Iconic - II (Frontiers Music Srl)
Another Frontiers supergroup combing the talents of some of the labels highest profile stars.
Iconic features Micheal Sweet (Styrper), Joel Hoekstra (Whitesnake/TSO) on guitar, Marco Mendoza (ex-Dead Daises/Black Star Riders) on bass, drummer Tommy Aldridge (Whitesnake) and vocalist Nathan James (Inglorious) so they're a pretty super supergroup by anyone's metric.
II is their second studio album and it's the sound of a band who are at ease with each other, their debut Second Skin was the coming together of musical muscle from across the years, II then is them working as one classic rocking body, producing music that all at once is inspired by their experience but is also totally their own.
On album number 2, Sweet and Hoekstra cement their guitar partnership, trading off on each other as Sweet shows a side to him you may overlook in Stryper keeping up with the hotshot almost a decade younger with the killer riffs (Take Me To The Place) and leads that are packed into these eleven tracks.
Beneath them are grooving bottom end of Mendoza and Aldridge who have huge also have gelled combining their experience to power tracks such as Open My Eyes, where Antonio Agate adds some Hammond organ to firmly define the era of rock we're looking at here.
Thankfully with all these late 70's, early 80's rock anthems coming from Iconic they have a powerhouse vocalist who can summon the likes of Robert Plant, Ian Gillan, David Coverdale and Chris Thompson (shown with his role in Jeff Wayne's War Of Worlds), bellowing in the low end and soaring up high on Tears Keep On Falling.
II defines the band Iconic want to be, a classic rock supergroup that pick up where Whitesnake left off in 2022. 8/10
Lalu - A Mythmaker's Demise (Frontiers Music Srl)
Vivien Lalu's progressive rock/metal project returns with a new album and a 20th anniversary as well.
Founded in 2005, the recent Frontiers records have opened up his melodic prog metal to a whole new audience with influence of Yes (Prince With The Swift Warning), Toto (Tears Of The Muse) as well as Rush (Cordial Weaves), Threshold, Porcupine Tree and any band who divide their time between classical, rock, folk, metal and even pop textures.
Lalu has been making 70's inspired prog rock fused with progressive metal grunt for 20 years and you get every day of this experience on A Mythmakers Demise, Lalu's vision to create albums without too much trickery: "no drum samples, next to no EQ, just real performances captured in their natural state”.
Lalu's keys, organs, Moogs, pianos playing a core part of these dense soundscapes, though on three of the tracks Jens Johansson of Stratovarius and Yngwie Malmsteen provides some solo genius as he is so very known to do in both those bands.
Vivien's longtime musical partner Joop Wolters also getting plenty of scope to play some killer guitar and bass parts, adding folky touches with A Drop Of Water, while taking solos and melodies and riffs for all of these tracks, his guitar playing stellar but his bass work also needing to be highlighted.
He's been a frequent collaborator with Lalu for a while now so their synergy is well honed, but A Mythmaker's Demise features some guests from the past such as Jens but also Martin LeMar returns on vocals having been the first vocalist of the project while behind the drum kit is Simon Phillips who also comes back to the project from the early days.
20 years of progressive rock finery, Vivien Lalu doesn't seem to be running out of ideas or musicians to collaborate with. Classic prog fans rejoice as A Mythmaker's Demise, album number five, is another quality addition to the legacy. 9/10
Ian Parry's Consortium Project VI: Legacy Of Empires (Frontiers Music Srl)
If there's an artist who embodies the idea of collaborative projects it's the grandfather of progressive metal concept projects himself Ian Parry, a contemporary of Arjen Lucassen he's been in the prog opera industry around the same time and with this new album, the sixth chapter of the Consortium Project, he's celebrating 45 years in the music industry.
It's the first Consortium release since 2011, and while Parry has been busying himself with his solo career and Rock Emporium project, so he's not been sleeping but a big chunk of his fanbase will have been clamouring for this record for a long time. Parry then returns to the Consortium world reuniting with the who's who of artists that have been part of the project for a long time.
He's got a core band that share the major bulk of the recording, three guitarists, who play, rhythm, acoustic and some lead on nearly every track, two of them also adding keys/synths to the majority of the songs, as Allan Sørensen plays all the drums except when Kamelot man Casey Grillo takes the kit for the final track.
It's in the bassists where there's the most guest slots as Kristofer Gildenlöw joins alongside three more guests and the two "main" bass players. There's some guests vocalists and organists all adding to the sweeping cinematic arrangements of Consortium, Ian Parry gathering musicians that do or have played with Vanden Plas, Kamelot and Pain Of Salvation to create a progressive metal band worth several supergroups.
With Ian Parry's distinct vocals leading every track, this return to the world of the Consortium Project continues a legacy that will keep fans very happy and will surely bring a whole new set of listeners into the Parry progsphere. 8/10
Zan/Cody - Beautiful 'N Damned (Frontiers Music Srl)
Formed by Shotgun Messiah's guitarist Harry Cody and original singer Zinny Zan, with that Swedish sleaze institution now put to bed, the duo have reconvened to form Zan/Cody, another collaboration act through Frontiers Music.
Beautiful 'N Damned is the debut album for this new project and it brings Harry and Zinny together for the first time since Shotgun Messiah's debut album in 1989. What's changed over that time? Well not much as Beautiful 'N Damned brings swaggering street metal riffs and solos, along with a sleazy, sneering vocal delivery, wrapped up in modern rock production.
It's gritty and melodic with references to Ratt, Warrant, Pretty Maids and Shotgun Messiah of course, but they also bring their experience factor to the tracks to rekindle the songwriting partnership they had all those years ago, merging those sleaze beginnings with musical genres that have happened since.
From the Def Leppard thump of I Am The Shit, Ride Or Die which reminds me of the The Cult, as Damn shifts like latter Thin Lizzy. While Suffer City could easily be on Winger's Pull record and She Walks With Violence is Depeche Mode moodiness, however most of you will be here for Let's Be Heroes, Bad Bad Man and Tear It All Down.
Keeping the Shotgun Messiah legacy alive under the name of the founding members, Zan/Cody are still rocking hard 37 years later. 7/10
