EZOO - Feeding The Beast (2017)

Genre - Hard Rock

Label - earMusic

Track listing:

01. You Are Your Wallet
02. The Flight of the Sapini
03. C'est la Vie
04. Guys from God
05. Feeding the Beast
06. Eyes of the World
07. Colder Than Cool
08. Too High to Be Falling
09. Motorbike
10. Since You Been Gone
11. Don't Look Back
12. Coda

EZOO is an exciting new project that see's to of hard rocks heavyweights combining forces to produce something completely new. Legendary lead vocalist Graham Bonnet (Rainbow / Alcatrazz / Graham Bonnet Band) teams up with renowned guitarist / songwriter / producer Dario Mollo (Crossbones / Mollo, Martin (with Tony Martin) / Voodoo Hill (with Glenn Hughes) / Noize Machine) to produce what has got to prove to be one of the best heavy rocks years of the year.
Drawing on the experience of these two rich Rock careers, the two leaders of EZOO obviously know how to craft a killer Hard Rock song or two.
The opening track is 'You are Your Wallet', a catchy, upbeat hard rocker, the perfect song to start the album. Mollo's riffs are to die for and Bonnet shines.
'C’est la Vie' is a killer, groovy heavy tune with lots of melody and superb solos, then the 'Guys from God' provides even more classic riffs and elaborated harmony vocal arrangements. Title track,  'Feeding the Beast', is a melodic song with strong guitar riffs, very much in the vein of Tony Martin solo album or track that might have appeared on one of the three Cage albums, with its different passages (some awesomely atmospheric) where Bonnet’s vocals are amazing.  'Motorbike', a punchy hard rocker plenty of magic, and Bonnet here simply kills. You would never know that he is almost in his 70's.
Also included on the album are two of Bonnet’s classic tracks he recorded with Rainbow; 'Eyes of the World', which is driven by a great rhythm, and the classic 'Since You Been Gone'. Here Mollo has provided his own musical spin to them, and Bonnet feels like fish in the water. His performance is as good in 2017 as he did in the originals.
Joining Bonnet and Mollo on this project are long time Mollo collaborators, Dario Patti, Guido Block (bass) and Roberto Gualdi (drums), and together they manage to pull off that real band sound, as opposed to just sounding like a studio project.

'Feeding The Beast' is a really strong album that more than surpasses an expectations a casual listener may have had prior to listening to it. Lets just hope that this doesn't turn out to be a one off project, because I would love to see what other magical gems these guys could come up with!



Rating: 10/10

Glenn Hughes - Resonate (2016)

Genre - Hard Rock

Label - Frontiers Music

Track listing:

01 - Heavy
02 - My Town
03 - Flow
04 - Let It Shine
05 - Steady
06 - God of Money
07 - How Long
08 - When I Fall
09 - Landmines
10 - Stumble & Go
11 - Long Time Gone

"Resonate" is the first GLENN HUGHES solo album in eight years, and is to be released via Frontiers Records.
To say that "Resonate" lives up to its name is to understate Glenn Hughes’ pivotal role in hard rock related music. Both his music and his stage performance has always been about the twin pillars of drama and dynamics and he reverts to type here.
From his constant rumbling bass and stratopheric vocal whoops that transform a heavy duty groove into something unexpected, to the bone crunching guitar lines of co-producer Soren Andersen, Hughes and his band move every last air molecule in the studio.
Given that this is his first solo album for 8 years, he works hard to re-confirm his hard rock credentials. There’s barely a tip of the hat to his mid 90′s jive ass funk and blue eyed soul, except for ‘Landmines’, which combines funk and a vocoder break, and the closing rock ballad ‘Long Time Gone’.
The title track ticks all the right boxes as his impassioned phrasing provides a sharp contrast to the booming rhythm track. His sudden vocal swoop into the hook announces that ‘The Voice of Rock’ is back.
‘Resonate’ reveals more with each play as there’s so much going on. From Chad Smith’s bombastic drums on the opening title track - albeit Pontus Engborg puts in the main shift on the album – through Hughes’s pulsating bass to Soren Andersen’s distorted (but clean) guitar lines and the album’s overall enveloping sound, this is hard rock as it was meant to be.
That said, it’s also an album that belatedly leaves the heavy rock template at the three- quarter mark, as it goes in search of other musical directions.
Indeed by the extended blow of ‘How Long’, the heavy approach seems to have run it’s course, as keyboard player Lachy Doley adds a mid-number keyboard break that compared to his impressive riffing on ‘Steady’ sounds like a filler solo.
But there’s plenty of good stuff leading up that point. Hughes adds a trademark vocal on both the booming title track and the hook of ‘My Town’.
He’s also at his most expansive on the catchy ‘Let It Shine’, the Deep Purple influenced ‘Steady’ and the soulful ‘When I Fall’. And it’s on these highlights that the band members complete a reverse arc from the opening bluster to later more restrained approach that allows them to broaden their musical palette.

