Chris Laney-Pure

Metal Heaven
2009

Chris Laney is one busy man. As a producer/engineer he has worked with the likes of Candlemass, Europe, Crashdiet, Brian Robertson and others. As a musician/songwriter he has played with Randy Piper's Animal and Zan Clan in recent years. Even on this his first solo album he co-produced, co-wrote, played all guitars and sang. That's the background and I certainly liked those albums from Animal and Zan Clan, but the real question was what could Laney do on his own? It doesn't take long to realize that Mr. Laney is quite capable of putting together some high quality melodic metal. The songs here call up a variety of influences including 80's KISS, Def Leppard, 80's Alice Cooper and Animal. Perhaps what works best on this album is that it's smooth when needed, but heavy and forceful as well. Both type of parts are handled with the same amount of ease and confidence. In many ways this is an album where the sound is certainly influenced by mainly late 80's/early 90's music, but it's more active and vibrant. Laney is a fine guitarist and rips out some blistering solos as needed. He is also a surprisingly effective and even versatile vocalist as well. Since he has worked with a number of musicians, he decided to call on some guests on this release including Martin Sweet (Crashdiet), Zinny Zan (Zan Clan, Shotgun Messiah), Vic Zino (Hardcore Superstar) and others. The only complaint I had about this album is the song placement as many of the heavy songs happen early on and the albums wraps up with some more mellow tracks. Still a fine effort as Chris Laney shows he can indeed deliver some solid material of his own.

http://www.myspace.com/chrislaney