Heavy Metal Resource Reviews-Pop Evil, Little Caesar, CoreLeoni, Felskinn, and Shiraz Lane

Index

To start off, I really like Pop Evil. I have found through each album that there is more to like than dislike. The latest self titled release once again has some pretty cool stuff on it. The album starts heavy and a bit dark sounding in tone, but as things progress it lightens up quite a bit and becomes quite a bit more mainstream. Some people will like this, others probably will not. It gives the album an uneven feel, but at the same time you could look at it as quite a variety of songs. It's all in the way you look at it. To me, I like the album, but feel there are other albums I would go to first. That being said I will still keep an eye on what this band does in the future and give them an honest shot. There is a pretty cool groove when the album does tempo down a bit. It becomes more groove oriented than heavy. Definitely check this out and form your own opinion.

Release Date: February 16, 2018

The first two albums by Little Caesar still get plenty of listen time to this day. I like the bands raw hard rock style and the cool vibe they seem to always exhibit. 'Eight' is another platter of good songs that in ways would fit in with the earlier material. The album has a nice even feel to it and once again the band stick with what works for them. You get that Blues influenced sound with a lot of grit. This band has always offered up music that is easy to translate to the live show and this album is no exception. I go into each album by the band looking for songs that stand out like past favorites 'Cajun Panther', 'Slow Ride', or even the hit 'Chain of Fools'. From this album I would go with the tracks 'Crushed Velvet' and 'Good Times'. It's all pretty decent sounding, but those two songs are personal favorites. Glad to see the output still coming from Little Caesar!

Release Date: March 16, 2018

Hard to believe that it's been 25 years now for Gotthard. CoreLeoni is a project featuring Leo Leoni and Hena Habegger of Gotthard along with Rainbow vocalist Ronnie Romero and Jgor Gianola and Mila Merker rounding the musical unit out. The majority of the material on this record is paying tribute to Gotthard and features great classic tracks from the band. Romero does an amazing job vocally and has very similar vocal qualities like the late Steve Lee. There is one new track on the album titled 'Walk on Water' that is up to par with the rest of the music on the album and is also visualized in a video via Youtube. The album has a great track selection and everything sounds very good as you would expect considering the reasoning for this release. I enjoyed this one and will go back to it time and time again as I do the Gotthard catalog!

Release Date: February 23, 2018

Felskinn actually dates back to 2005. The band had made a run for a few years but became non-functioning for a while. I was not personally familiar with the band until now, but have taken notice with this new record 'Mind Over Matter. The band features members of Krokus, Maxxwell, and Live/Wire and plays in a heavier hard rock sound that fans of Gotthard and Shakra will appreciate. The album has some good punch to it and has a decent amount of flash in the musicianship. In a nutshell, this band exemplifies what good hard rock is about. Excess. Getting down to business and delivering it in a fairly traditional manner. Definitely played the way bands used to play it in years gone by. This is a pretty easy album to recommend to fans of the heavier side of music and should make some noise on the scene. Loud and solid, just the way we like it!

Release Date: March 16, 2018

Latest album from the melodic hard rockers out of Finland. That country is one of the hot spots when it comes to rock music. Shiraz Lane comes from one end of the spectrum and offers up not only good hard rock, but in some ways a slightly different feel from a lot of bands in the genre. I always tend to have Killer Dwarfs pop into my mind when listening to the two albums I have, but this is even slightly different than that. The music is particularly strong with melody carrying it. This album shows the band evolving and even more confidence shining through. In some ways in the sound it has me thinking Hanoi Rocks as well due to having a different sound. I feel the band has a lot going for them and two records full of very good material. The inspiration of others is there, but make no mistake, this band stands on it's own as a force for the future of melodic rock!

Release Date: February 23, 2018