Heavy Metal Resource Reviews-Groundbreaker, TAO, L.A. Guns, Burning Point, and Victory

Index

The second Groundbreaker album once again features Steve Overland of FM on vocals and has a bit different crew working with him on songwriting. Joining him this time is Lionville's Stefano Lionetti, Arctic Rain's Peter Alpenborg, Jan Akesson from Infinite & Divine, and Kristian Fyhr from Seventh Crystal. Stylistically as expected, this album falls into the melodic hard rock sound and has a great track lineup. Overland has a pretty unique vocal style and delivery, very soulful. Alessandro Del Vecchio handles production duties and overall the album has a nice warm feel to it. If you liked the first Groundbreaker record, you'll like this one as well. The musicians as well as the writers bring great chemistry to the album and provide a complete listen overall. This one is an easy recommend as always for those who love their rock with a lot of melody!

Release Date: November 12, 2021

British melodic hard rocker's TAO are here to offer up their debut album. The band is female fronted with Karen Fell handling vocals. She really belts it out but does have some decent finesse to her vocal work at the same time. The music is very catchy with the album being chock full of songs that have a more mainstream rock feel. There are old school elements all over this record and an updated feel with today's influences and technology. There is a lot of diversity in the British market currently. Lot's of different ideas brought to the table. It's nice to have a band like TAO releasing their polished sound as it represents the melodic rock genre very well in my opinion. The band has released a couple of video tracks from the album so far, so if you are unfamiliar, be sure to check in on YouTube and see if you like what you hear. We certainly did!

Release Date: October 15, 2021

While the pandemic had everybody locked down, there were a lot of artists taking advantage of that downtime to write some truly great music. L.A. Guns did just that. They wrote their latest album 'Checkered Past' and the results are very pleasing. The same basic feel of the last few albums is present. For old fans like me, you can also take away a couple of other things. First, there are different personalities to these songs. Where you start isn't always where you end up. The band wrote in a fashion where tone was familiar for a few tracks and then things change a little. Second, the sound also has the classic L.A. Guns raw feel to it that was evident in their first few records. Knowing this, you know this is going to be a pretty cool experience. The band continue to deliver with the same energy and quality they always have. Solid record!

Release Date: November 12, 2021

It's been a short while since we checked out a Burning Point record, so why not dig into their latest album 'Arsonist Of The Soul'. The first thing that is obvious is the tempo is a bit heavier than the album 'The Blaze'. Also, the band have a new vocalist on this record with Luca Sturniolo handling duties and quite well I might add. Songs as expected are quite good and fall into the power metal genre as usual. The songs have a good vibe and you can feel the confidence in the songwriting. The band have been releasing for a couple of decades now and the growth is their due to the constant presence of guitarist and songwriter Pete Ahonen. For those less familiar with the band, they embrace a fairly traditional metal sound and have a good frenzied tempo in places. Another decent outing from the band with a good collection of metal tunes!

Release Date: October 22, 2021

Well, I thought Victory was done. I for one am glad they are not. There is something unique about this band. When I go back to the days of only having a handful of records to listen to, the band's debut was one I had. I have been following them ever since and enjoying the ride even with the lineup changes through the years. It's been 10 long years since the release of 'Don't Talk Science'. Also worth mentioning is that Herman Frank is the only longtime member dating back to the mid 80's, but you know what, they captured that usual Victory feel as usual. Plenty of memorable mid tempo rockers are offered on this latest album. The album has 13 tracks total and the band lineup as it stands currently have delivered another good record. They mentioned the 2011 record as being their final record, glad minds were changed and this album is going to be out there!

Release Date: November 26, 2021