COVEN - "Blood On The Snow" Buddah Records BDS 5614 (1974)
(Not released on cd)

To find any information about this American band was not an easy task. The only thing I've found was in Terry Hounsome's great reference book Rock Record, and according to this Coven released three albums between '70 and '74, making this the last one. But I'm not even sure it's the same band we're talking about. Well, let's forget it and concentrate on this album here. The album kick-starts with "Don't Call Me", heavy riffing guitar and powerful piano chords backed up by a very upfront and heavy bass played by a bloke called Oz Osborne. And no, it's not the man you're thinking about. And this makes the perfect backing (with drums of course) for Jinx Dawson's strong vocal chords. She's got much of the same power and expression similar to Jenny Haan of contemporaries Babe Ruth. But different from Babe Ruth, Coven was rumoured to experiment with occultism and black magic as part of their stage shows. Something the band Black Widow had done before them, and that's verified for sure. Christopher Neilsen sings together with Jinx on the opening of "This Song For All You Children" making it sound like a choir over John Hobbs piano before the backing of Oz and Steve Ross on drums comes in. A mellower track with some nice organ playing in the background. And Jinx sings in a more relaxed mood here. She got that kind of voice, which sounds best in this mood maybe, but sure got the power to shriek and howl when needed. An easy rolling tune, "Lady-O", comes next with strings added and would have been a great single release with it's catchy refrain and singalong qualities. More strings appear on "Blue, Blue Ships", a powerful kind of a ballad with a tough interlude where guitarist Christopher Neilsen sings as well and delivers a heavy wah-wah solo, short but excellent. Christopher shares the lead vocal on "Hide Your Daughters" where a dirty straight rocking riff leads the melody together with some good rolling piano. "Lost Without A Trace" opens quiet with some easy guitar riff and some harpsichord under Jinx's relaxed voice. The power increases considerably when the refrain comes and where Christopher Neilsen sings lead again. It gets funky and heavy rockin' on "Easy Evil" with a sax-solo spicing it up. Great track! The title-track "Blood On The Snow" rounds off the album with great guitar, heavy and distorted. It's a short track with the vocals performed nearly as a mass. Good effect, but the track should have lasted much longer. Coven was a band who played good hard-rockin' music with power and passion and should have been much more known than they were. My copy of this excellent gem is nearly worn out by now, so will somebody please get this out on cd ??!!! Second Battle, Akarma and Repertoire, do you hear me calling......

ROSE TATTOO - "Rose Tattoo" Repertoire RR 4103 - WZ (1990)
Originally released: Albert Productions 1978

Rose Tattoo's "Rose Tattoo" (also released later under the name "Rock'n'Roll Outlaws.") is no less than a classic when it comes to hard rock/heavy metal. Compare it to whatever other release in the same vein and this one really stands out anyhow. A release like AC/DC's "Let There Be Rock" or "Powerage" stands behind this debut-album of Rose Tattoo. Both bands lies in the same territory when it comes to the music. Hard and heavy, fast blues-based rock'n'roll played by two guitars, bass, drums and a singer. But there are differences of course. The first thing you'll notice is probably Angry Anderson's harsh, strong voice singing in the tradition of the old blues-shouters. In other words, no holding back. Singing like his life depends on it. The second thing is Pete Wells' fat slide/bottleneck playing which is really rock'n'roll in it's expression. He may have listened a lot to those groovy blues-guys who knew the art of slide/bottleneck-playing, but his wild fast approach/technique is his own trademark. "Rock'n'Roll Outlaws" starts the ball with Michael Cook chopping out fat chords beneath Pete's razor-sharp fat slide-guitar. And the rest of the band comes in with Geordie Leech's rolling bass, Dallas "Digger" Royal's powerful drumming and Angry's intense voice. In "The Butcher And Fast Eddie" we got a tale of violence and it's tragic following. It's told in a steady, rolling, nearly straight blues manner. One of the albums best tracks. "One Of The Boys" should have been a hit with it's easy, catchy singalong quality. A homage to rock'n'roll we are offered in "Remedy", fast and furious. The best way to describe "Nice Boys" and "Astra Wally" are also fast and furious, two more of this albums outstanding tracks. We even get some acoustic slide inn all this rock'n'roll madness in "Stuck On You", the most mellow track here. And besides the original albums ten tracks , we get eight (four studio and four live) bonus-tracks here! So what are you sittin' there waitin' for ??! Buy it now!!

