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I remember when the first Phenomena album was released, the concept and the musicians participate made it a must-have. Part II Dream Runner and Part III Inner Vision did quite good, but the 2006 release Psychofantasy went under the radar - at least under mine. The three chapters are classics and with Psychofantasy a new era began.
Now Tom Galley, brain of Phenomena, is back with Blind Faith and an interesting cast. The opener The Sky Is Falling is an 80's hard rock tune, unfortunately they repeat this one line a bit too often. But ex-Riot singer Mike DeMeo's vocal performance is great and the song shows one more time that he's best when doing hard rock songs. At the title track Saga singer Rob Moratti takes over the microphone, a fast but catchy tune with a dash of folk. To find Primal Fear shouter Ralf Scheepers among the singers might be a surprise, but I think he's the right one to do the NWoBHM-like Fighting. A riff-based rocker extraordinary is Liar which is sung by Tony Martin. Even if the main line is also repeated a few times, this time they aren't overdoing it. Instead they surprise the listener with a slow, semi-acoustic passage. So far the highlight of Blind Faith!
I Was Gonna Tell You Tonight is a powerful balladesque rock tune which features Robin Beck. Somehow this sounds too familiar and her vocals - even if technically perfect - can't touch me. Mikael Erlandsson is next in line and offers a real heavy rocker called Angel's Don't Cry. Due to the Hammond organ played by Dan Helgeson the song has a 70's rock touch. The other musicians involved are Salute's Martin Kronlund on guitar and bass while his mate Imre Daun is taking care of drums and percussion. FM guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick and Henrik Thomsen (Hope) complete the band. Saga vocalist Rob Moratti is back with the ballad House Of Love. Steve Overland can give Don't Ever Give Your Heart Away something special and so it's another highlight of the album. The closer One More Chance is reviving the 80's Phenomena! And Terry Brock is doing an excellent job on this one! Perhaps the best song of the album...
A decent album, but the repetitive main line of the songs is annoying after awhile. Especially you can find it on almost every track, sometimes more up-front, sometimes as backing vocals. If you listen to a track or two it's no problem, but if you listen to the whole album it's tiring.
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