Well, well,
well… What a nice surprise! MASTEDON back after a 15+ year hiatus. So, are we
given the obligatory Christian A.O.R. treatment as on “It’s A Jungle Out There”
and “Lofcaudio”?
NOPE!!
This has
more to do with KANSAS than with classic MASTEDON. Well, with an impressive CV
like John Elefante’s, it doesn’t really matter if you derive your inspiration
from one band or the other. I mean, this man has worked with the very premier
league of AOR/Hard Rock and earned his stripes singing for KANSAS back in the
early 80s. So, in a way it seems natural for John Elefante to move back in this
direction, back to where he came from. He’s still acting as if we’re close to
Judgment Day and he has to secure those V.I.P. tickets to the final show. In
other words: This is still praise-the-lord-Rock. In my book that doesn’t
necessarily mean the music’s bad. And same goes for this CD; although not quite
what I expected, it’s still a nice album of semi progressive Hard Rock / A.O.R.
– heavily inspired by KANSAS.
Fans of
other Elefante releases will enjoy this on equal terms as with other quality
albums by the master. New listeners will probably find it a bit hard to get into
the music.
