ALL OUT

Don Airey is a man who doesn't have to be introduced, I think that everyone knows him as a keyboard-man playing in such famous bands as "Colosseum", "Rainbow", "Black Sabbath" and "Deep Purple". After fantastic "A Light in The Sky" I expected another masterpiece when I found out that he recorded new CD called "All Out". Unfortunately it wasn't so great as I wished. Don't misunderstand me, it's still a decent album full of mind-blowing organ play but somehow it's flat compared with its predecessor. It seems that Don turned too much into headbanging hard rock tunes and slightly abandoned that specific, art-rock feel presented on "A Light in The Sky". However I have to stress that you will find three totally superb compositions here: 2 highly energetic instrumentals and one mini-suite full of different ideas, believe me or not but they make "All Out" worth checking as fast as possible!

Let's look into all 10 tracks prepared for us by this famous keyboardist:

1. "The Way I Feel Inside" - album kicks off with very fast-paced heavy metal track in the vain of "Deep Purple". Not a bad start but could be much better. It's too guitar-oriented for me as I expects more keyboards-driven stuff, it's keyboardist's CD after all... Airey seems to limit himself to simplistic organ riffs here and leaves lots of space for guitarist & vocalist.

2. "Estancia" - and here's the point where "All Out" really begins for me! According to Internet sources "Estancia" is a first movement of Alberto Ginastera's 1941 ballet. I never listened to that ballet, but Airey's version is surely a very "unorthodox" version 'cos it's simply mad! Oh man, I haven't heard such a monster-track from a long time, Airey's Hammond organ is a true destroyer here, like a mammoth damaging your ears with an incredible power. As far as I'm concerned only Ray Vanderby from Australian band "Cosmic Nomads" loves such huge organ sound nowadays, but Don is much more technical player. One crazy composition filled with Hammond blasts, booming bass, crashing drum beat and one chilling Moog synthesizer solo. A winner!

3. "People In Your Head" - another metal song similar to album's opener. This time Joe Bonamassa is guesting on electric guitar, but it doesn't make much difference to me. It's maybe a bit more AOR oriented than "The Way I Feel Inside" but in general it's just a simple headbanger. No prog/art rock here. Airey stays in the background with his organ again. Sure letdown after fantastic "Estancia".

4. "B'cos" - here we are with 2nd instrumental composition. Unfortunately it's completely different than "Estancia". In fact such tracks Don Airey used to place on "A Light in The Sky" as short, 1-minute interludes and it was OK than, but stretching it to 5 minutes wasn't such a good idea. "B'cos" is just a slow-tempo electric guitar solo backed up by Don's organ & poly-synths. More like a movie soundtrack or radio jingle to be honest. Not a total waste, but rather uninspiring.

5. "Running From The Shadows" - very mainstream sounding AOR song filled with repetitive melodies and pop-like singing. Seems to be inspired by 80s Rainbow stuff. From this point I started to seriously worry if I will come back to this album more often in the future...(BTW Bernie Marsden plays guitar here)

6. "Right Arm Overture" - ...fortunately the very next track appeared to be breath taking instrumental which fully satisfied my needs. "Right Arm Overture" is a 7 minutes of pure pleasure for keyboard-prog maniacs. Airey masterfully switches between more complicated, jazz-rock parts and monumental symphonic fragments. I also love that middle- east inspired melody! Real orgy of memorable Hammond lines and crushing solos. In this place I can surely see inspiration taken directly from Keith Emerson, but to be honest Rick Van Der Linden (from "Ekseption" and "Trace") seems to be even better comparison.

7. "Fire" - I'm not a fan of Jimi Hendrix's original and I don't like this cover even more. Simplistic & overlong track with rather annoying vocals. I just don't like Carl Sentance's wailing especially near the end of the song. However organ/guitar interludes in the middle are rather juicy, the rest is mediocre.

8. "Long Road" - almost a carbon copy of "B'cos". Just another overlong guitar solo (this time played by Don's brother - Keith Airey) placed on synth/organ sounds-capes. It's not exactly the stuff I expected, that's all I can say about it.

9. "Wrath Of Thor" - this one is much better! Stomping hard rocker with crunchy Hammond chops and heavy organ riffs. Surely it sounds very much like "Deep Purple" but I don't blame Airey for this, DP is one of my favorite classic hard rock bands. I can also hear some similarities with American stoner rock band "Blood of The Sun". Swirling organ solo is stunning here.

10. "Tobruk" - album finishes with a splendid epic recorded in a truly progressive rock style. In the beginning we can hear some strange wind-like sounds and mysterious Grand piano melody, but after a while Airey hits as with a pompous organ blast & Carl Sentance starts one of his best vocals performances on this CD. And what's next? Everything you should expect from prog-rock suite: frequent tempo changes, furious Hammond and gentle piano solos, Moog flights & deep bass support. I don't know why but when I listen to it I often think about such bands like "Refugee" and "Social Tension", both of them used keyboards in equally elaborated fashion to create the best music out there.

