Year : 2011 (Japan Edition)
Style : Melodic Hard Rock , AOR
Country : United Kingdom
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 152 mb
Bio:
Steve Overland is a legend in his own lifetime and needs no introduction to any fan of British rock music.He has a musical history that goes way back into the late seventies and his first major recording was with the band “Wildlife” in 1980.Their first album “Burning” was a fine introduction to his vocal prowess while the second album “Wildlife” in 1983 extended his popularity.This album also featured Simon Kirke (Bad Company) on drums.After the demise of “Wildlife” Steve went on to form the cult British melodic rock band “FM”, a band that released many great albums throughout the eighties and nineties.Steve also released his first solo album in 2008 titled 'Break Away' and has released other albums on the Escape label for the FM spin-off band 'The Ladder'.FM are currently preparing themselves for a headline performance at the 2009 Firefest festival in Nottingham UK.
Album:
SHADOWMAN is a fairly mellow melodic hard rock band. They are a very experienced group of musicians, some members having roots dating all the way back to the 1970’s. You can tell by looking at their photos that they have been around for a while. I am not familiar with them since they are of a genre I don’t really listen to. It’s just a bit too soft for me, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good album. As a matter of fact, this is as good as hard rock gets. As a fan of heavy metal, I could do with more punch, but that would be like asking JOURNEY to play like SLAYER, it’s not their style and my wishes are irrelevant. All the being said, I listen to a great deal of hard rock simply due to the fact that in America and especially where I live in that country, heavy metal radio stations simply don’t exist. That doesn’t mean they don’t play metal, they do, but it’s mostly mainstream metal like METALLICA and AC/DC and a few hit songs from BLACK SABBATH and JUDAS PRIEST, that’s about it.It is safe to say I have heard a ton of hard rock and mostly it’s the dinosaur bands like 38 SPECIAL, FOREIGNER, BOSTON, TOTO, SURVIVOR, etc. These guys are an awesome hard rock band. I cannot believe for the life of me that they don’t get airplay. I simply don’t get it. This album as soft as it is, it’s simply fantastic. I don’t like it enough to pay full price for their previous efforts simply because I am not in the genre, but out of curiosity, I would love to see how good the rest of their catalogue is. Every song is great. The production is stellar and I bet the hard rock fans that like power chords, but clean vocals and mid tempo to slow songs, would eat this up. How in the hell haven’t these guys made it big? According to their bio sheet, Steve Overland has been in previous bands and has a long discography.I wasn’t aware that he had such a huge back catalogue. The reason I allowed myself to discover it through the process of this review is to let you see the discovery I made as it happened, and not act like a know it all simply because I know how to do a Google search. It is important to me that my reviews seem honest and not a product of a man that has read a pre-written biography and pretends to have known it all along. Yes, I do now very much about heavy metal, but this is something else. It will take me months to ingest everything Mr. Overland has done. I simply don’t have the time to take it all in at once. So it is as I suspected, this band while not a whole has made it through at least one individual, the lead singer I couldn’t believe a band with a singer and songs this great were not well known, my suspicions have been confirmed. The lead singer is really big in Great Britain.If you like music with wonderful melodies and very catchy radio friendly music with awesome lead vocals, then you will love this CD. I think it is safe to say this has an AOR flavor to it as well. Don’t expect a heavy metal album out of “Watching over You” and you will get something truly special. SHADOWMAN has delivered an absolutely great hard rock effort.
Line-Up:
Steve Overland (Wildlife, FM, So!, The Ladder, Overland, AOR) - Lead Vocals
Steve Morris (Heartland, Export, Grand Illusion, Message, Newman, Change Of Heart) - Guitars & Keyboards
Chris Childs (Thunder, Bowes and Morley, Broken Wings, Sledgehammer Ledge, The Union) - Bass
Harry James (Thunder, Magnum, Russ Ballard, Terraplane) - Drums
Produced by Steve Morris
Tracklist:
01. Across The Universe (4:05)
02. Renegades (3:35)
03. Cry (5:41)
04. Watching Over You (4:36)
05. Are You Ready (3:49)
06. Suzanne (5:10)
07. Waiting For The Miracle (4:43)
08. Stop Breaking This Heart Of Mine (3:47)
09. Heaven Waits (4:20)
10. Whatever It Takes (3:32)
11. Justify (5:17)
12. Party Is Over (3:58)
13. Angel Of Mercy (3:57) (Japan Bonus Track)
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