Artist: Pleasuredome 
   Title: For Your Personal Amusement
   Label: Escape Music

So we have another new band for 2008, featuring none other than Mr Ted Poley on vocals.  The rest of the band consists of Charlie Calv (keyboards) and Ed Avila (bass) who cut their teeth with that most underrated band Shotgun Symphony.  On guitar we have Dave Tsien who has played with Charlie Calv in Skin Tag and Dave Hummell (drums), was the live drummer for Shotgun Symphony after the release of Sea Of Desire.  So we have a veritable cornucopia of quality musicians on display 'For Your Personal Amusement'. 

After a suitably atmospheric intro the cd bursts into life with the contemporary sounds of 'Trapped'.  Ted’s vocals on here don’t venture into high kickin’ D2 territory.  This is a pure and simple melodic rocker. Some great guitar sounds from Dave Tsien.

Next up is 'One And Only', which featured on the Melodicrock.com CD2.  This comes across like a typical TP solo song.  Plenty of guitar shredding and some soaring melodic choruses feature throughout.

'The Aura That Surrounds You' is another contemporary track featuring some wonderful atmospheric keyboards and grunge-style guitar.

'Praying For A Miracle' is a great ballad, starting off with acoustic guitar and TP laying down a great vocal before they soar on the chorus. This is another song that is typical of Ted’s solo work.

Then we’re onto 'Always Tomorrow', with Charlie Calv and his sublime keyboards.  You can practically hear Shotgun Symphony on this one.  The vocals just swoop and soar throughout, a definite standout track.

'Love Is A Game' is a straight-ahead rocker, featuring a fantastic vocal from a mystery female and some great guitar shredding.  This song will stick in the head and beat you into submission.

Segueing from the last track is 'Seems Like A Dream', opening with some more atmospheric keyboards before Ted sings over a piano track.  You can hear the Joe Elliot influence in the vocal phrasing and Dave Tsien lays down some great solo work.  This segues into 'I Won’t Cry', a mid-tempo rocker and that mystery female turns up again laying down another fantastic vocal line.

'Return To Zero' starts of with a heavy bass line before settling into a groove, a very contemporary tune, not your typical melodic rocker.

The last proper song on here is '(Who Will) Save The World', it’s another rocker with tongue suitably in cheek, if you listen to the lyrics closely.  The guitars and bass drive this song but some of Ted’s vocal lines are strained.  Charlie Calv provides a short keys solo before Dave Tsien goes into shred mode. The song segues into the outro For Your Personal Amusement with more atmospheric keys playing over a heart beat. 

Produced by Charlie Calv, there’s a lot of light and shade on this album, touches of TP solo work and some Shotgun Symphony thrown in for good measure.  So for any fans of either work I say check it out, you’ll hear a lot worse before the year is out.  There are plenty soaring melodies, driving guitars and atmospheric keyboards.  The individual band members shine throughout providing an arsenal of sounds and tight tunes.

*Review by Brassy

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