On disc: Gotthard

 
 Homerun
 
- Katja Henning -
 
 


 
 One Team, One Spirit
 
- Sandra Bucher -
 
 


 
 Need To Believe
 
- Umberto Mino -
 
 

Need To Believe

(Nuclear Blast - 2009)



 
 

 

Great return for these Swiss hard rockers!!!!! Also this time they hit the bulls eye!!!! Need To Believe offer to us a high quality of songs full of solid guitar riffs, great melodies and the incredible voice of Steve Lee. He drives us in a journey along a journey inside this new CD came out for Nuclear Blast / Warner and is produced by Rich Chyki (Rush, Aerosmith).

It's very hard for me to think that maybe this CD doesn't reach the top in any international chart, because inside here there areballads full of struggle, hard songs with power guitar chords and tons of melody and, very important, a clearly and powerful sound!!!!

Very hard for myself to describe Need To Believe song by song, because a lot of feelings you can find in any song from the first track Shangri-La to the last Ain't Enough.... Ballads like Don't Let Me Down, pure hard rock power in I Don't Mind and the fantastic title-track with his fantastic chorus and catchy refrain.....

After twenty years Gotthard stands one more time for very good music and I'm very proud to say and write it!!!! In my heart I hope that Steve Lee, Leo Leoni and the other guys reach the top worldwide....... They really deserve it. Also this time the old phrase must be written here: Buy or die!!!!!!! This is really a jewel of hard rock that will be cast in stone like Pyromania or 1987... Do you know what I mean?
 
 










Umberto Mino


  
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One Team, One Spirit

(BMG - 2004)



 
 

 

It must be Christmas time again, coz so many best-of albums get into the stores. For fans of the band these releases are usually not that interesting, coz fans have all the albums. For people who just discovered the band it's a good chance to get a musical overlook of what the band did. Many will expect that the best-of offers just the ballads, but this is a two CD-set and one CD has the best ballads and the other the best rockers. But in this case it might be interesting for long-time fans as well, coz the Swiss rockers added 4 new songs and give an outlook for what to come. Fire And Ice was a work done for the Swiss hockey league and is an anthem-like rocker. The marching song Inside Out can be compared with She Goes Down. What About Love is a ballad and One Team, One Spirit was the official hymn of the Swiss Olympic Games team. With a piano version of Everything Can Change they show that some songs work better in a basic version. On One Life, One Soul you hear beside Steve Lee the famous Montserrat Caballé.

In this case the best-of is a good idea for every hard rock fan. It has the classics - ballads and rockers - and some new stuff. Well done!
 
 










Sandra Bucher
(translation: Claudia Ehrhardt)

  
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Homerun

(BMG - 2001)



 
 

 

After 3 years the Swiss rockers finally present their 6th album. On Homerun they follow the way they chose with Open, but the latest was way better in my opinion, even if I still miss the power they had on their first 3 releases. But it seems these days are over... The songs on Homerun are more polished, so that when you listen the second time you start singing along. Everything Can Change, Take It Easy and Come Along are catchy. Mid-tempo ones are Light In Your Eyes and Eagle. Slower, more balladesque are Heaven, Lonely People, Say Goodbye and Reason To Live.

Last, but not least there is the title track Homerun - at the end there is a short sequence where you hear bits and pieces of Hush, Free And Alive, Let It Rain and Mountain Mama.

Not bad, but I hope that live the songs are a bit harder and rougher...
 
 










Katja Henning
(translation: Claudia Ehrhardt)

  
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