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

Giuntini Project - IV (2013)

Genre - Hard Rock / Heavy Metal / Melodic Rock
Label - Escape

Track listing:

01. Perfect Sorrow

02. Born In The Underworld
03. Shadow Of The Stone
04. Cured
05. I Don't Believe In Fortune
06. If The Dream Comes True
07. The Rise And Fall Of Barry Lyndon (Instrumental)
08. Bring On The Night
09. Not The Jealous Kind
10. Saint Or Sinner
11. Your Love Is Killing Me (Japanese bonus track)
12. Last Station: Nightmare (Instrumental)
13. How The Story Ends
14. Truth Never Lies

Since he started the project twenty years ago, guitarist Aldo GIUNTINI has been releasing one consistent album after another, taking his time between them to polish the material and going over every fine detail. Yet it still seam's hard to believe that it has been over six years since part 3 of his Giuntini Project was put out!
One again, as on II and III lead vocals are handled by the one and only Tony Martin (Ex-Black Sabbath, Empire, Mollo/Martin, Rondinelli, Silver Horses, M3, and Solo artist) which bodes well for the projects stability and continuum. 
So how does project IV compare with its predecessors? Pretty darn well to be honest.
The album opens with Perfect Sorrow, a fairly fast tempo ed track that would have fit very well onto the previous album III. Born In The Underworld slows the tempo down a little next, with its dark almost grinding riff. This track would have sat comfortably along side the rest of the tracks on the classic Project II album, a really great song Shadow Of The Stone follows, and proceeds to tell the tale of what happened after the events of The Headless Cross. A slightly more melodic track with a mid tempo ed with a classic Rainbow feel to it, especially during Aldo's guitar solo's. (To my ears anyway!) Another great song.
Cured is up next. Another track that could have fitted well onto Project II, another mid tempo ed track with a kind of grinding riff that is driven by the venom in Tony Martins vocal delivery. One of my favourite songs so far. I Don't Believe In fortune follows, a great up tempo blues track that is quickly followed by If the Dream Comes True which is a great up tempo melodic rocker.
The Rise And Fall Of Barry Lyndon is up next, a four and a half minute instrumental that starts with some grandiose keyboards before the guitars come bursting in. A nice change of pace.
Bring On The Night follows, a great mid tempo ed rocker which sees Tony Martin sharing lead vocals with Liz Vandall for what makes a great duet!
Not the Jealous Kind, slows things down slightly, another favourite track, which sees Tony Martin deliver some great vocals, along with some terrific vocal harmonies.
Saint Or Sinner, sees the guys return to a blistering tempo, that has a few twists and turns along its journey. A great rocker that I imagine would go over really well in a live environment.
the albums second instrumental track is up next, the five minute and twenty second Last Station:Nightmare. A great atmospheric piece that showcases Aldo's ability as an instrumentalist.
How The Story Ends follows. A truly great song which seems to have a Megadeth feel to both its main riffage and the vocal melody. It has a brisk tempo and a bellyful of venom. This is definitely my favourite track on the album!

Truth never Lies closes out the album proper. A fast tempo ed track with a typical and familar Giuntini Project feel to it. Another great song!
Your Love Is Killing Me is included on the Japanese editions of the album as a bonus track. Its a strong song, maybe not as strong as the rest of the album, but a good track non the less, not the usual throw away track.
Theres not a single song that could be classed as a filler here. Aldo's guitar work is precise and toneful, the vocals, as you would expect from Tony Martin, shine. The keyboards add just the right amount of atmosphere and texture in the right place's and the rhythm section stands tall to serve the purpose providing a solid foundation for the songgs to spring from. When you match up musicians to their proper strengths, the outcome usually is compelling and this is the case with "IV".




The line up for the album includes:
Tony Martin: vocals

Aldo Giuntini: guitars
Fulvio Gaslini: bass
Fabiano Rizzi: drums
Roberto Gualdi: drums
Dario Patti: keyboards
Liz Vandall: vocals on 'Bring On The Night'


Very Very Highly Reconmended     Rating 10/10

Silver Horses - Silver Horses (2012)

Genre - Hard Rock / Classic Rock / Blues Rock
Label - 7Hard Records

Track listing -

01. Rub It On Me
02. Run
03. Life And Soul
04. Diamond Sky
05. Secret Service
06. Suddenly Lost
07. Me
08. Silver Horses
09. You re Breaking My Heart (Don t Do It)
10. You
11. Who s Holding On To You

Silver Horses are a brand new 70's style  Hard Rock band featuring the vocal talents of the awesome Tony Martin (ex Black Sabbath / Mollo Martin's Cage / Empire / M3 / Giuntini Project / solo). Tony Martin handled the vocal duties for Black Sabbath during the late 80's and early to mid 90's  on such albums as: The Eternal Idol , Headless Cross , Tyr , Cross Purposes , Forbidden , Cross Purposes Live and The Sabbath Stones.This Anglo-Italian band combine the classic style's of Led Zeppelin and Whitesnake and twist it a little by adding a modern touch. Now first off, are they any good? Well musically the band are as tight as you can get, and the songs are pretty darn strong to boot, well written and well executed, but does Martin's voice really suite the more bluesy direction of this collection of tunes? Well he's covered Dazed and Confused, Stormbringer (Cage albums), and a multitude of Whitesnake classics during his days with Cozy Powell's Hammer and M3, so although this music is a little different to his usual hard rock / metal output, yes his voice suites the songs well, especially on tracks like Suddenly Lost (the albums high point for me), Secret Service and title track Silver Horses, this album does show case Martins versatility really well.
There is plenty of variation here, from the uptempo(Rub It On Me) to the stompers (Secret Service) to the atmospheric ballads (Suddenly Lost) and the quality never drops at all throughout the album.
Now here's to hoping that these guys take this project out on the road, and for the love of god follow it up with another album!

Rating 9/10