After seven years of Hartmann (during which time Oliver has also been working with Avantasia and other projects), a decision has been taken to release a compilation culled from the five albums to date, along with a few live numbers. This is class cut after class cut, with Oliver and the guys really nailing one melodic hard rock masterpiece after another. Whatever you want from melodic rock is here, and I had already fallen in love with this after only a few numbers. Then I got to the live songs that have been added to the end, and as normal I was doing something else when I played the album for the first time. The first of the live songs is “Brothers”, which features, but it is the final song of the set that really got my attention. Nearly forty years ago I came across an album called ‘Rebel’, and when I played it I fell in love with the very first song, as I felt that I had found words to live by, something that would resonate for the rest of my life. All these years later those words still mean the same, and if I could think how to make a decent tattoo out of it I would have it inked.
The artist was John Miles, and the song was of course “Music”. I have never come across a cover version, as someone would have to have a brilliant arrangement or be very stupid to try to attempt it, but here I’m glad to say that it is definitely the former and Oliver nails it. A great end to a great album – for fans of melodic rock everywhere.
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