Pushking - The World As We Know It

When you think of great European countries, do you ever think of Russia?  I know it's not Europe, but it's pretty damned close.  When I think of Russia and heavy metal, two things come to mind: The Moscow Music Peace Festival and home grown metal band Gorky Park.  To best of my knowledge, Russia has not exported metal bands other than Gorky Park stateside.  Pushking is the first hard rock/metal band I've heard of in about 20years coming from Russia.  The band has been around since 94' and they have been churning out some mean hard rock ever since.  The band has essentially just been a country favorite, due to them singing in the native tongue, but in the last few years the band has been singing in English to grow a bigger audience.  The World As We Know it, is the band's first record released internationally, and to make sure they made a big splash in the hard rock community, they had brought along a few familiar faces.

Pushking have assembled an all-star cast of musicians to help them out on their debut release for Armoury Records.  The list is too long to print, so I will give you the highlights.  First off, Pushking is a classic hard rock band, that blends sounds of classic 70's and 80's hard rock.  The first track to catch my ear was Troubled Love featuring Alice Cooper and Keri Kelli.  This is an interesting track because the music sounds more like classic Copper than Alice does today.  It is a mid-tempo rocker full and melody a catchy chorus.  It reminds me of classic Cooper mixed with Ratt.  Killer track! The next cool track was Cut the Wire featuring Paul Stanley and Stevie Salas.  Rather than having a Kiss vibe, this one caters more to Salas' style, in that it has a funky groove to it.  The list goes on, but I do have to mention that there are a trio of songs featuring Glenn Hughes, that are just amazing.

Another strong aspect of this CD, is that not only has the band asked some killer vocalists to add to the tunes, but they have also, assembled a killer list of guitartists as well.  There is some killer axework provided by Nuno Bettencourt, Steve Stevens and Steve Vai.  I'm not sure if the band had this in mind when they were writing these tracks, but for the most part, each track caters to the vocalist driving the tune.  It makes sense, so you ensure that the track will work.  The only tracks that didn't work for me were God Made Us Free (Graham Bonnett), Open Letter to God (Eric Martin) and Head Shooter (Joe Lynn Turner).  These tracks were okay, but not as strong as some of the others.  All in all a solid release that should get Pushking on the map. 

Bottom Line: A solid hard rock effort.  A 19 track platter of well written songs executed perfectly, with the exception of a few.  This CD comes off sounding like a compilation due to all of the artists involved, so it will be interesting to see if the guys try this approach for the follow up.  The next effort will be the real test for the band, if they decide to do it alone.

Standout Tracks: Troubled Love, Private Own, Heroin and Cut the Wire.

-Ragman likes a good compilation.

RIP - Gary Moore (1952 - 2011)

Gary Moore (1952 - 2011), GuitaristLegendary Irish guitarist Gary Moore (Skid Row, Thin Lizzy) died Sunday in his sleep, of a suspected heart attack, while vacationing in Spain.  Growing up in Ireland, Gary quickly became interested in the guitar, eventually being mentored by Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac).  Peter ended up selling his 1959 Les Paul to Gary so that "it would have a good home" and Gary went on to become one the legends of rock guitar over the next few decades.

Joining former bandmate Phil Lynott in Thin Lizzy, he went on to establish himself as one of the best and brightest upcoming guitarists in Europe, where his fame far outshined his reputation in America despite his talent being well recognized by many guitarists; Vivian Campbell, Zakk Wylde, Jake E. Lee, and even Randy Rhoads, just to name a few.

His talent and tone will be missed by all guitar lovers both in Europe and the rest of the world.  Let's hope that wherever he's gone, maybe he and Phil are writing some bad-ass music together again.

We at The Right To Rock extend our heartfelt condolences to the friends and family of Mr. Moore and we raise a glass to his musical legacy.  Horns up, Gary.

- Genghis and Ragman still got the blues for you...

Scheepers - Scheepers

The Primal Fear vocalist serves up some good meat and potatoes metal. Yes, I just said that.Ralf Scheepers has just released his first solo CD, via Frontiers Records, and it rocks.  We all know him as the voice behind power metal giants Primal Fear, and as one of the most powerful vocalists in metal today; and this new solo CD just re-inforces what a great vocalist this guy is.  When I first heard that this CD was coming out, I was pretty geeked.  Having been less that satisfied with the past couple of Primal records, I was hoping the Ralf would mix things up and kick our ass.  For the project Ralf has enlisted many bing names from the genre to give him a hand.  The list of guests reads like an issue of Metal Hammer.   Featured guests are former bandmate Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray), Tim "Ripper" Owens (Charred Walls of the Damned, Malmsteen), Victor Smolski (Rage) and Metal Mike (Halford).

