Reviews: Lords Of Black, Cruzh, Lipz, Holler (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Lords Of Black – Mechanics Of Predacity (Frontiers Music Srl)

Lords Of Black, or as I know them Ronnie Romero’s day job, once again bring some great power/prog metal with their sixth studio album. Again a showcase for the writing and production abilities of guitarists Tony Hernando, we get another 10 tracks here that stand out as some of the most complex the band have written. A World That’s Departed for example is a three part 11 minute prog epic that is the penultimate song. 

Henando’s playing is full of Blackmore-like deftness and precision, bassist Dani Criado thumps away at the ever changing rhythms while drummer Jo Nunez showcases the power that keeps him a part of Firewind. If you’re a long time reader of this publication you’ll know how keen I am on Romero’s vocals so you can safely assume I like his performance here. 

On I Want The Darkness To Stop where there’s lots of variation, over the acoustics and orchestrations, he’s got the goods, while on the Muse-like Can We Be Heroes Again he uses more of the mid, the same can be said on the Rainbow-esque Crown Of Thorns. The record is built around a concept of how all humans engage in a cycle of predation, using fear, greed, power, but there will always be those that fight back. These ideas are captured well through the explorative music of Lords Of Black.

It's their darkest and most mature album yet, Mechanics Of Predacity keeps these Lords ruling for a while yet. 8/10

Cruzh - The Jungle Revolution (Frontiers Music Srl)

Sweden has a wealth of melodic rock bands and rock bands in general, so they will keep churning them out until the cows come home. Happily none of them are ever sub par as Swedish music quality is second to none. Formed by former members of TrashQueen they had a gestation period where the mysteriously revealed themselves releasing their debut EP in 2013, signing with Frontiers in 2015. 

In 2024 they give us The Jungle Revolution an album that draws from Def Leppard's huge choruses, Winger's technical dexterity and the sort of hard rock that straddled the late 80's and early 90's. From the poppy FL89, the FM baiting At The Radio Station, the rocking Split Personality, to the piano driven opening of SkullCruzher or the country vibes of Sold Your Soul and ballad From Above.

The Jungle Revolution is the band doing their best work as performers and songwriters, collaboration is key Alex Waghorn's vocals and keys utilized brilliantly as guitarist Johan Öberg joins the band to make a twin axe attack with Anton Joensson. It means that there's more depth on these song, the riffs more melodic and on the rockers heavier while the pop flourishes are rammed by hooks. The Jungle Revolution is another slick album from the fertile Swedish scene. 7/10

Lipz - Changing The Melody (Frontiers Music Srl)

Changing The Melody is a glam rock album from a brother combo and not a solo record from the Anvil frontman as I thought it was. Lipz are Alexander (vocals, guitar) and Koffe (drums) Klintberg, Conny Svärd (guitar) and Chris Young (bass) and they are a band that have been around from 2011. 

Changing The Melody is their first album on Frontiers and as is normal with the label, it’s slickly produced radio-friendly rock music with some glam rock touches of Kiss, Cinderella (Freak), Poison et al. Imagine big hair and fitting into the GTA Vice City soundtrack and you’ll be cruising down the right freeway, with the top open of course. 

With the “woah” chorus on the title track, the bouncy Stop Talking About, the strutting I’m Alive along with obligatory ballads, I Would Die For You stealing from Alone by Heart. Lipz debut on Frontiers with the sort of album you’d be expecting, modern glam rock with big choruses. 6/10

Holler - Reborn (Scarlet Records)

After leaving prog metal band Eldritch in 2022, the band he co-founded 31 years ago, Terence Holler went solo and slipped on some comfy loafers and a smoking jacket. Inspired by his upbringing listening to the FM radio AOR staples such as Journey, Toto, Bon Jovi etc, he has tried to recreate those soundscapes here with his debut solo album Reborn. 

Holler's voice throughout is pitch perfect, soulful and gritty to sing songs of love, the main lyrical feature here, as the backing band play saccharine AOR music that has a lot of synths as you'd expect but also some modern pulsating electronics and some killer guitar soloing on Music Is The One. 

The problem is I'll always associate his voice with Eldritch and to hear him singing some very radio friendly fodder is a but weird. There are also hundreds of bands doing this style so maybe things will develop a bit more on later releases. 6/10