Classic Rock Presents AOR 9 - Supersonic
CD, 2013, Heftbeilage

15 Soaraway Melodic Rock Songs

Spielzeiten laut Software (iTunes)

Classic Rock Magazine / Classic Rock presents AOR 9
FUTURE media - Future Publishing

SID-Code Presswerk: IFPI UU076
SID-Code CD-Master: IFPI LK98

Bild 1: Cover
Bild 2: Backcover
Bild 3: CD
Bild 4: Heftcover
Bild 5: Hefthülle aus Pappe - Cover
Bild 6: Hefthülle aus Pappe - Backcover

When the makers of Superman-as-Superteen TV show Smallville selected their theme-tune, they didn't choose some ear-bashing metal track or some brainless robot techno ditty, did they? No, in their infinite wisdom they selected Remy Zero's deathless Save Me, an exhilarating rush of modern AOR which, once heard, can never be forgotten. There is a reason for this. AOR, more than any other musical form, has much the same effect upon the listener as being bitten by a radioactive spider, being bombarded by cosmic rays or, indeed, being the last son of Krypton and crash-landing on a planet in the orbit of a yellow sun: it makes one feel like a super-hero. With its titanic choruses, symphonic synthesisers, sky-skraping guitars, AOR has you feeling you can leap tall buildings in a single bound. So play this CD, packed full of primo AOR, and go get your cape from the dry-cleaners: it's hero-time.

01 SAMMY HAGAR – Knockdown Dragout A bare-knuckled brawler of a track from Sammy's new all-star collab-a-rhton, Knockdown Dragout teams the Tequila man with Detroit's finest rap-rocker Kid Rock, and everyone's favourite gonzo fret-melter Joe Satriani, as they churn through a riff-toting party anthem so raucous that it'll surely leave the Van Halens secretly regretting kicking Sammy out of the band..
Taken from: Sammy Hagar & Friends on Frontiers

02 RECKLESS LOVE - Sex, Drugs & Reckless Love Though not the title track to the Finnish sleazers' death'n'debauchery-obsessed third album, Sex, Drugs & Reckless Love serves as their anthem, a mascars-splattered, wasted statement of intent, and very possibly a shopping list of the ingredients that helped make Spirit such an undeniable, dangerous and thrilling good time. They're not good for you, but by Jovi do sex, drugs and Reckless Love make you feel good.
Taken from: Spirit on Spinefarm

03 ROBIN BECK - Wrecking Ball None of us will ever forget the impact of Robin Beck's First Time, but you'd have to be drinking something much stronger than Coke to want to miss out on what the Brooklyn-born AOR queen is up to now. Her new album finds Robin again working with husband James Christian to craft a set of uplifting rock; Wrecking Ball is a standout.
Taken from: Underneath on Her Majesty's Music Room

04 SHANGHAI GUNS - As Long As I Rock Formed in the Summer of 2011, Shanghai Guns is the brainchild of French musicians Yves Leyvraz (guitars) and Sébastian Chave (drums), who proclaim as their mission a righteous "return to hard rock!" On the evidence of their debut mini-album, Seven Shots, recorded in Germany with producer Marc Bugnard and packed to the gills with fist-pumpin' choruses and glorious soloin', the pair can claim "mission accomplished!".
Taken from: Seven Shots on Bacillus

05 STEALING WISHES - LA Don't Get Me Neither singer Deborah Joan Jones nor guitarist David Zychek hail from anywhere near the Sunset Strip - Jones is a Brit by birth, while Zychek, who's previously worked with gonzo guitar hero Ted Nugent, is a proud Texan. But the music they create together - melody-drenched, aching melodic rock - is so irresistible that if, as this song suggests, LA don't get' them, it's entirely LA's problem, and not Stealing Wishes'.
Taken from: previously unreleased track

06 NEWMAN - Scar Of Love As any dedicated aficionado of AOR will confirm, Steve Newman has long since qualified himself as a master of the form, a singer, musician and songwriter of fierce talent and painstaking skill. Siren ist his latest work of fine melodic rock art, harbouring turbulent waves of emotion behind a polishhed, pristine surface, and it might well be his best. Savour this sliver, and search out the album soon as you can.
Taken from: Siren on AOR Heaven

