Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Eisley / Goldy
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2017
Duration: 51:29
Rating: 3/5
Frontiers Records remains unwavering when it comes to encouraging the musicians on its »roster« and hooking them up in all kinds of musical project ideas. So last year two former members of Giuffira, the eighties AOR attraction, joined forces for a joint album: singer Dave Glen Eisley and guitarist Craig Goldy. The latter is known as the former lead guitarist of DIO, and otherwise runs his own Ressurection Kings.
So this is a pairing of two old buddies who, with their studio debut, bring back the sonic essence of the early eighties, the era in which both musicians kicked off their successful careers. The story goes something like this. Goldy supposedly turned up at Eisley’s home in the fall of 2014 and, with a convincing performance, actually talked the singer into getting back on stage and singing again after a long break, one that had lasted all the way since 2001, when Eisley’s solo album came out. Goldy was in fact so pushy about it that he soon dragged Eisley onto a few smaller stages, and the singer felt real musical passion again, along with the joy of writing and playing rock and roll. The two guys then wrote new material over the past year, and the album deal came courtesy of the famous Italian label, probably the only one on the planet where melodic rock and AOR underground bands today find their »refuge« and a kind of sanctuary that lets them survive and keep creating.
The two don’t reinvent the wheel with their new compositions. The tracks are typical hard rock earworms, with plenty of musical catchiness and bite, and atmospheric peaks in the chorus melodies. You can tell Eisley had been off for a long time and came at this record with burning passion and ambition. Even a shade too burning. There’s so much of his vocal at every turn in how the songs develop that it sometimes gets downright distracting. Even in the transitions and in the middle of guitar passages he throws in vocals, which belongs more in a live show than in making studio originals. Goldy’s guitar ends up playing second fiddle at times.
All in all, the songs are skillfully packaged and they ignite as compositions. They’re also consistent in quality, with no songwriting slip-ups. Everything stands the way it should. You can hear echoes of the bands that popularized rock in the seventies, from Rainbow to Deep Purple, and of course the whole thing will also appeal to fans of Dio and Dio-era Black Sabbath. But like I said. By the time “Blood, Guts And Games” reaches the »home stretch«, it’s clear it has its own essence and character, and a melodic rock element that dominates the album. In other words, the stamp of pomp that the two musicians adopted back in the days of Giuffria.
A nice, consistent effort, with no earth-shattering ideas, but with ten original songs it’s still too long, clocking in at a hefty 61 minutes. Given the predictability of the genre both musicians belong to, and the album along with them, that’s simply too much, and toward the end the record starts to get a bit boring in its predictability and wears the listener out. Then again, die-hard hard rock fans won’t be held back for long by this remark either, and they’ll check out what’s on this album anyway!
Line-up
David Glen Eisley – vocals, backing vocals, guitar, piano, Hammond organ, bass guitar
Craig Goldy – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
Ron Wikso – drums
Production
Craig Goldy & David Glen Eisley
Track list
01. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
02. I Don’t Belong Here Anymore
03. Lies I Can Live With
04. No More Prayers In The Night
05. Love Of The Game
06. Wings Of A Hurricane
07. Life, ‘If Only A Memory’
08. Soul Of Madness
09. Track Thirteen
10. Believe In One Another
