Tracks
1. Big Money
2. One Man Down
3. First to Cry
4. Someday When
5. Searchin
6. Living In A Dream World
7. The Next Time I Hold You
8. Run For Your Life
9. Hologram
10. Seven
11. Once Twice
12. Blood

Band:
James Christian – vocals
Jimi Bell – guitars
BJ Zampa – drums
Chris McCarvill - bass

Discography:
House of Lords (1989)
Sahara (1990)
Demons Down (1992)
The Power And The Myth (2004)
World Upside Down (2006
Live in the UK (2007)
Come to My Kingdom (2008)
Cartesian Dreams (2009)

Guests:

Info

Released 23/9-2011
Reviewed 11/9-2011

Links:
jameschristianmusic.com
myspace
frontiers

A house full of lords looking for the big money, that is what the band House of Lords are letting us to believe. Little over twenty years ago this band released a self titled album which apparently is considered to be one of the best arena rock albums of the decade. I found that out from the promo information, the album did reach a decent position on the Billboard list but I have no idea what people think of it as I didn’t find any reliable information on that matter. Now 22 years later it is all about the Big Money as their new album is called, wether it will bring them the big money rather depends on how well they sell of course because if they are only played on services like Spotify they will not make any money as they pay the artist so bad money that some labels have even removed their bands from that service because the only one who benefits is the service provider who provide a rubbish service only for their own benefit. Anyway lets hope there are still record buyers to help artists to make good music even in the future, if there are not then House of Lords will not make any big money.

So, leaving that rubbish for now, musically it is as I stated before arena rock or melodic rock. They have a powerful sound with sing-along choruses and a melodic disposition, the vocals of James Christian are not as clean as vocals in the genre can be but he show a lot of authority in his vocal works. Production is typical for the genre, very good and compliment the sound quite well. The album has twelve tracks and it will take you almost fifty minutes to play in its entirety.

This albums starts in a very awful way, first a woman saying “the root to all evil” and then singer Christian screams “money” and if they wanted to scare away listeners they succeed very well as I was about to abort my first listen when I heard the album start. I changed my mind and the following song was quite alright in the end, a good opening track if you discount the awful start. The second track is said by James Christian to be the best song ever written by House of Lords, and I am inclined to agree with that as far as I can tell not being what you call a fan of the band. That track is called One Man Down, it is a brilliant track with a majestic chorus, a royally great track that is the highlight of this album. Track six Living in a Dreamworld and track eight Run For Your Life are also worth mentioning as little highlights of this album.

So, will it make the band any big money? probably not as music don’t sell like it used to and many of the services providing music today do not provide the artist with anything worth mentioning so the money from the album will probably not be that impressive but the album is good and had it been released back in the day when people bought music on albums they probably would have made some decent money from it. I don’t think there really is any downside to this album, the songs are all good and some are great. The only thing I can think of as a negative is that this is music that has been done before and a lot, but as their music belongs amongst the top of all of those artists it is not really a big negative either.

So, this is a great release for all of you who are into arena rock and also for you who enjoy melodic rock, a royally good album that with luck might bring them the big money.

HHHHHHH

Label: Frontier Records
Three similar bands: Def Leppard/Whitesnake/Van Halen
Rating: HHHHHHH (5/7)
Recensent: Daniel Källmalm