Artist: Phenomena
   Title: The Complete Works
   Label: Escape Music

What could be better that melodic hard rock classic album being digitally remastered and revamped?  Well how about three classic albums undergoing the same treatment.  That's just what Escape Music have done with the first three Phenomena albums ‘Phenomena’, 'Dream Runner' and 'Innervision'.

This limited edition triple digipak not only brings all three albums together, but also features nine bonus tracks for your delectation, which include a sample of material from the new studio album currently in production and due for a 2007 release.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the whole Phenomena thing well let me enlighten you.  The whole project was the brainchild of the brothers Tom and Mel Galley back in 1985, with the first album quite simply entitled 'Phenomena' bringing together some of the biggest names in rock at the time.  This included the likes of Glenn Hughes, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray and Don Airey who worked together on this one project which created such great tracks as ‘Dance With The Devil’, ‘Who’s Watching You’, and my personal favourite ‘Hell On Wings’.

The album received great reviews world wide and set the ball rolling for the next two albums, both of which also read as a who’s who of 80’s rock.  With the second release 'Dream Runner', the vocal talents of Ray Gillen and John Wetton were added, as well as the voice of rock himself Mr Glenn Hughes, joined by Scott Gorham and Kyoji Yamomoto, they recorded such great songs as 'Surrender’, ‘Hearts On Fire’ and 'Double 6, 55, 44’.

The third album 'Innervision' featured the sole talents of Keith Murrell on vocals and this time Scott Gorham was joined on guitar by the legendary Brian May.  This album was hailed as the best of the three so far, with timeless classics like ‘What About Love’, 'If You Want To Rock’, and 'Rock My Soul' still sounding great to this day.

All three albums tell the story of Professor Limit, who aided by his young daughter Lucy, unwittingly create the ultimate war machine.  Overcome with both temptation and the worry of what he has created, the professor succumbs to curiosity and tests his experiment out.  During this test the professor is killed and it is left to his trusted friend Frame to not only take care of his orphan 9 year old daughter, but also ensure the machine is not used for the wrong purpose.  I could go on but that would spoil it for you, so instead all I'm going to say is this is a gripping tale and one that must be heard so if you want to know what happens next you'll need to listen to the albums yourself!

The overall content and packaging of this magnificent release is of the highest standard and all go to make this box set is a must for all fans of melodic/hard rock at its finest.  In a time when melodic rock is trying to make a comeback, it's great to listen to an album or in this case three albums, that highlight the biggest names of the genre in their hey day, all of whom remain popular household names to this day, with many still going strong.  Pure class this album is simply superb.

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