SONATA ARCTICA - "Ecliptica" Spinefarm Records SPI91CD (1999)

In earlier days when hard-rock and heavy-metal were still wearing diapers, everything was much easier. The genre was easy labelled back then. Nowadays it's a bit more complicated. A lot of sub-genres has showed up. We got classic-metal, speed-metal, trash-metal, power-metal, death-metal, doom-metal and stoner-metal. I think that covers the most. So where do we put the Finnish Sonata Arctica? Somewhere between power-metal and speed-metal must be the most accurate. Because it's plenty of those fast speedy tracks here played with great power without losing the dynamics. If you're unprepared you might get a shock when the album opens with "Blank File". A superfast track that sure will get your earwax jumping and restless and before the end of the song, screaming for more! Wow! And there's more to come...."My Land" starts up slowly before a wall of guitars increasing the pressure considerably. Vocalist Tony, who also handles the keyboards, sings very good with his rather light voice, flexible and strong. Those light high-pitched voices often turns out to be tiresome to listen to, but that's not the case with Tony. Another tune follows in breakneck speed called "8th Commandment". Phew! Nearly too much. What an incredible physics drummer Tommy must have. Things slows down a bit on "Replica" and Tony shows us his lower register of his voice working beautifully. He also uses the sound of a harpsichord on his keyboard here (and on some other tracks) to great effect. Great singalong track! The same goes for "Full Moon". Really a catchy tune to. A flute played by hired hand Raisa Aine starts off "Letter To Dana" beautifully and is the closest we get a ballad here. But have no fear, Jani's guitar are as powerful here as on all the other tracks. We're talking an up and coming guitar-hero here. He knows his licks, rhythm-patterns and how to explode in a solo when needed. Janne's bass should be more upfront in the mix in my opinion, but he sure knows what to do but slightly anonymous at times. Finland has come up with some great bands in this genre through the last decade. And Sonata Arctica are up there on top with Stratovarius and Nightwish for sure.

UFO - "Force it" Chrysalis VK 41074/DIDX 1536 (19??)
Originally released:Chrysalis Records 1975

To me this is one of UFO's top albums along with "Phenomenon", "Strangers In The Night" and Lights Out". Why is that you may ask, and I'll try to give you the answer. Vocalist Phil Mogg's voice was fully developed here with the strength and feeling earlier albums made promises of. Guitarist Michael Schenker are much more secure in his playing here than the previous album "Phenomenon". He has lots of counterpoints and splendid arrangements here! And has found his tone, very easily recognizable. The Mogg/Schenker songwriting skills also showed their full potential here. Pete Way's bass playing was straight with no tricks backed up by the driving force of Andy Parker's drumming. There are some keyboards here, not much but delicious and it's done by Chick Churchill from Ten Years After. I guess that's the choice of the producer Leo Lyons, he also from Ten Years After. He was also the producer on "Phenomenon". "Let It Roll" starts the ball and was the first ever track I heard with UFO. And it just blew me away! Michael starting out on a powerful riff followed by Phil's strong vocals and Michael shows his class as a tremendous guitarist already here. What a riffmaster and clever solo-guitarist he is! It's nearly meaningless to choose outstanding tracks here, they are all very very good. But tracks like "Let It Roll", "Mother Mary" and "This Kid's" are among their truly best in their whole career. "Force It" is no less than a true classic from the seventies in the hard rock/heavy metal genre. And that's final! But there's no risk in buying all their albums between "Phenomenon" and their enormous double live album "Strangers In The night". They are all classy. By now I think all of those albums are released in remastered versions on cd, but there are no bonus-tracks though.