Scheepers starts off like a feared, with the first of track sounding like his day job - not shocking considering his back up band is primarily made up of Primal Fear bandmates.  Don't get me wrong, it's okay, but not what I was hoping for.  The next track, Remission of Sin, is a mid-tempo rocker that has an Accept/Sinner feel to it.  This is what I was hoping for.  Cool track.  What really shined for me were the mid-tempo, classic metal tunes like The Fall and Dynasty; killer tracks that encompass an old school feel.  Meat and Potatoes metal, if you will.

There's a nice variety of rockers and dark type ballads on this release.  I really dug the latter in the form of Doomsday, a great heavy ballad.  All in all, a solid effort which comes off stronger than what the PF guys have been doing over the last couple of releases.  There're a couple of dingers on this one, but the good totally outweigh the mediocre.

Bottom Line:  Scheepers spreading his wings and going solo (sort of).  Straight ahead hard rock/heavy metal, but well-written songs that are melodic and heavy.

Standout Tracks: The Fall, Doomsday, Back on Track and Dynasty

- Ragman is going for the Scheepers look; just add about 40 lbs of beer gut...

Stratovarius - Elysium

The boys have made a more guitar-driven album than they've done in years. And I likes it!After the somewhat disappointing Polaris release, Stratovarius have regrouped and recently released their second post Tolki release Elysium.  Elysium is the second CD the band has done, since the departure of original guitarist Timo Tolki.   As many of you know, Tolki had a mental breakdown in 2008, which led to his departure from the band.  Stratovarius, like Tolki have continued to release new material in regular fashion.  An interesting point, is that both bands release new product about the same time as one another.  As stated earlier, Polaris was disappointing and veered too far from the original sound.  Polaris was much more keyboard oriented than previous efforts, so hopefully Elysium with go back to a more guitar driven sound.

Elysium starts off with a little more of the same, average power metal songs that don't grab you.  It wasn't until track 4 that the CD came alive to me.  Fairness Justified is a killer slow tempo track that oozes with the classic Stratovarius sound.  It is a slow, heavy melodic rocker, which will get the fist flying and the head banging.  Great melodies and a catchy chorus.  Elysium is a mix of uptempo power metal rockers and slow heavy melodic tunes.  I would say that the record is split between the good and the mediocre.  The good out way the bad on this one, principally based on the (3 part) title track, which frigging rocks.  It is a blend of classic metal and hard rock all mixed into to one.  All in all, a nice CD which signals that the band is on their way back.  The next one should rock balls!

Bottom Line: This album is more guitar driven than the last record and also hearkens back to the classic sound.  I wouldn't say they're there yet, but they are getting closer.  This CD is less reliant on the keyboards and more dependent on the guitars, which is a good thing.

Standout Tracks: Fairness Justified, Lifetime in a Moment, Elysium

- Ragman has renewed faith in Stratovarius

Evergrey - Glorious Collision

After some hits and misses, the remaining lads go back to their roots.Evergrey records have been hit and miss over the last couple of years, so when a new one is released I'm a little nervous because I don't know quite what to expect.  Since 2008's Torn, the band has gone through some significant changes.  In May of last year it was announced that the majority of the group were leaving due to personal conflicts.  After the smoke cleared, only founding member Tom Englund and keyboardist Rikard Zander were left to carry on the Evergrey name.  The result of their labor is their 8th studio album, Glorious Collision.  Let's see how they did.

Glorious Collision brings back the classic Evergrey sound, which die-hard fans have longed for since The Inner Circle.  The opening track Leave it Behind leaves the listener without a doubt that Evergrey are back and they mean business.  This track is classic Evergrey; heavy, melodic and slightly proggy.    Actually, the first 3 tracks on the CD are flawless.   These songs are heartfelt and bleed with passion.  That being said, the whole CD doesn't follow this formula because there are some hints of the modern sound that the band has flirted with over the last couple of records.  The classic sound reigns! Thank You!  It is always scary to hear what a band will sound like after so much turnover, but apparently it was just the shot in the arm that Evergrey needed.

The songs on Glorious Collision are catchy and full of big riffs.  If I had to critique one thing, it would be the lack of prog elements incorporated into the songwriting; I think the band shines when they get proggier.  One other thing lacking was the production.  The sound is kind of empty and the drums sound like empty 55 gallon barrels at times.  Had this been better produced, it would be flawless.  Solid CD and a welcome return to form.

Bottom Line: Evergrey getting back to their roots.  Even though 3/4 of the line up is gone, the band has regrouped and created one of their best offerings in years.

Standout Tracks: Leave it Behind, You, Wrong and The Phantom Letters

- Ragman is please to see one of his favorite bands is back with a vengeance...