Starmen
Welcome to My World

Sounds like: Kiss, Whitesnake, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Fair Warning, Gotthard, Ozzy Osbourne, Gathering of Kings, Wig Wam, The Poodles & Eclipse; says the label, and I always worry when labels start burping band names like that. And nowhere they mention fresh or unique, the most important thing when releasing a new album. They also use makeup like many others and call themselves Starman and a colour like some other bands do, I come to think of Masked Intruder there. The fact is that nothing offered by Starmen feels fresh and exciting, just mouldy and drab.

I guess you have heard any of the countless similar bands already mentioned in this text, so you know roughly what to expect but without the personality of mentioned bands. This is a sterile paint-by-numbers representation of radio friendly melodic rock/hardrock, nothing original or unique whatsoever. Sure, the production is pretty good, the songs catchy, the presenter that starts it all is a nice touch but it is like watching a semi-decent movie you have seen a million times already – it feels pretty dull, predictable and old the first time you hear it.

It isn’t a bad album in the regard that you feel the urge to vomit when you hear it, some of it is even pretty fine to listen to – but it is boring. It is poor copies of what others have done before, perhaps they should have done covers and played them live instead of making dull albums like this. Of course, you can do stereotypes and make great music, Eclipse certainly shows that, but if you do stereotypes you need to make brilliant stuff to be relevant and this isn’t. There is nothing special about this album, nothing at all.

In the end I think you should refrain from this one, it is one of those pointless releases that adds nothing to an already oversaturated market. If you want a melodic rock or hardrock album you should look at any of the bands the labels says they sound like instead of this one, like Eclipse who make nostalgic rock and do it well – these guys makes it okay but considering the number of okay albums in this genre there is no point in making an okay album. I don’t feel very welcome in their world, they can keep it for themselves.

HHHHHHH