for. This album has it all, treasure it as 101 SOUTH is a timeless collection of pure aor and hard rock.

Rating: 10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

The idea of a tribute album to my all time favourite rock band was not really inspiring, but I decided to check it out anyway, I was dreading that that the songs would be ruined, but the nice thing is that the greatest care has been taking in getting everything right, and I have to say that I did really enjoy this mix of ROTH era tunes. So what do we get then, well here we go:

UNCHAINED - This features Jack Russell, Dweezil Zappa, Marco Mendoza and Eric Singer. Jack Russell does an admirable performance and Dweezil Zappa stick to Edwards main signature riffs,without being cocky and putting in some of his on licks, they get this one right right down to the semi famous DAVID LEE ROTH jungle howls.

I'M THE ONE - Perhaps one of the favourite and underrated VAN HALEN tracks, this features Mark Slaughter, Doug Alrich, Tim Bogert and Frankie Banali, the thought of Slaughter screeching through this song made me cringe, but after I listened to it, I came to the conclusion that perhaps he would have made a better replacement than what GARY CHERONE did. Slaughter does a fine job, and suprisingly this classic song fits his voice admirably.

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY - Featuring Joe Lynn Turner, Reb Beach, Marco Mendoza, Gregg Bissonette. This is ok, but Turner's voice doesn't sound convincing, he would have been better waiting for the SAMMY HAGAR tribute and covering one of his songs instead.

LIGHT UP THE SKY - One of my favourite VAN HALEN songs, this features Doug Pinnick, Yngwie Malmsteen, Billy Sheehan and Vinnie Colaiuta. Yngwie for once manages to restrain himself and sticks to the original structure of the song. Doug's voice is ok, and in the mid section he manages to get that husky smokey vocal performance just right, nice one Doug.

PANAMA - If "JUMP" hadn't broken the charts then this sure would have, PANAMA features a mighty performance from WARRANT's Jani Lane, and is the best track covered on the cd. Jani carries the song as if he were David Lee Roth, I haven't heard any new music from Jani since WARRANT's "Belly To Belly" album, which wasn't too hot, but it seems as if Jani is more relaxed with his singing, he sounds fucking cool, and if the VAN HALEN boys don't work things out with ROTH, then I must urge them to get Jani into the ranks. This is truly as good as the original itself, George Lynch handles guitar duties on this track
which makes me think where his head is after the crap "Smoke This" LYNCH MOB album. Tony Franklin and Greg Bissonette complete the line up on this song.

HOT FOR TEACHER - Another VAN HALEN classic, this time featuring John Corabi, Bruce Kulick, Tony Franklin and Greg Bissonette. Corabi is great, but the rest of the team stiff the song by fucking around with the opening drum rolls. Still it's all done in the best possable taste and is FUN.

RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL - The key song from VAN HALEN's self titled debut, which is now 22 years old!! Scary isn't it? This features Ratt's Stephen Pearcy, Jake E. Lee, Tim Bogret and Frankie Banali. Pearcy does a nice job, but is not so convincing, although he does pull off DIAMOND DAVE's jungle yells.

PRETTY WOMAN - A strange choice, as it is not really a VAN HALEN song. The Nelson twins are on this track, helped out with Albert Lee, Tony Levin and Anysley Dunbar. Those NELSON guys sure deserve more respect.

ATOMIC PUNK - Featuring Fee Waybill, Brad Gillis, Tim Bogert and Frankie Banali.Is a bit weak, Waybill doesn't do anything for me on this track unfortuantley.

SO THIS IS LOVE - Features Jeff Scott Soto, Blues Saraceno, Tony Franklin and Eric Singer. Another unusual choice, Soto does his usalt thing and pulls it off very nicely, but there is no way he would be suitable for VAN HALEN. He does a good job though and I would like to see him do a project with musians as that really would be something special.

LITTLE GUITARS - Featuring David Glenn Eisley, Mitch Perry, Marco Mendoza and Eric Singer. This is another VAN HALEN classic and sees a welcome return to the fold for Mr. Eisley whom has been a bit quiet recently. Eisley and Perry do a fine job on this song.

The great thing is that all these singers would have done a better job than Gary Cherone, but it's also obvious that they chose Gary, because everyone here has a massive ego and suffers from LSD ha!! ha! But I would liked to have seen Gary included on this tribute album, as when I saw him live on bootleg videos with VH he really gave it his best shot and was superb singing DAVID LEE ROTH's material and would have fitted perfectly on this album.

Overall this is a good album that suited for your in car stereo, as a die hard VAN HALEN fanatic I find it hard to take this seriously, It's all done tastefully and with the utmost respect to VAN HALEN and goes to show how much musical influence VAN HALEN have had over the last two decades. I'm really looking forward to the reunion with DAVID LEE ROTH. It will be very special indeed and is exactly what the hard rock scene needs.

Available from http://www.destinyrocks.co.uk

Rating: 9/10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)

2ND OPINION REVIEW

At last here it is the follow up to the classic "Heroes" album. "Heroes" originally only gained a Japanese only release, so naturally the guys felt that these songs should be heard properly by European audiences, this should gain Frontline a huge amount of success and respect and should see them stealing the crown of AOR gods from HUGO and THE STORM, so the tracks taken from the "Heores" album have been slightly remixed with new guitar and drum parts, the songs are the classic JOURNEY sounding ballad "This Pain Will Last Forever", and "Get To You", the bright and colourful "Moving Closer" (which also reminds me of SAY IT and KING OF HEARTS), another JOURNEY "Raised On Radio" era type of song called "On The Run", the awesome "Heroes" with some very powerful singing , "Our Love" which is like THE STORM, the incredable chorus lines and crispy guitar work of "Someone To Love", round up the songs lifited from "Heores".

Of the new material we have eight brand new gems, check out the piano led heartwrenching ballad "Look At You" which is very similar to BAD ENGLISH's "When I See You Smile", "Whole Lot Of Soul" is also very cool and memorable and has a great chorus in the style of THE STORM, the opening track "I Swear" open up to the tuneful playing of atmospheric
keyboards, then the song dabbles with a short burst of ballet sounding music, before the song cruises into a great rocker that reminds me of THE STORM, and DA VINCI, this is a fantastic opener and a ssharp reminder that the eighties is not dead and very much alive, this is one of my favoruite songs.

"Shelter Me" is pure aor heaven, with alot of nice keyboard sensations, "Tonight We Set" is the albums highlight though, this is pure JOURNEY, FAITH NATION, HARLAN CAGE with gorgeous melodies, "Time To Dream" is also a huge song in the style of HUGO and again JOURNEY and is the second best song of the new material, just listen to the way the guy sings this song, the chorus is very catchy and dreamy and is classic aor material. That leaves "Who's Crying Now", which is not a cover of the JOURNEY and UNRULY CHILD song of the same name, this is a typical FRONTLINE tune which again is very tasty and begs to be heard by the masses of JOURNEY fans worldwide. This is a tremendous return to form for a very underrated but much celebrated band. Germany's finest walk away in crowning glory. Now guys how about some gigs?

Rating: 10 (Review by Nicky Baldrian)