What we have here is a reissue of the debut album from Empire, with three additional tracks, which was originally released on Lion Music back in 2001. This was a project put together by German guitarist Rolf Munkes (ex Majesty, ex Razorback, Crematory), and between 2001 and 2007 they released four albums. The line-up for the debut is almost like a who’s who of session musicians, with American singers Mark Boals (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen) and Lance King (ex Nightmare) on vocals, Neil Murray on bass (Whitesnake, Brian May Band, Black Sabbath etc.), Gerald Klos (drums), Anders Johansson (drums, ex Stratovarius) and Don Airey (keyboards, ex Rainbow, Deep Purple).
It isn’t surprising that the performances are bang on, and the melodic hard rock stylings are pleasant, if somewhat sanitised and Americanised. It is an album that can be played and it won’t offend anyone, but whether you’ll remember any of the songs afterwards is another matter altogether. Someone at Pride & Joy is obviously a fan, as the plan is to reissue all four albums at three month intervals, with some additional music. Whether the standard AOR fan will be as excited may be another matter altogether, but apparently the next two albums which featured Tony “Cat” Martin, are far superior to this, so it might be a matter of wait and see. This isn’t a bad album by any stretch, but it’s not a showstopper either.
