Sultans Of String ~ Refuge

 

This band makes classical instruments sound so excellent, half the time, you forget that it is all a bunch of string instruments. The players on this album really know their instruments. Out of the 13 songs, there is only 1 that didn’t make it up to the rest. That song, to me, was “I Am A Refugee”. The message was good, the instruments were really good, but the vocals didn’t work well for me. They weren’t bad, but, it was mostly spoken, which took away from the song. Other than that, this album gets 5 out of 5 Music Guru stars. Even in this time of the corona virus, I wanted to get up & dance with this album.

Archon Angel ~ Fallen

 

This album, which should make heavy rock fans happy, is a blend of artists that you may have heard of before. Included in this roster is Zak Stevens (vocals), Aldo Lonobile (guitars), Yves Campion (bass), Marco Lazzarini (drums), Antonio Agate (keyboards) to form Archon Angel. The music was tight & smooth, the vocals were good, but, at times didn’t feel right. All in all, it is a good album. A great album? No! A good album? Yes! You give it a try & let me know what you think. The album cover artwork is great. I rate this 3.5 out of 5 Music Guru stars.

Biff Byford ~ School Of Hard Knocks

 

This album from Biff Byford is plain old fun Rock, with that heavier sound. Of course, it’s heavy. What would you expect from the front man of 1980’s rock band Saxon? A good rockin’ band with vocals that are mostly very good. Sometimes the vocals didn’t fit the song, but, that may just be me. The album starts off strong with “Welcome To The Show” and for the next 10 songs that follow, you’ll find that you’re grooving along with them as well. I wasn’t grooving right away, but as the album went on through different songs, including a cover of Simon & Garfunkle’s “Scarborough Fair”, the album just keep getting better. Even though that song was not anywhere near as good as the original, it did surprise me in a good way. That song, by Simon & Garfunkle is perfect, & Biff Byford did make it his own, but, not as good as the original. This is Biff’s first solo album, and future endeavors may be even better. Give this album a try. I think you’ll like it. It is not as hard as Saxon, but, that works for me as well. I give this 4 out of 5 Music Guru stars.

Coming soon…

Coming soon… Cora Paige & Biff Byford album reviews.

Annie Barbazza ~ Vive

 

I was disappointed with this release. There is nothing wrong with it. It just didn’t go anywhere until the very last song. That’s when the music started to move me. Annie can sing, but, most of the album is very slow, boring & not bringing forth what she can do. The last song brought this album up to only 3 Music Guru stars. I hope she brings forward what she CAN do, on her next album.

Pure Reason Revalution ~ Eupnea

 

This one took me by surprise, not in a way that you may think. Most things on the Inside Out label are usually the finest in progressive rock. In this case, it was just OK. There are 6 songs on this album. Out of 6, only 5 are OK. the last song, which is the title track “Eupnea” is the only song on this album which proves that Inside Out still has their musical stuff intact. This  song makes the whole album worthwhile. Again, the 5 other songs are not bad. They’re just not up to what I expected from this label. I hope that Pure Reason Revalution goes further into the prog realm, than this album did. This album, only gets 3.5 out of 5 Music Guru stars. The cover is really neat.

Artists For Peace And Justice

 

This album really exceeded my expectations! Even with some of the songs, in different languages, I happily grooved without knowing what they were singing about. The person who mixed this album, did it so perfectly, that I thought that I was listening to vinyl. That is how good the mix was. Perfect. There were 2 songs that featured Jackson Browne, that were, of course, excellent as well. The other songs were by people that were unknown to me, but, they really made this album great. All of the songs on this album were excellent. Get this one, you won’t be disappointed. I give this 5 out of 5 Music Guru stars.