Free Metal Monday: Skell-Skell

Self-Release/Independent
2017

Skell is a hard rock/heavy metal band from Spain. The group's influences include Metallica, Alter Bridge, Megadeth, ZebraHead, Godsmack, Nickelback, and Angelus Apatrida (to name just a few). This self-titled release looks as if it is the band's first recording since forming in 2013 and it is a name your price affair. That's kind of surprising given the quality of it, but seeing as it is in Spanish there may be some naysayers. "Whatever" is my response to that noise, metal being a universal language to these ears. Or should that be (guitar-driven and somewhat commercial) hard rock as a universal language? Truth be told, Skell is a little of both and they are (mostly) at their best when they lean one way or the other (half and half doesn't always cut it folks). Either way, Skell suites me just fine and I have a strong suspicion that others will feel the same. That's of course if they give them half a chance.     

The V-Now or Never

Frontiers Music srl
2015

"Now or Never" will drop on July 10th and you had to have known that this would eventually happen. It's just surprising that it took this long. After all we are talking about one hell of a singer here! And there's no way that you could have kept her out of the main spotlight forever! Just in case you're in the dark I'm talking about Veronica "The V" Freeman releasing her own solo album. Yes, that's Veronica Freeman of Benedictum fame and here on "Now or Never" she's leaving the past behind and finally stepping up so that she can fulfill her true destiny. Veronica Freeman is a real, honest to goodness solo artist. In much the same way it took Doro leaving Warlock and both Joan Jett and Lita Ford stepping away The Runaways, Veronica Freeman has move beyond the band that helped make her a household name and finally come into her own. That is should she ultimately decide to take hold of the opportunity. All loyalties aside, "The V" (as Veronica is now known solo project) is simply too good to be held back by Benedictum. For her sake I do hope that she sees that. On the fittingly-titled "Now or Never" The V worked with various songwriters and a huge list of guest musicians in order to create a perfect solo outing. And really that's "Now or Never" in a nutshell. The V's solo debut is jam packed with great melodic hard rock songs that are well-written and proudly executed and there are more than a few numbers here that will ultimately get stuck in your head for ages! Other than the numbers "King For A Day"*, "Love Should Be To Blame"**, and "Again"**, "Now or Never" was produced by John Herrera and from that stand-point you simply can't go wrong! The production on "Now or Never" is top notch and everything falls into place nicely. Obviously Veronica is the album's main point of focus, but even as powerful and passionate as her voice is it never overshadows the album's instrumentation. That's a comforting thought given the (impressive) who's who list of guest musicians (see below) on "Now or Never"! To name just a few we have Michael Sweet (Stryper), Gary Bordonaro (The Rods), Jeff Pilson (Dio, Dokken, Foreigner, etc.), Jimmy Durkin (Dark Angel) and Mick Tucker (Tank). The album opens strong with "Again" and this fantastic number helps set up the disc's great title track and before long you release you've heard three killer cuts in a row by way of "Roller Coaster"! That said, "Now or Never" is really one good song after enough and although I do have my favorites ("Again", "Line In The Sand", "Love Should Be To Blame", "Kiss My Lips", "Spellbound", and "Below Zero") this is easily a album that you could listen to all the way through without every hitting "Skip"! As varied as the guests are on this album (Michael Sweet and Jimmy Durkin?) the music of "Now or Never" is actually fairly consistent. It's essentially hard rock/melodic heavy metal that's been maxed out by Grade A Rock and topped off by Veronica's sensational voice! I will say this. While Veronica Freeman has always been a great hard rock/melodic metal singer (she has the potential to be one of metal's all-time greats!) I really fell in love with her voice on "L.O.V.E." (no pun intended!). On this rock-steady track you will discover that all of a sudden Veronica has adopted the role of rock singer. Not a metal singer. No, she is a rock singer. As in rock and roll. And she is drop-dead sensational in this role! Could The V conquer heavy metal and rock? It's a good question and one that I'd like to ponder. Either way this upcoming album is a deal-breaker. The V needs to be doing her own thing and she should not let anyone hold her back. "Now or Never" is all the proof you need to make that judgment call and if you're a fan of Veronica then this CD will merely reaffirm what you already knew. 



