EDGE OF FOREVER - review added 19th January 2010
Album Review: Another Paradise (2010)
For fans of: Hard Rock... and unexpected covers
Italian hard rockers Edge Of Forever already have two studio albums behind them - Feeding The Fire and Let The Demon Rock'n'Roll. Their latest release Another Paradise sees the band continuing their former style, now with the revised line-up of Alessandro Del Vecchio on vocals and keyboards, Walter Caliaro on guitars, Nik Mazzucconi on bass, and Francesco Jovino on drums.
Another Paradise also features former Edge Of Forever singer Bob Harris (Axe, Frank Zappa, Steve Vai) contributing backing vocals on 'What I've Never Seen', Roberto Tiranti (Labyrinth) duetting with Alessandro Del Vecchio on the title track, Jgor Gianola (U.D.O., Gotthard, Jorn) offering up a guitar solo, and Carsten "Lizard" Schulz (Evidence One, Domain) with background vocals on 'Edge Of Life'.
The album certainly has an entertaining vibe to it. It majors more on enjoyment value than technical achievement - whether that's a good thing or not I'm not sure. The music is funky, spunky and thoroughly intellectually undemanding.
Much of the guitar frettery hits the spot, as does the key and bass work. The drumming is also very good. However, Alessandro's vocals don't always do it for me. He really is superb in places, but distinctly not in others. Best overall moments include opening track 'Distant Voices', the 1980's rock attack of 'Lonely', the throbbing 'My Revenge', the brilliantly awful cover of Irene Cara's 'What A Feeling' from Flashdance, and the mysteriously retro hard rocking 'Eye Of The Storm'.
In the end this is an occasionally patchy release saved from obscurity by a truck load of enthusiasm, a great feel good factor, a lot of massive choruses, and (that one stroke of deranged genius), the Flashdance cover. It's a real grower of an album. I didn't like it to start with, but it's now climbed into my brain in a big way. Another Paradise isn't paradise, but it ain't far off.
Check out... That cover.
Track List:
01. Distant Voices
02. Another Paradise
03. Lonely
04. Edge Of Life
05. I Won't Call You
06. My Revenge
07. What I Have Never Seen
08. What A Feeling
09. Eye Of The Storm
10. Against The Wall
Label: 7Hard
Artist's website(s): Edge Of Forever , MySpace
