| Another BA album from
Bulgarian guitarist Nikolo Kotzev, who is famous for
recruiting high profile names for his projects, last one being Nostradamus
opera couple of years back . He’s worked with plenty of talented
vocalists before and on ”Guilty As Sin,” he’s again
hooked up with Jorn Lande, Göran Edman
and Joe Lynn Turner who all appeared on Nostradamus.
Impressive list of singers with previous gigs including Rainbow, Yngwie
Malmsteen and Masterplan among others, they take on and sing
4 tracks each. Other musicians once again include the Europe rhythm
section, John Leven on bass, Ian Haugland
on drums and Mic Michaeli on keys. Kotzev himself plays
various range of instruments, guitar, keyboards, percussion etc. According
to Kotzev’s liner notes, most of these songs were written from
painful personal experiences and lyrics definitely reflect a certain
sadness.
But let’s go through it track-by-track
first:
One Life To Live
Great opener, classic hard rock sound with Turner taking the lead. This
sounds very much like any number of tracks from Turner’s HTP album.
There’s a slightly different keyboard sound here but other than
that this song could have been there.
Eye On The Horizon
Another slower but solid piece. Lande sings this one and I noticed the
chorus sounds quite close to Jorn’s own track “Starfire.”
I instantly connected the two songs there, though other than that they
are clearly different. And also Kotzev plays a blinding guitar solo
here.
I’ll Be Free
First ballad and seems a bit out of place here, being the third song
on the album. It’s Edman’s turn and he sings fine, although
I have to admit this song didn’t set my world on fire. Not bad
but after the first listen I found myself pressing the skip button..;)
Slip Away
Now this is great! Excellent up-tempo track, with fantastic choirs,
melodies, guitar/keyboard interplay and awesome vocals by JLT. The best
so far!
Mr.Earthman
Opens with very Deep Purple type of organ sound and then moves on to
Stormbringer and earlier styled Whitesnake. It’s kind of cool
to hear this type of classic material done in 2003.
Like Jonah
With choirs and multiple backing vocals, this one sounds like a left-over
from Nostradamus. A good track still, although the lyrics are stupid
in places: “Like Jonah was swallowed by that fish, unintentionally
became the dish.” Oh well.., ;)
Bring The Colors Home
It’s Whitesnake-time again with “Still Of The Night”
thrown in at the beginning and later becomes very AOR-style ballad.
Nothing special here.
Fool’s Confession
Again references to Nostradamus-project in sound and style. A bit like
1970’s UFO as well. A solid track.
Supernatural
Excellent song! Another belter from Turner. This song has a great drive
and superb chorus once again. Reminds me of Bent Out Of Shape-era Rainbow.
Eve
Led Zeppelin? Sounds like it in places, melodic and emotional ballad
sung by Edman. Highlight of the slower songs here.
Whole Lotta Woman
Well, this must be the closest rip-off of 1980’s Whitesnake I’ve
ever heard! Right down to lyrics and everything. And of course with
Lande singing he sounds like a carbon copy of David Coverdale.
Can’t name an exact song, but you know “Fool For Your
Lovin’” “Slide It In” etc…Good track
but not too original.
Guilty As Sin
One of the best songs on the album, and also the heaviest with one of
my favourite guitar riffs in a long time appearing at the four minute
mark. There’s something instantly familiar with this song like
many others on the record, Deep Purple’s “Mistreated”
comes to mind and some other track I can’t for the life of me
remember. Anyway, Turner does good work with vocals but maybe Jorn should
have sang this epic, could have been even more menacing. But this is
just a minor thing. Towards the end there’s some neatly arranged
violins and other instruments placed on top of the guitar riffing. Brilliant
and a perfect way to end this album!
----------------------------------------------------
Conclusions…this is a very good
album. Sound is clear and crisp, all musicians do great work and there’s
definitely a touch of something special here. Despite the use of different
vocalists, the whole thing sounds very much complete. One funny thing
I noticed after listening was that the songs sung by JLT are clearly
the strongest on the album, while Edman’s are “least good.”
(except “Eve” - that one’s great) Jorn’s tracks
seem to be somewhere in the middle.
Anyways, some critics might say we
have all heard this before, and certainly if you are looking for something
completely new from these artists maybe you should look elsewhere. Because
nothing new, nothing earth shattering can be found here. You could even
go as far as saying they rip off various artists here. But that shouldn’t
matter if the songs are good, and if you are into classic, well-played
heavy/hard rock in vein of old Rainbow, Deep Purple, Whitesnake or UFO
then Guilty As Sin is strongly recommended!
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