Conclusion: while "All Out" includes more fillers than "A Light in The Sky" it's still a worth having album especially if you're a fan of keyboard-driven extravaganza and/or classic hard rock. Surely it's not east to find such music in 2011! If you like such music I'd also recommend you Australian band "Cosmic Nomads" (yes, I mentioned them already), they also know how to mix heavy organ-based music with some more symphonic elements.

Best tracks: "Right Arm Overture", "Estancia" & "Tobruk"

I wasn't sure how to rate this album, but taking in consideration 3 best tracks I give it 4 stars.

Review by Life Line Project

At a first glance I thought that I was dealing with another average AOR album, when I took out Don Airey's latest album "All Out". I bought it anyway and after having listened to it once, I couldn't stop listening to it for days in a row. It's just great music. All right, it may not be the world's most original album. You can clearly hear the Rainbow roots of Don Airey and you can hear his admiration for albums like "Tarkus" by E.L.P., but what an incredibly well produced album! Don has surrounded himself with an extremely talented bunch of musicians. The band line up consists of Don Airey on all vintage keyboards he could lay his hands on, Darrin Moons on drums, the bass is handled by Laurence Cottle, the vocals are taken care of by Carl Sentence, while the band's guitarist Rob Harris is often substituted or assisted by Bernie Marsden, Keith Airey and even the great Joe Bonamassa.

The vocal parts all show a Rainbow/Purple like style of hard rock, but with a more impressive Don Airey, than what you got when you were actually listening to the Rainbow albums or to the Deep Purple albums. His 2 Hammond organs, amplified by Marshall JCM 900 and driven by the famous rotating Leslie speakers roar like hell. Carl Sentence is a great singer and well up to the job. He may also be held responsible for the lyrics on the album. All vocal songs contain excellent and catchy choruses and are all supplied with the necessary more than average guitar and keyboard solo's. Each song highlights another guitarist and this keeps every one of them interesting to the very last bar.

The hard rock based vocal songs are alternated with very impressive instrumental compositions. Like Keith Emerson on "Brain Salad Surgery", Airey has opted for a composition of Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera (1916 ? 1983). At the moment I am listening to Ginastera's original version of "Estancia", but to be honest I prefer Don's more aggressive Moog and Hammond driven version. The original has a narrator that is interrupting all the time. Don's adaptation sounds more heavy and will certainly please all E.L.P. fans.

The hand of the master is shown when Joe Bonamassa takes the lead in "People In Your Head", a very Purple sounding composition.

Rob Harris displays some great fusion playing in his guitar solo's in "B'cos", co-written by Harris and Airey who supplies the composition with orchestral sounds on his keyboards.

"Running From The Shadows" might well be a hit and houses both a catchy intro guitar lead by Bernie Marsden and a great chorus, supplied by Carl Sentence. The song has a strong Boston- feeling.

One of the strongest and most convincing compositions on the album is the "Right Arm Overture" (a strange place to put an overture). It has a little touch of Arab influences, but soon the sound gets a more classical and baroque feeling. It's a very E.L.P. influenced composition and it shows Don Airey as a real brilliant keyboard player. The great Hammond solo's keep coming and are well alternated with solo's on his collection of Moogs and his grand piano.

The album goes on with one of the most convincing renditions of Jimi Hendrix's "Fire" and again Rob Harris proves to be a genuine guitar virtuoso.

Another highlight on the album is the more jazz-rock orientated "Long Road", co-written with Keith Airey who is featured as the main attraction of the song as well, a great guitarist.

"Wrath Of Thor" will certainly appeal to fans of Deep Purple. It's another proof of the vocal skills of Carl Sentence and the song shows us a Don Airey as we would expect him in Deep Purple.

The main attraction of the album is "Tobruk", a composition of more than 10 minutes that deals will the hell of Tobruk in Libya during W.W. II and which is dedicated to Norman Airey who participated in this battle. It's a first class progrock composition and it justifies my conclusion that this album could well be in every progressive rock fan's collection. There are lots of tempo and character changes that keep you captured right till the end.

It has been long since I had so much fun in listening to a new album, so I can't help it and I will have to reward "All Out" with five stars!

Erik de Beer.

OK, let's get on with the nasties first and see if anything is left to rejoice over.

Airey is a skilled and well-trained musician who contributed reasonable runs on his Hammond to many rather forgettable Pop-Rock albums. On his solo efforts he appears to embrace and replicate the weakest moments of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow - a band he also recorded with in the past.

Nasties first, there is little else left to praise this album. Perhaps the welcome absence of Airey's mate Gary Moore, who plays fast, but lacking substance much of the time.

Airey's solo works appear to be designed to be intentionally mediocre - for whatever reason. A Hammond would sound great even under the fingers of a school kid. Airey fails to make the most of that unique sound.

This album appears to be somewhat less disappointing than his other solo works, but that doesn't make it good. I've made an effort to compile the best pieces from his four solo albums, but dropped that due to frustration for lack of material to make up even a short "Best of" collection. This piece is 2.5 at the most.