Artist:  Paradise Inc
   Title: Time
   Label: Avenue Of Allies
 

Paradise Inc are the latest South American band (Brazil to be exact) to hit the world of Melodic Hard Rock.  Together with Mall favourite Carsten ‘Lizard’ Schulz leading the band with those now famed pipes of his, who along with De Grigo (guitars), Marcos Peres (guitars), Rick A (bass) and Allan Juliano (drums), are about to show the European dominated Hard Rock scene that can hold their own with the might of the Scandinavia and Germany bands in the same genre, with their debut album ‘Time’.

The album also features a host of guest musicians with the likes of Paul Logue (who also mixed and help produce the album) and Doogie White heading the list ,along with Alessandro Del Velcchio, Luiz Sacoman and Nat Lou, all contributing to what is a really great debut release.

Things get underway in emphatic style with the title track ‘Time (Live & Learn)’ and from the off you can feel a sense of the high degree of musicianship and song quality that the album has to offer, with Schulz bringing those unmistakable melodic tones.

The great melody rich tunes continue with ‘Close Your Eyes’, a great guitar orientated rocker that just rocks big style.  A track that also has to be played at full volume to really feel appreciate it.

After the head hard rocking it's time to chill a little, with the more AOR stylings of ‘Who’s Fooling Who’, a song penned by Logue himself.  This is pure ear candy and will touch base with fans of the genre for sure, much as the next one will the superb  ‘I Will Wait’.  A slow burner that just oozes class, with Schulz laying down a sultry vocal on this one.  If this was 1980, then this song would have been labeled a Power Ballad.

The tempo and pace is picked up once more with the rocker ‘Wait And See’, again a Logue penned song that will rock the very foundations of the Melodic/Hard Rock fans, before the tempo is brought back down a beat or two, with the AOR paced gem ‘No More Mistakes’ and then the haunting tones of the mid paced ‘You’.

It's all systems go once more with the guitar and keyboard rich ‘Set Me Free’, before what for me is one of the tracks off the album, the stunning ‘Steel And Stone’.  This one lends itself to an acoustic version so well, so much so that an acoustic version has actually added as the European bonus track.   But before that it's time for Doogie White to add his vocal dexterity to the album on the excellent ‘Not In Paradise’, again pure hard rock bliss.

That acoustic version of 'Steel And Stone’, featuring the female vocals of Nat Lou, wraps up what is a great debut release that once again shows that Brazil is becoming a Melodic/Hard Rock hot spot and it's not all Sepultura and the like.

 Tracklisting:

1. Time
2. Close Your Eyes
3. Who's Fooling Who
4. I Will Wait
5. Wait And See
6. No More Mistakes
7. You
8. Set Me Free
9. Steel Or Stone
10. Not In Paradise
11. Steel Or Stone (Acoustic Version)

                  

 

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