Long Live Music

I know I might sound biased, since I've always loved this band, but the new album of Europe, Last Look at Eden, is really great!

Probably the best since their re-union!

The first song, the title track, (together with an instrumental prelude) is amazing and strikes you out of the sudden!

There's a nice ballad, New Love in Town, and a very interesting song, No Stone Unturned, which probably is not quite typical them, but one of my favorite.

Look forward to seeing them live!

It Bites are finally back, with their new studio album, The Tall Ships, since 1989! I've been waiting for this moment for soooo long!

It Bites are one of my favorite bands ever, and I've known them since the eighties when they release 3 wonderful studio albums!

They're a mixture of pop and progressive, and probably in the eighties that wasn't the right time.

In this new album there's only John Beck and Bob Dalton of the original lineup, and the singer/guitarist, Francis Dunnery, is now replaced by the equally skilled John Mitchell.

I may be biased, but I really think this is one of the greatest album in the last few years, and they actually sound like the original It Bites: the style hasn't changed!

I had already enjoyed the Live album they released a few years ago, When The Lights Go Down, and I was already happy at that time, because It Bites were together again.


Enjoy the listening :-)

Oh My God, Extreme are finally back! This is one of the bands I was missing more!

When I saw the new CD "Saudades de Rock" at the music shop I had no choice but to buy immediately, and I wasn't disappointed! Extreme seem to be back for good, with basically their original sound :-)

The record of theirs I like most is surely "III Sides to Every Story", while their last record date 1995 "Waiting for the Punchline"... well... kind of disappointed me. With this new record they seem to have found their original energy, and Nuno is still a wonderful guitar player (God he plays sooooo great)!

Welcome back!!!

I finally made it to put my hands on the new CD of Tygers of Pan Tang: Animal Instinct.

I cared a lot about this, since the new singer of the band is my dear friend and music colleague (we play together in the Deep Purple cover band, Purple Sucker) Jacopo "Jack" Meille.

I must admit that I don't know the previous works of this band, but this new record really sounds very good!

I would define it nor heavy metal neither hard rock either, but a good mixture of both; the result is a collection of songs that sound good and pleasant to listen to, even from the very first play, where good melody is always taken care of.

Jacopo does a wonderful job as a signer (and I'm not saying that just because he's my friend :-) and the two guitar players, Robb Weir and Dean Robertson manage to build a solid sound which has a direct impact without being too aggressive (of course the whole band sounds great, but as a guitar player myself, I tend to listen to guitar first ;-)

I know I might sound biased, but believe me I'm not! You guys really rock!

Wikipedia says about this band:

King's X is a critically acclaimed American hard rock band noted for its sophisticated music that combines progressive metal, grunge, funk and soul with vocal arrangements influenced by gospel, blues, and British Invasion pop groups.

apart from the "grunge" I agree!

I definitely hate grunge, while I really enjoy this band which I discovered lately, and I don't hear any grunge influence in their music.

I'm listening to some of their records and they are really powerful!

I actually already knew some songs from Faith Hope Love (1990) and I already liked them, but also the other records are really pleasant to hear.

Moreover, I remember that I liked the singer Doug Pinnic (who also plays bass in the band) in the song "Lines in the sand" by Dream Theater where he appeared as a guest singer. Now probably I also understand better the choice of having him as a guest star: many songs of King's X remind me of Dream Theater style!

If you like power rock/metal, take a listen to this band!

Hope you enjoy it as I'm doing right now :-)

Uh, look what I found on Youtube.com!

I've always loved this song and also the video! I remember when I used to enjoy this video in the 80s, when I was watching Deejay Television!

I don't know much about this band, and I only know this song of theirs, which reminds of Roxy Music's sound.

This song is so 80s and also its video (which is quite good, considering the age), and I love 80s music :-)

Here's the brand new album by Eagles, after more than 20 years! I've always loved Eagles (and I also have an Eagles cover band: Kings of Hollywood).

Of course, after such a long time, I was kind of skeptical about this new album, by the way, it's a double CD!

Instead, right after the first listening I was really pleased with it, and still I am. I keep on listening to it with much pleasure. Don't expect anything new from it: it's still Eagles, but that's a nice thing to me, since their sound (which is one of the reasons I like them) is basically still the same.

Don Felder is not in the band anymore, and that's a pity, since I loved this guitarist: he has a very nice musical touch; don't get me wrong, I like Joe Walsh too, but I preferred Don :-)

However, the other guitarist in the band, Steuart_Smith, is very very skilled and he has a wonderful touch too.

The sound is still the same, although a little bit more modern; the record is of course played very well, and with lots of country/melody (typical of Eagles).

