It has been six years since their last album, but French band Shannon are back with their third. There have been a few line-up changes since the last one, but the band have not only replaced those who have left but have also added some guests in Harry Hess (Harem Scarem), Tony Mills (Shy, TNT), Paul Sabu, Praying Mantis & Sideburn members who assist with backing vocals etc. They describe their sound as “the perfect alchemy between classic US melodic hard rock and typical European influenced NWOBHM sound, delivering a music as powerful as it is melodic.” Whenever I see comments like that I just have to take it with a huge pinch of salt, and that is definitely the case here as while this is okay, t certainly isn’t brilliant. Singer Olivier Del Valle has an annoying habit of being fractionally off key here and there, which after a while I no longer found endearing but rather annoying. The songs themselves are okay, but easily the finest part of their music are the guitar solos with some fine runs.
This is one of those albums where the more I played it the less I enjoyed it, and whoever thought that they could get away with a melodic rock version of the Communards’ “Smalltown Boy” needs to be taken out and shot. Luckily it is the very last song on the album, but it shouldn’t be there at all as there is nothing positive that can be said about it whatsoever!
