The British metal rockers in
Scream Arena releases their debut album,
led by the singer Andy Paul. Classic
80's hard rock packed with similar sound
like Def Leppard, Deep Purple, Queen and
Y&T. The vocalist sings with a quite
worn and coarse voice, but handles the
lyrics perfectly. In the slower songs he
can't hold the tone steady, he swaying
in the voice in the higher octaves. That
annoys me sometimes, because otherwise
it's a really cool and fanciful hard
rock Scream Arena delivers.
The US rock producer/musician Paul Sabu has
taken the band under his wings and
has guided them along the way. Sabu is
among everything else responsible for
bringing the idea of a cover of the
Elvis Presley classic "Heartbreak Hotel"
to the table. The more quickly rock
tunes are the ones that I like best. For
example, the 'House of Pain' with harder
attitude and heavier guitar riffs and
the vocals suit Andy better. The album
kicks off with 'Born Ready', which is a
straight forward rock song with some
stiff Judas Priest riffing and it is one of
the stronger tracks on the album. Their
cover of 'Heartbreak Hotel' is very
tasty and they manage to give the song a potion
of their
own style of this classic song.
The best and most positive about Scream
Arena's album is the consistently high
quality of guitar playing and it saves
this disc from my warning lamp. The best
song is maybe 'Forever' with heavy
guitar hooks and Black Sabbath-like heavy
drumming. The final song 'The Price of
Love' is well worth mentioning. Many
musical splashes of 80 century's
hard-rocking giants, where they
stiffened up the tone a bit.
My overall impression is so-so. A bit
uneven in quality at times, but
especially the impressive guitar playing
and the heart, soul and the creativity
in songs, saves this disc from my axe.
Lineup:
Andy Paul - Lead Vocals
Alex Mullings – Guitars
Phil O’Dea – Guitars
Lincoln J. Roth – Bass
Michael Maleckyj – Drums
