Return of Your Recent CD's/Music Purchases

[MajorHoy]

Got delivery today of

Bunny Berigan - Let's Do It! [2011 - Fabulous]

[Attila Kiss]

December.
It's that time of the year again, when I gather all my 2018 CD purchases and rank them. This year the magic number is 25. For good part of the year I was afraid I might not have 10 new releases to list, but once the holiday season came in, it brought choices in abundance. Not many of my "usual suspects" released an album this year, but I was surprised to hear few newcomers, with quality music.

I'll start listing my 2018 released CD purchases tomorrow, but for today, I have one (double) CD that did not make my list for few reasons. First, it was released late last year, plus it's a mash-up of only few new tracks, mostly re-recorded old songs and tribute titles, which doesn't really scream "NEW" to me.

OMEGA ‎– 55 – Once Upon A Time In The East / Once Upon A Time In Western

The longest running (55 years)(older then me) Hungarian Prog Rock band's newest album highlights their most popular song in a new version. Well, sort of. "Girl With Pearls In Her Hair" is their most popular song (used for the official trailer of the movie Mid90s) was also recorded (with changed title and English lyrics) by Scorpions. I'm talking about the song "White Dove" performed by the German Metal outfit, which was chosen by UNICEF to be their anthem. Since then OMEGA themselves performed the Scorpions version of their song, but only in a Live setting. This is the first time they've done it in a Studio. As an added bonus, they returned the favor to Scorpions by newly dressing up their classic "Still Loving You".

[Attila Kiss]

Grand...Grand...Granddaughter of the famous Austrian classical composer, Johann Strauss II. After leaving Iron Maidens, the all-female tribute band for the Alice Cooper stint, she is ready to make a name for herself. I pre-ordered the CD bundle fully expecting a shred-fest. And shred-fest I got. There are some notions of melody and variety, but if she wants my money for her next project, she will have to step up her game, though.

[Phoenixx9]

Shame. She has more talent than what she must have shown on what you bought.

[Attila Kiss]

Shame. She has more talent than what she must have shown on what you bought.

Well, it wasn't a complete bust. Her talent shines, there is no question about that. But these days I expect more melody from Instrumentals and less flashiness. Seems like I already heard all the chases of up and downs on a fretboard. The bundle was nice, though. I even received 2 signed posters.

[Phoenixx9]

Well, it wasn't a complete bust. Her talent shines, there is no question about that. But these days I expect more melody from Instrumentals and less flashiness. Seems like I already heard all the chases of up and downs on a fretboard. The bundle was nice, though. I even received 2 signed posters.

Glad to hear it man.

[Deathstroke]

Metal Church - Damned If You Do

[Attila Kiss]

Having all the Royal Hunt CDs they released so far, this purchase was a no brainer. The material sounded really good at my preliminary listening via 'net, yet as soon as I put the CD into my home stereo the flaws jumped straight at me, especially in the production department. Shame, because the songs are really good, I just didn't care for their arrangements.

[Attila Kiss]

The first solo CD by the Italian guitarist gives a friendly pat on the back to maestro Malmsteen and De Rosa's fellow countrymen, Rhapsody. Fast yet melodic is the name of the game. The Rhapsody Of Fire overtones are further prominent thanks to the borrowed vocalist from the Symphonic Metal legends current line-up, Giacomo Voli. While every instrument is well mixed into properly balanced Progressive Power Metal, Edward manages to infuse subtly noticeable guitar theatrics to spice up the required ingredients for little bit of extra Neoclassicalism, as well.

[Attila Kiss]

Half of the Spanish guitarist newest release features Johnny Gioeli (Hardline, Axel Rudi Pell) on vocals. The other half consists of guitar driven Rock Instrumentals of highest order. Robert Rodrigo keeps himself busy intermittently releasing solo albums and projects with the band "Airless", while not compromising quality music.

[Attila Kiss]

After Jon Lord's passing, I couldn't think of a better replacement to fill the void he left behind in Deep Purple. This album explains why?

[Attila Kiss]

So glad to hear Jason is not only fighting the ALS disease, but he still writes beautiful music and there is no shortage of Guitar friends who will land him a hand to present his work to us. Such a huge inspiration and testament of how hard is to break the human spirit. Guitarists who helped him to bring this project to fruition is too long to be listed here. Just look at the talent in this video alone.

[Attila Kiss]

Second helping of the 70s tasting Classic Rock, with lots of energy, comes courtesy of guitarist Frank Pané (Bonfire) and his cohorts: keyboards Ferdy Doernberg (Rough Silk, Axel Rudi Pell), vocals David Reece (Accept) and the borrowed rhythm section of Purpendicular.

[Deathstroke]

Grand...Grand...Granddaughter of the famous Austrian classical composer, Johann Strauss II. After leaving Iron Maidens, the all-female tribute band for the Alice Cooper stint, she is ready to make a name for herself. I pre-ordered the CD bundle fully expecting a shred-fest. And shred-fest I got. There are some notions of melody and variety, but if she wants my money for her next project, she will have to step up her game, though.

Opening night of her tour for this album was 20 minutes from my house and I could've gone for free and met her, but I ended up unable to go.

[Attila Kiss]

Opening night of her tour for this album was 20 minutes from my house and I could've gone for free and met her, but I ended up unable to go.

Bummer....