One of my favorite song of the first CD is probably "I don't wanna hear anymore", which is much closer to a pop ballad, than to a country song, but that's fine, since I like pop too. While, concerning the second CD I have no doubt: the title track "Long Road out of Eden" is my favorite. It's kinda strange actually, and probably not like the Eagles I used to, but it's very interesting and it hit me right from the beginning. I must admit there's one song that I really can't manage to like: "It's your world now"... but in a double cd that's OK :-)

I heard that some critics are against this record, saying "it's nothing new", but I wouldn't expect anything else, after such a long period, if a band produces a new album, that's the least you could expect from the critics, couldn't you? ;-)

Well, I've also heard that probably these songs had already been written so many years ago, and that they were now re-used for a new album... don't know whether that's true... but I like this record anyway :-)

Happy listening!

As soon as I saw this CD on the music store I had no doubt at all: I had to buy it!

A little regression...

I've always liked Queensryche and in particular, the concept album, Operation Mindcrime was one of my favorites ever. The live they recorded during the Empire tour, Operation Livecrime, when they perform the whole album, is even better than the studio version: so rich of sounds and so filled with energy. The video version of Operation Livecrime is a masterpiece and I enjoy seeing it over and over again: the band is sooo cool, and the moment Pamela Moore enters the stage, performing Sister Mary is emotional!

In my opinion, that was the time the band was at its best. Actually, I still prefer Operation Mindcrime, Empire and Promised Land to their previous works (which sounded too heavy metal for me).

I was disappointed by this band when they released, after Promised Land (which was kind of experimental in some sense), Hear in the New Frontier... I still can't listen to that record, I can't stand it... the sound turned to Grunge, which I hate :-) That was not the Queensryche I was used to.

That record is also sad since it represents the last album before Chris De Garmo left the band. Chris was a great guitarist, a great vocalist (his background vocals were great!) and last, but not least, a great composer. Together with the singer Geoff Tate, he wrote the most beautiful songs of Queensryche.


Then, comes Q2k, which I didn't even buy: I was too disappointed by the previous record, and without Chris... well... it's not Queensryche anymore. I listened to it later... well... it's not that bad, but I didn't like it either.

Then, Tribe, where Chris rejoined the band for some songs... I bought that one, and I didn't mind it; I didn't love it either, but I can listen to it.

Finally, Operation Mindcrime II! It is no competition with the original Operation Mindcrime but it had some nice songs and the concept was still appealing.

Summarizing, I was really curious about hearing the live version of both Operation Mindcrime and Operation Mindcrime II!

Well... I was disappointed again, about the performance of Operation Mindcrime I. Needless to say: I miss Chris... the recording doesn't sound the same... Actually it sounds worse. I definitely don't like the new guitarist, Mike Stone, I don't like his touch, I don't like his sound. Micheal Wilton is still great but without Chris... Geoff doesn't have that voice anymore and in many high parts he changes the melody lowering down. He's still a great singer, though, and his vocals are nice anyway. But, again... without Chris... :-)

Even the way they rearranged some songs does not convince me much.

I must admit, on the contrary, that the performance of Operation Mindcrime II is far better; probably the band is more comfortable with the new material and they do a good job. I also appreciated the songs much more.

The encores: Walk in the Shadows and (one of my favorite, from Empire) Jet City Woman; needless to say, I was disappointed by the version of Jet City Woman... even the intro theme is not played correctly!

Well... I don't regret buying the cd, but I could do without it ;-)

Still, I'd really love to see this band live again! I saw them live in Milan during the Promised Land tour, and at the Gods of Metal, before Tribe was coming out; in the latter live they only played 30 minutes, which was really a pity... if only Chris rejoined the band! :-)

On 25 October I went to see a concert of one of my favorite band: Dream Theater! I've been following this band since 1992, when, after listening to their second album Images and Words, I got really astonished by their music (I'm not talking about virtuosities and technique).

I actually lost the count of the times I saw Dream Theater in concert... probably 18 times I guess!

Whenever they come to Italy I do my best to reach the nearest place of their concert, and this time it was Bologna.

It's always a great emotion to see them live, and it's still hardly believable the way they play live!

This is the tour after their last record, Systematic Chaos. I cannot say it's one of my favorites, but I don't mind it, apart some too heavy metal songs... unfortunately they played such songs at this concert... too bad... :-)

They only played one entire song from my favorite album, Images and Words, i.e., Take the time, (they also played one short excerpt of Learning to live during the encore medley), but probably they cannot always play songs from that record.

