I’ve been a big fan of Doug Aldrich’s playing since I heard Lion’s Dangerous Attraction in the 80’s. From there he played on Hurricane’s Slave To The Thrill in 1990 and for a lot of people pre-internet fell off the face of the earth until Dio’s Killing The Dragon in 2002. Now he is Coverdale’s right hand man and songwriting partner in Whitesnake. He must have something playing with heavyweights like these.
So what does he bring to the table here? For starters this is not a new band, for those living in Japan or willing to fork out numerous dollars for imports he had two Burning Rain cds pre-Dio. He’s had other Jap only stuff in the grunge era such as Bad Moon Rising with Kal Swan and that Hurricane cd was out of print for years.
Aldrich along with original vocalist Keith St. John has roped in play with everyone Sean Mcnabb and Ace Frehley’s drummer Matt Starr to produce a solid slab of rock. It sounds like the new Whitesnake in places and you could hear Coverdale singing tracks like The Cure and Out In The Cold Again. I wasn’t familiar with Keith St. John’s vocals at all but he’s no Coverdale clone thank god. I can hear a bit of Ray Gillen, Oni Logan and Ron Young in him. Maybe I’m way off but that’s what I’m getting.
It’s just good bluesy hard rock and be thankful Aldrich hasn’t tried to sound like Tool because he’s not that type of player. He shreds on this. The thing sounds bloody fantastic too and leaps from the speakers. I picked this as one of the releases I was most looking forward too in the coming months and it delivers. Betcha Coverdale had a word in his ear after hearing this wondering why he didn’t save some of it for the next Whitesnake cd.
Frontiers have also released the first 2 cds so if you’re a fan of this you know what you’ll get there. We recently spoke to Doug and he was really great to talk to. I hope this does well and doesn’t get buried under the recent Whitesnake live cd and tour. This is strong stuff.
Richie.
