Alibi-s/t

Retrospect
2008


Alibi were originally around from the early 1990's until the mid 1990's and never got signed back then, but recently Retrospect signed them up and released this album of recordings from their first run. The first thing that struck me about this album was that the majority of the material reminded much more of the mid-1980's then in it does the early 90's. Perhaps it's the lack of slick production, the direct guitar tone or the lack of sappy ballads, but it reminded more of something that would have been done around 1984-86. What we have here is melodic hard rock with some seriously strong vocals and decent enough song writing. They sound a bit like Dokken, Icon and perhaps even early Queensryche plus they even have a slight hint of some various AOR influences as well. They spend little time with build-up and primarily jet straight into each song which is a plus. Alibi do a decent of job of mixing up the styles between rockers and slow tracks. I love the A few tracks overstay their welcome and they could benefited from tightening some songs here and there. By the band's own admission they were getting things together about the time grunge had run hard rock out of town so they had little hope of getting signed. However if you are a fan or mid-80's sounding hard rock with sharp solos and powerful vocals then there is a lot to appreciate about this disc. It may be fifteen plus years after the fact, but at least this band now gets the satisfaction of seeing their music get released.

www.myspace.com/alibimetal