*"King For A Day" was produced by Kenny Lewis.
 
**"Again" and "Love Should Be To Blame" were produced by Michael Sweet.

"Now or Never" Line-up:
 
Veronica Freeman – Lead Vocals
 
Leather Leone – Duet Vocals  on "Kiss my Lips"
 
Tony Martin - Duet Vocals on "King For A Day"
 
Meliesa McDonell- Additional vocals on "Starshine" & Acoustic Guitars
 
Pete Wells, Michael Sweet, Peter Tentindo, Jimmy Durkin, Mick Tucker, Jordan Ziff, and Michael Harris  – Guitars

 Jeff Pilson, Mel Brown, Garry Bordonaro, Aric Avina, John O’Boyle & Mike Lepond- Bass

 Derek Kerswill- Drums
 

Harem Scarem-Mood Swings II

Frontiers Records
2013


Up until maybe a few years back, 3 or 4 max, I was not at all familiar with the name Harem Scarem. A huge part of that had to do with the fact that the band was more popular in their native land and in places like Japan then here in the states. Even though this hard rock band's 1991 self-titled debut album sold well and they scored a hit on the Canadian single chart with "Slowly Slipping Away" (it ended up reaching number No. 25 on the charts back in their home country) they must not have made too much of an impact in the U.S. Or at least not in my part of the U.S. The thing is I actually played connect the dots from the band Blind Vengeance to Harem Scarem. Both lead vocalist Harry Hess and guitarist Pete Lesperance played in Blind Vengeance (which was more of a heavy metal band then Harem Scarem) before teaming up with Darren Smith (drums) and Mike Gionet (bass) to form this band in 1987. After releasing their self-titled debut album in 1991 Harem Scarem released their second album, "Mood Swings" in 1993. Reportedly the band was originally active between 1987 and 2008 before reforming in 2013. It seems as if one of their goals once they reformed then was to go back, re-record that album's 11 tracks all over again and, after adding three new bonus tracks, re-release it in time for it's 20th  anniversary. Fair enough. Now, seeing as I'm still not all that familiar with this group (I have heard quite a bit of their debut album, but not this one) this re-release is new to me. The three new tracks, "World Goes To Pieces", "Anarchy" and "Brighter Day", were all written in such a way as to perfectly blend with the original album. Mission accomplished there I'd say! Also, it is worth mentioning that this 20th anniversary edition of "Mood Swings" include a "making of " video (which I have not seen) and is also set to have four songs broken down into individual audio tracks. the idea being that fans can re-mix the four tracks or play along with the songs. Rather nifty idea right? As far as my take on the album? A few bands come to mind such as Sweet, Whitesnake, Hardline, Night Ranger, Headpins, Def Leppard and Giant. Then again, this band had/has the wild ability to go from near hard rock/hair metal bliss (think sweet rock licks along the lines Van Halen or early Extreme) to AOR (Styx, Night Ranger) and back all without breaking a sweat! Smooth harmonies and hard rock riffs. Imagine that! This was definitely a band that captured the better moments of hard rock/hair metal scene (no doubt leftover from band's Blind Vengeance days) and knew just how to add the right amounts of AOR and traditional rock in order to get a "Best Of Both Words" sound. Why they didn't make it here in the states then is a mystery. Maybe they can this time around. They still have the drive I figure and the musicians involved with "Mood Swings II" (especially Harry Hess) still sound great. It doesn't seem, or rather sound, as if they've aged much. That's both weird and cool. It's funny how some musicians/singers can pull that off while others (by this late in the game) sound like absolute train wrecks! Anyway, besides original members Harry Hess (lead vocals) and Pete Lesperance (who handles both guitar and bass on these re-recorded tracks) you have Creighton Doane on drums and Darren Smith who, in addition to providing background vocals on this album, takes over the lead singer role on "Sentimental Blvd". I know that a lot of these re-recorded/re-worked albums get a bad rap (especially from me!), but these songs sound fresh and come off as remarkably relevant! I could easy hear these tunes being cranked out on rock radio. Hell, they would be a welcome change from a lot of the garbage that's in heavy rotation these days! This one is for the fans first and foremost obviously, but then again you don't have to know all there is to know about this bunch in order to enjoy "Mood Swings II". All that's needed is the desire to hear some cool hard rock/AOR.