07 CHASING VIOLETS – Deception In Heaven Were there ever such devoted sisters as Mélissa and Sarah Fontaine? The duo began pursuing their soft-rock dreams of stardom with their 2012 debut album Outside Heaven, and their follow-up, Jade Hearts, boasts a more confident selection of songs, a revivified sense of intent, and guest appearances from melodic rock superstars like Frédéric Slama, Tommy Denander and Paul Sabu.
Taken from: Jade Hearts on AOR Records

08 HAREM SCAREM - No Justice Five years after calling it a day, Toronto's hard rock institution Harem Scarem have reconvened for some live shows. To celebrate, the group have returned to the studio and re-record their acclaimed second album Mood Swings, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The difference between that album and its reincarnation is the wisdom and maturity the group have accrued since; savour it.
Taken from: Mood Swings II, on Frontiers

09 HOUSTON - I'm Coming Home Three years after their debut album announced these Swedes as masters of the swollen riff and swaggering chorus, Houston return to rescue us from the mundanity of everyday life with a second album that leaps over the sophomore slump with a flourish of skyscraping synths and songs like the heroic I'm Coming Home, making the listener feel like Sly Stallone slugging his way to victory in your favourite Rocky movie.
Taken from: Houston II on Livewire/Cargo

10 COLDSPELL - Paradise Formed from the ashes of 90s rockers R.A.W., Northern Swedes Coldspell play anthemic, melodic rock with a blistering metallic edge, allied to an admirably clear-eyed songwriting sensibility. Their third full-length, Frozen Paradise, explores the possibilities of this sound with a hunger you might expect of a band half their age, and with the expertise of veterans. Highly recommended.
Taken from: Frozen Paradise on Escape

11 VENREZ - Sanctity Venrez frontman Steven Berez first hooked up with the musicians who make up his group while they were working on his house. While we have scant information as to their skills as builders and decorators, Venrez's new album American Illusion leaves us in no doubt that these chippies and house-painters double as a fine, ragged and ear-aching rock'n'roll group, perfect for backing their wild frontman with the idiosyncratic voice.
Taken from: American Illusion on Monarch Music

12 REBELLIOUS SPIRIT - Let's Bring Back This track doubles as the opening salvo of the debut album from these German hard-rockers, a blast of denim, leather and bandana-sporting derring-do that'll remind you of Bon Jovi at their youthful peak, or Steel Panther if you could ever shake the suspicion that their whole shtick is, at heart, a joke. No, Rebellious Spirit mean it, maaaan, brilliantly so, and Gamble Shot is like a shot of Jägermeister straight to the jugular.
Taken from: Gamble Shot on Steamhammer

13 STATION - Don't Take Heaven Away From Me Sadly AOR is unable to confirm whether or not these New York rockers took their name from Bill & Ted's alien sidekick from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, but we can tell you that their debut EP Wired will rock you seven ways till Sunday, and that said EP contains three further blasts of shiny, melodic and unforgettable anthemage from the Big Apple boys equally as thrilling as Don't Take Heaven Away From Me. So go get it!.
Taken from: Wired on Bandcamp

14 SCREAMING EAGLES - Fight The Fire With a song called Fight The Fire and an album titled From the Flames, you might think these Northern Irish hellions had a bit of a theme going here. Well, suffice it to say that their debut LP - which plays rock'n'roll with blunt brilliance, topped off by the soulful vocals of frontman Chris Fry - is abolutely smokin', hotter than hell, the work of a group burning up with fiery ambiton a (You're fired - Ed.)
Taken from: From the Flames (self-released)

15 DEGREED - What If Swedish quintet Degreed play both kinds of music, melodic and hard-rocking, as one listen to this, the lead single from their second album We Don't Belong, makes abundantly clear. Formed in 2005 while the band members were studying at Stockholm Conservatory Of Music, Degreed's approach to rock'n'roll is anything but academic, always from the heart. Going by What If, though, they're certainly smarter than the average bear.
Taken from: We Don't Belong on AOR Records