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To be honest, I haven't heard of Taz Taylor before. On his previous album Graham Bonnet was singing and now he has Keith Slack (ex-MSG, ex-Steelhouse Lane), so you can expect some kind of hard rock and it couldn't be too bad when these guys choose to sing. I learnt that the debut album of Taz Taylor was an instrumental album and 2006 he released Welcome To America with Graham Bonnet on mic. Now the British guitarist is back with Straight Up.
Drummer Val Trainor leads into the opener Lock And Load, a 70's hard rocker. it depends on your point of view, if you take the production as an attempt to get the vintage sound or say it sounds cheap compared to nowadays productions. Anyway, I think it fits to the bands sound, give it the original 70's sound. With Razor Tongue they hooked me up right away, the song has aggression, melody and emotion. Singer Keith Slack shows a bit of his range and it fits well to the guitar-driven tune. The lead guitar part shows again an admiration for the 80's guitar heroes like e.g. Michael Schenker. And the bluesy One More Night won me over! Here a bit Gary Moore shines through as well as a bit Eddie Van Halen. At The Fugitive Mr. Slack sounds a bit like David Coverdale, but he isn't copying Coverdale, it's partly the timbre as well as some phrasing. At In Harms Way you get some more Coverdale-sque stuff! A cool up-tempo rocker is Bring It, a guitar-driven track which is a lot of fun!
Its probably that I'm more open for this sound, coz its what I grew up with and I still love this type of hard rock. And TTB have the vintage sound, they sound authentic and its pure fun to listen. Unfortunately the album is quite short... But better a short, but good album, then an album which starts boring you! So, if you like old Whitesnake (pre-1987) or the early MSG stuff and you are still listening to 70's rock bands, then you should check out this one! My faves are: In Harms Way, Information Overload, One More Night and Bring It.
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