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As one of the
most respected vocalists around Gary John Barden came to fame as thee
voice of MSG back in the early eighties. Who can forget ‘The Mad
Axeman’, ‘Armed And Ready’ and the like? To many the band haven’t been to
same since his final departure back in 85, although not one to rest on his
laurels, Barden formed Statetrooper and later became the voice of Praying
Mantis, before later teaming up with Michael Voss for the Silver project.
2004 hailed the reformation of Statetrooper and in between all these,
Barden put together his long awaited solo album 'Past And Present', which
he put a different spin on some MSG classics, with another unification
with Voss which saw the bluesy tones of ‘Agony And The Xtasy’. Now
Barden is back with what I can only describe as his best release so far
and the album name ‘Love And War’.
With this new
album Barden has once again sought out Michael Voss and together with
Johann Fiegl the trio have written some fantastic rock tracks. The album
opens up in emphatic style with ‘Creatures of the Night’ which made an
immediate impact on this reviewer. As a long time fan of Barden this the
man at his vocal best and one that gets the album off to a fantastic start.
This outstandingly high
quality just continues with this Barden's finest hour for many a year.
Things continue
with ‘Unchain Me’, another hard rock extravaganza with its more gentle
approach than the opener, with Barden showing he can still bring harmony to the
hard rock genre. The man has never sounded better.
The pace is
picked up a few notches with the driven guitar sound of ‘When The Lovin’
Dies’ and ‘You’ before on of the many highlights of the album, the quite
superb ‘Last Samurai’ (even though the promo plays ‘Last Samurai’ before
‘You’, but this is only a minor flaw).
The true
highlight of the album has to be the outstanding (yes OUTSTANDING!)
‘Dragons Fire’, which starts off with a little Eastern feel intro before the
track really takes off with a huge guitar sound, then Barden takes over
with those unforgettable vocals. This is very old school Barden as he shows
the magic is still very much there.
The next track
‘Voices In The Rain’ was penned by Fiegl and one Carsten ‘Lizard’ Schulz,
this is another slice of guitar fuelled rock before the more gentle rock
tones of ‘Love Lost’, then things really pick up again with a cover of The
Sweet’s ‘Burn To The Flame’, which Barden puts his own spin on this
classic.
The album takes
a darker harder edged path with ‘Déjà Vu’, a track that boasts some of the
finest guitar riffs to found on the entire album. The album comes to an
all too premature climax for this reviewer with the title track ‘In Love
And War’, another more mellower refrain with this Barden Voss composition
which rounds off an album that fans of Barden have been crying out for
years, not that the Statetrooper and Silver albums have been bad, but this
album has something rather special about it and more reflects the man
himself. |
