Artist: John West 
   Title: Long Time... No Sing
   Label: Frontiers Records

'Long Time ... No Sing' is the solo release from Royal Hunt front man John West, and with this release John has strayed from the Royal Hunt formula and settled for a more melodic approach for this release.  The result of which is this outstanding album is set to send shivers down the backs of the melodic rock community.

Joining West on this album are Savatage’s Chris Caffery on rhythm guitar , Jeff Plate on drums, long time friend Lonnie Park on keyboards and bass guitar, and completing the line-up Kevin Hampton also on rhythm guitar.

The album opens up proper with  ‘Fade’, a track that sets the pace for the rest of the album.  A track full of melodic rock character that will please even the most cynical of the melodic rock fans with its gentle melodies and strong guitars, together with the immaculate vocals of West.

The album continues to impress with ‘Set Me Free’, a great hard rock track with some outstanding guitar riffs and wondrous chorus section. The album just gets better with every listen, with the likes of ‘Give Me A Sign’ making you acknowledge what a fantastic vocal talent West really is.  Once again the majesty of the guitar work on this track is second to none.

The album takes a gentler road with ‘Highway To Roppongi’, a track that once again highlights the vocals of West in a gentler mode and is one of my favourite tracks off the album.

The pace is picked up once more with ‘Over My Head’, a great hard rock song and the impressive soundings of ‘The One That Got Away’, with its tuned down guitars and hard-hitting drums.

But my favourite track off the album has to be ‘Falling Down’, a track that will send those of a melodic nature into raptures of delight, with its varying tempo changes and intricate melodies.

‘Slipping Away’ takes the tempo down a notch or two.  A track that features the keyboards more than any other track on the album and brings West’s vocals to the forefront of the track.

Just as your drifting away with the gentle sounding of ‘Slipping Away’ your awakened by ‘One More Time’, a track very much in the Nickleback mould with its punchy vocals and grungy guitar sound.

Then it’s back to the more gentle tracks with the ballad ‘Better Believe’ and the album closer the instrumental ‘Puerto Amor’.

All in all this is a superb album from West and is a great showcase for his vocals.  It truly shows he has more than one string to his bow and fans of melodic hard rock with find it hard to complain about any of the tracks on this album, as they all are simply superb and are worthy of any melodic rock collection.

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