However, it was a great concert, and it was kind of funny to see Jordan Rudess play the keyboard guitar (keytar)! Great concert, great band, great songs! :-)

I've come across this band, Soul Sirkus, some time ago listening to their World Play record, and soon enjoyed it! Only afterwards (yes, the persons who made me listen to this record didn't tell me in advance who the musicians were), I found out that there were two of my favorite musicians, Jeff Scott Soto and Neal Schon:

Neal Schon - Guitar
Jeff Scott Soto - Vocals
Marco Mendoza - Bass
Virgil Donati - Drums

I had always appreciated Jeff Scott Soto in the early Malmsteen's albums (I still believe he's the only one to sing I'll see the light tonight) as well as Neal Schon with his great guitar playing in the band Journey, and it didn't come as a surprise I loved this record from the very first listening.

Powerful hard rock, great vocals, and great guitars! Moreover, in many songs, not too hard, and a little bit more melodic (yes I love melodic rock :-). Those kinds of songs you can feel the band itself enjoys to play (at least this was my impression). If you have the chance take a good look at them!

I cannot but start posting on this blog by talking about one of my favorite bands ever: Europe! (see also their page on wikipedia).

They released their new album, Secret Society.

I definitely like this new album, and actually more than the previous one, Start From The Dark. That album is actually very important since it represents their reunion and return after 13 long years! In fact, before Start From the Dark, their last work was Prisoners in Paradise in 1991.


I knew Europe in 1989, during the tour of Out of This World, which is still one of my favorite records ever! That tour (it was actually my second concert ever, the first one was the concert of Eighth Wonder!) was also very important for me, since after I discovered with my eyes that Open Your Heart (my favorite song of that record at that time) was played by a guitar (yes, I was quite ignorant about music at that time :-) - it was played by Joey Tempest on an acoustic guitar - I wanted to start playing guitar. My decision was also due to the fact that I was simply astonished by the way Kee Marcello played guitar in that concert! His playing was fantastic!

Since then, I started buying all the records from Europe. Of course, I already knew The Final Countdown, but basically I knew the most famous tracks. I then listened to all the tracks and all the tracks were amazing.

Then I bought Wings of Tomorrow, another very powerful yet melodic record. I discovered that Open Your Heart was already in that record (although I must admit that the version in Out of This World is much better and sounds greater). This record, more than The Final Countdown, shows what a great guitar player John Norum already was at that age!

Finally, I bought also the first record (simply called Europe). Well, I can't say I don't like it, but surely you can hear they were at the very beginning, of course a great beginning, don't get me wrong! In fact that record contains Seven Doors Hotel, what a song, and what middle part solo!


Having said this, you can imagine the sadness when I got to know in the early 90s that they stopped playing. Of course, each of them had their solo career, but those careers... well... were not very appealing, at least to me!

However, in the late 90s their reunion was in the air; a very good news was their preliminary reunion playing in Stockholm for the new year's day, in 1999-2000. They played in 6, since both John Norum and Kee Marcello played in that concert, although they performed only The Final Countdown and Rock the Night.

Then, the very good news came out few years ago, and the reunion became reality with Start From the Dark! At a first listening I didn't enjoy that record that much; it was surely different from their previous music. However, it is very powerful (surely thanks to John Norum's guitar playing, although I actually prefer Kee as a guitar player) and after the second listening I started enjoying it!

But the magic moment was on November 2004, when they came on tour in Milan for the first time after 13 years! I went there and the concert was simply magic! They played many great songs, basically songs for fans, since they did not choose only the singles, but also old songs such as Seven Door Hotel, and Wings of Tomorrow, and unreleased songs such as Yesterday's News (it was a b-side originally). It was also quite odd the fact that they only played Girl from Lebanon from Prisoners in Paradise.
The second song was Ready or Not, one of my favorite songs ever, with a great solo (originally played by Kee, but played greatly by John as well) and I got really emotional at that very moment. On that occasion they also played Heart of Stone (which was not played later in other dates of tour, at least in Italy, as far as I know).

A really magical moment. On that occasion they only came to Milan, but then, in 2005 they came back with more dates in their tour, and they also came to Florence, my own town, and of course I went to the concert also on that occasion :-) By the way, in that tour, my dear friend Jacopo Meille (who also sings with me our Deep Purple cover band, Purple Sucker) with his own band Mantra, opened Europe's concerts!

Well, now this new record, Secret Society, is great, in my opinion much more than Start From the Dark. Songs are different from each other and they tend to be more melodic (which is something I love most). John's guitar is even better in this record. Unfortunately, the effects on Joey's voice are not that great... probably the voice is far too compressed and in some sense spoils the vocal lines in some songs.

Look forward to seeing them in tour again! Rock On!