Hughes vocal performance, which, just like his ripping bass lines, is the cornerstone of a big sounding album. He confidently brings his full range to bear on a wide variety of material that showcases his ability to rock as well as nuance some introspective emotive moments
On ‘Let It Shine’ we have to briefly plough through rumbling bass lines and distorted guitar tones before an uplifting hook resolution that stays long in the memory. Soren Andersen’s subsequent gnawing guitar break drags us over the coals.
This track is the moment when the band is in perfect synchronicity as it counterbalances Hughes’s hard rock credentials with his soulful style vocals.
"Resonate" certainly lives up to its name. It’s an album sculpted by layered parts and shaped by a huge wall of sound that accommodates every element of Glenn’s bristling persona. He’s an indefatigable performer who rocks, grooves and gets just as soulful in the studio as he does while treading the boards.
Ultimately Glenn Hughes imbues the hard rock template with sundry possibilities, but just like a stick of rock the end result comes stamped all the way through with his unique DNA.

An Essential Release!!!

Rating: 10/10

Dario Mollo, Tony Martin - The Third Cage (2012)

Genre - Hard Rock / Melodic Rock / Metal
Label - Frontiers Records

Track listing:
01. Wicked World (4:28)
02. Cirque du Freak (4:11)
03. Oh My Soul (4:57)
04. One of the Few (3:59)
05. Still In Love With You (4:19)
06. Can’t Stay Here (4:05)
07. Wardance (5:56)
08. Don’t Know What It Is About You (4:51)
09. Blind Fury (5:02)
10. Violet Moon (7:34)

"Dario Mollo and Tony Martin first got together when the Italian guitar player/produced and composer needed the right singer after the put together a new set of songs in the late 90’s. The former Black Sabbath singer came about on a suggestion from producer Kit Woolven (UFO, Thin Lizzy) with whom Dario Mollo had been working during his Crossbones years. Tony Martin wrote lyrics and melodies for the amazing tracks that Dario had already assembled, and thus The Cage was born.

The first album, released independently in 1999, gained a great success among the Hard Rock fans and the critics and Dario started finally to make himself a reputation over the international markets. This debut was later followed by an equally acclaimed second album in 2002.
Mollo has been very busy since then, releasing one more album with the Voodoo Hill project with Glenn Hughes. He then toured Europe with Graham Bonnet and Don Airey. After Don became a permanent Deep Purple member, Dario and Graham Bonnet put up Elektric Zoo, touring Europe again, performing songs from Rainbow, Alcatrazz, Voodoo Hill and The Cage. In 2008 Dario released an album with the more alt-rock Italian band Noize Machine, before getting again to work on a new set of Hard Rocking songs for a new record with Tony Martin.
“As usual we are 50/50 partners”, explains Mollo. “I write all the music and Tony then contributes with the melodies and lyrics. We also try together different structures of the tracks and we rearrange them to better fit the vocal parts. Then I go ahead and take care of the entire production of the album, tracking, mixing and mastering”.
The songwriting, the sound and the video production of this new project are absolutely stunning and show the great skills that Mollo has developed in the past few years. All Hard Rock lovers should simply not miss this record which bravely melts several influences in a cutting edge release. “There are much better songs, performances and production on this album, plus we will finally bring this project live out there: we have a lot of great songs to perform to our loyal fans, we look forward to meet them” concludes Dario Mollo."

This the latest collaboration between Dario Mollo and Tony Martin on The Cage project opens with the bone crunching heavy riff and attitude driven Wicked World, which is also the lead single and video to be taken from the album. A contemporary sounding track showing that these guys know how to move with the times. Next up is the brilliant Cirque Du Freak, which Tony says was lyrically inspired by the movie the Vampires Apprentice. Again a heavy track with a modern edge with a great use of keyboards, a great song!

Oh My Soul follows, and is, in my honest opinion, one of the albums highlights. A great song that would have fitted comfortably upon any of the albums that Tony recorded back in his period with Sabbath. A track filled with atmosphere and emotion filled lyrics, a great song of epic proportions!
One Of The Few quickens up the pace a little, being more of a heavy melodic rock track, before the guys slow things down with the eastern flavored heavy Still In love With You, which is very similar in style to the song Al-Sirat from Empire's The Raven Ride album, again a great song! (Who said love songs cannot be heavy?)
Can’t Stay here is up next and to be honest, in my opinion, is the weakest track on the album. The song switches the tempo up a gear with almost a little funk feeling going on, it is a good melodic song, just feels a little out of place here. The guys redeem themselves with the next track, a quirky heavy song, Wardance. A Great track with some excellent lyrics, with a strong message without taking itself too seriously.
Don’t Know What It Is About You, is another great song, heavy, great tempo, yet melodic, before the leading into Blind Fury, A mid tempo heavy track. Once again, a great song. The album closes with Violet Moon, a trippy melodic song for which Tony apparently managed to come up with the lyrics in the studio, not even writing them down.

The Third cage really is a great album, full of variety and above all else, great songs. The guy’s are apparently considering taking this album out on the road, and hopefull they do as they have a wealth of material which deserves to be aired to a live audience.

I love this album, and bias aside, (I am a huge Tony Martin Fan and have been since 1989!) it’s a very strong album well deserving of recognition. To be honest this album only has one fault, and that being that its not longer!

Rating - 10/10





Line-up:

Tony Martin – Vocals (ex-Black Sabbath, Giuntini Project, Empire, Rondinelli, Phenomena, Tony Martin Band)
Dario Mollo – Guitars (Don Airey, Kit Woolven, Giuntini Project, Voodoo Hill)
Brian War/Dario Patti – Keyboards (Giuntini Project, Voodoo Hill)
Fulvio Gaslini – Bass (Giuntini Project, ex-Crossbones)
Roberto Gualdi – Drums (Voodoo Hill)