Artist: House Of Lords
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2007
Here’s yet another sign of the awakening of America’s answer to late-era “1987” Whitesnake! The boys from the House of Lords, with plenty of highs and lows over their career. After last year’s long-awaited new studio album “World Upside Down“, the live album is finally here. The guys are wide awake again, and then some!
Well….of course it would’ve been nicer if this recording came from a “headliner” tour, with a set list twice as long – a double album, in other words. But rock music trends have done a serious about-face over the past 15 years, and House Of Lords now have a hard time filling a hall for 1,000 or more people. So when it comes to chasing the right live atmosphere, the band made more than the right call by recording a show at the “Firefest 2” festival (Nottingham, the UK, November 26, 2005) and putting it out. The set list is trimmed down, but House Of Lords delivered, tried and true, on one of the most important yardsticks of a live recording’s quality. That’s the atmosphere, which at gigs comes mostly from the crowd. The bigger the mass of people at a show, the more partying and shouting! The overall peak of the vibe is directly proportional!
There’s no Gregg Giuffria at this show! So House Of Lords turned to keyboard samples from the original tapes, played in the background during the gig. In other words, they didn’t look for a replacement for Gregg. That’s the minus of this album. The crew isn’t complete, sadly, even though the lineup on this live recording is almost the classic “Power And The Myth” lineup.
This live disc leans mostly on tracks from the band’s debut: Sahara, Chains Of Love, Love Don’t Lie, Pleasure Palace, The Edge Of Your Life, I Wanna Be Loved, Can’t Find My Way Home, Slip Of The Tongue! To fill out the bag, there’s also Mind Trip, All Is Gone and the instrumental The Rapture from “The Power & The Myth”, where the guys really go wild and show off serious chops in stage execution, the fruit of rich experience and a band that’s exceptionally tight and warmed up to just the right live working temperature. The first and basic precondition for weighing the quality of a hard rock live recording is met by James Christian’s vocals, which were truly flawless that night! He doesn’t let up in the power of his expression at a single point on the album, and the singer’s talent is confirmed by brilliant performances of the atmospheric mid-tempo Talkin’ About Love (“Demons Down”), the very opening of The Edge Of Your Life, I Wanna Be Loved, or the acoustic intro of Can’t Find My Way Home, where the feeling really comes through in that warm, soft, velvety voice. Christian holds onto his power even through all the swings in the color of his voice. Like I said, the man doesn’t flinch in his bold, versatile “winding”!
“Live In The UK” is one hell of an energetic live album, without a single weak move. The rhythm section is wound up like a cannon, Ken Mary’s drumming is murderous (the fills and double-kick work in the style of Tommy Aldridge – Whitesnake), Lanny Cordola solos like he’s in a trance, and the contrasts between the four members of the whole are pushed to the max. It’s a raw, brakeless attack by the band, with spotless execution and great communication between the members on stage. A first-class melodic hard rock punch to the head! This is an album that fans of the band will snatch up, simply because with it House Of Lords paid off a debt more than ten years old! And with the inclusion of the excellent studio track Havana, previously released only for the Japanese market on “The Power & The Myth”, they paid that debt back in the best possible way.
Lineup
James Christian – vocals, programming
Lanny Cordola – guitar, backing vocals
Chuck Wright – bass, backing vocals
Ken Mary – drums
Production
House Of Lords
Track list
1. Sahara
2. Chains Of Love
3. Love Don’t Lie
4. Pleasure Palace
5. Talkin’ Bout Love
6. The Edge Of Your Life
7. Mind Trip
8. All Is Gone
9. The Rapture
10. I Wanna Be Loved
11. Can’t Find My Way Home
12. Slip Of The Tongue
13. Havana (studio bonus track)
Album length: 60.44
