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The 9th album from the Swiss hard rock band Shakra is picking up just where the last album left me. The "new" vocalist John Prakesh is now the true front man in the band and not any replacement for the former singer Mark Fox like I felt in the previous disc ('Back on Track'). He dominates the songs in a rougher way on 'Powerplay' and like in the intro song 'Life is Now' it feels like he want to smash the lyrics into my head. In the coarser and grainy track 'The Mask' the guitars are darker and little duller and the two string benders in Thom Blunier and Thomas Muster complement each other absolutely perfect. My favourite song on the entire album is the heavy 'Higher', with powerful guitar chords and awesome vocals from John. Magic stuff my friends. In the sensitive 'Wonderful Life' the sound is completely different and they handle it absolutely flawless and this is my wife's favourite song. The two guitars create a thick bedspread that creates a bluesy tone in the splendid song 'Dear Enemy'. The given sing-a-long song this summer from this album at a Shakra concerts will probably be 'Save You From Yourself'. In the straight forward rock 'n' roll song 'Don't Keep Me Hanging', is a middle of the album track with nothing special, except the nice solo off course. 'Dream of Mankind' is one of the best songs; strong lyrics and great melody. Roger Tanner on the drums and Dominik Pfister on bass-guitar give Shakra the support, which is the concrete in their sound. Good work lads. The veterans (Tanner, Blunier and Muster) with 20 years in the band have together with the two younger members accomplished to get a little modern mood into the regular and well polished hard rock that they played earlier on. 'Secret Highway' is a raspy and dusty song with balanced vocals and sharp and catchy guitar solos. A quiet and loving ballad ends a very enjoyable disc where I found many strong reasons to buy 'Powerplay'. If you like melodic hard rock with lots of awesome guitar riffs and strong, adult male vocals, this will fit you like a hand in glove. |
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