MEAN MACHINE

Dear old Lawton is back on the vocals after a five years hiatus. I wouldn't blame Mike Starrs who was responsible of the vocal department for the last two albums; because the descent of this band started far beyond this replacement.

Anyway, what one gets here is straight forward hard-rock music with little angle for sophistication ("One Way Street To Heartbreak"). And I am not even talking about prog of course. To compare this album with the giants of the genre (Led Zep, Purple or Sabbath) is quite daring as far as I am concerned?

It holds much more the comparison with second or better said third tier bands and it definitely leans on AOR sounds for most of the time ("Fire & Rain"). The best song from this work is undoubtedly "Cool Hand Killer" which is a real ? killer for sure: a superb beat, incredible guitar and great vocals. In one word: solid.

The poppish "Action" also features some great guitar lines and a frenetic beat. The more diverse track is "One Night Sensation". It holds some nice rhythm changes, powerful vocals and fine synthesizers.

Globally, this is not too bad an album: zero on the prog scale but five out of ten in terms of good old hard rock. Still, it lacks something to reach the three star levels.