WolfPakk-Cry Wolf

AFM Records
2013 

It was back in late 2011 that I reviewed Wolfpakk's self-titled debut album. I remember that it was a cool concept, what with having countless guest musicians joining founding members Mark Sweeney (ex-Crystal Ball) and Michael Voss (Mad Max, ex-Casanova), even if the album was not as good as it was billed to be. In a case of concept being better then the actual product, which seems to be the usual route these sort of multi-guest collaborations go, the band's self-titled album might not have been perfect, but it (admittedly) did have it's moments and I thought it was "cool". Not great or anything, but "cool". Now I find myself staring at album two from Wolfpakk and, just as it was back in 2011, Sweeney and Voss have enlisted countless guest musicians to help out. Also, just like it was on the first album, this pair is responsible for all the song-writing duties (with the except of one cover song by Rainbow) so, groove-wise, it does carry the same kind of flow as album number one. They (Voss and Sweeney) also had the last say when it came right down to what the final project would sound like since they were responsible (once again) for the album's production and mix. While the list of who did what on which particular song wasn't made available on the promo, which would have been nice, at least all of the guests were listed. That being the case I just did a quick little cut and past of that part so, if you're at all interested in seeing who all the guests were (and there are some interesting names on the guest list like Ralf Scheepers, Blaze Baley, Many Meyer and Tony Carey) just scroll down past this review. At the bottom I've also attached my review of their 2011 for comparison sake. OK, with all of that out of the way what does "Cry Wolf" have to offer? More of the same really. Album number one was a mix and match of hard rock & traditional heavy metal and so is "Cry Wolf". On Wolfpakk's brand new album you can expect to hear a slew of catchy numbers that, even with a different cast of characters (guests), sound's similar to the material on album number one. So, even with new guest musicians this time around,  Wolfpakk manages to strike a familiar pose on "Cry Wolf". If catchy hard rock/heavy metal with a (slight) 90's vibe sounds like something you might be interested in then "Cry Wolf" should be a easy call. Everything about it sounds professional and there is a lot of talent backing up Wolfpakk's two founding members. But, if you're looking for more of a gritty, heavy and loud sound out of your metal bands then Wolfpakk is not for you. This is the smooth sound of commercial hard rock/heavy metal so it's target audience isn't going to be the Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica and Megadeth crowd. That is unless you're the type of person who likes both ends of the spectrum (commercial and noncommercial metal) in which case I'd say go for it. Either way this is another good album from a band/project that has a lot going for it. 

Vocals:
Amanda Somerville (Kiske/Somerville), Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Göran Edman (Ex-Yngwie Malmsteen), Johnny Gioeli (Axel Rudi Pell, Hardline), Doogie White (Ex-Rainbow, Michael Schenker), Tony Mills (Shy, TNT), Blaze Baley (Ex-Iron Maiden), Piet Sielck (Iron Savior), Jean-Marc Viller (Callaway)

Bass:
Mike Winkler (Session Musician)

Guitars:
Kee Marcello (Ex-Europe), Mandy Meyer (Krokus, Ex-Gotthard), Roland Grapow (Masterplan), Martin Rauber (Top4tea)

Keyboards:
Don Airey (Deep Purple), Tony Carey (Ex-Rainbow)

Drums:Gereon Homann (Eat The Gun), BrianTichy (Whitesnake /Ozzy), Hermann Rarebell (Ex-Scorpions), Roland Jahoda (Ex-Paradox, F.U.C.K.)

http://metalmark.blogspot.com/search?q=WOLFPAKK