Artist: Taz Taylor Band
Label: Escape Music
Release: 2006
Rating: 3.5/5
Taz Taylor? Who the hell is Taz Taylor? An English guitarist who’s been living in San Diego (California, USA) for a while now. Well, with Britain’s modern-day stepmotherly treatment of its own musicians who can play and write “rock,” that’s nothing unusual. The guy put out just one studio album before “Welcome To America”. It’s a purely instrumental record, “Caffeine Racer”, released in 2003. Over the last three years Taz has put a band together. At first he figured he’d use Bonett on vocals for just four tracks on “Welcome To America”, but in the studio some unexpectedly great working chemistry developed between Bonett and the band, so Bonett ended up singing the entire thing, which makes 8 tracks in total (the album has two more instrumentals).
“Welcome To America” serves up a solid 40 minutes of classic “hard rock” in the fine old British school tradition, leaning on the legacy of legendary ’70s bands like UFO, Rainbow and Thin Lizzy, and of course Alcatraz and MSG are very close by too. Taz is a huge fan of Randy Rhoads and Gary Moore, so the album also includes two covers: Moore’s Parisienne Walkways, where Taz sounds “spot on” like Gary Moore’s guitar, and Goodbye To Romance, an Ozzy Osbourne song from his debut “Blizzard Of Ozz” (1980).
The legendary Graham Bonett, known for his work with the mighty Rainbow, MSG and his own band Alcatraz, to name just three of the bigger ones from his long and rich singing career, is of course the lottery jackpot for this album. Bonett has seen better days on vocals in his career, but on “Welcome To America” the singer sounds great, like he hasn’t in ages! His tone and his approach to delivery are definitely one of a kind in “rock” music, and Bonett brings to the “hard rock” template of “Welcome To America” that extra kick that makes the album special, instantly recognizable and incredibly appealing. The guitar is lively, honed and sharp in the production, and Taz, especially in the solos, proves he knows how to serve things up in a most refined way and has that sixth sense for creating a hard rock vibe, the kind where you instantly pick up the message: “Yeah, that’s the real rock n’ roll buzzsaw with a whole bag of pure adrenaline!” Taylor is the star of the album!
The album wins you over right from the opening with two powerful rockers, Fighter’s Fist and the “Rainbow-ish” Radio Luxemburg, where the main riff gets backed up by Hammond organ. A classic trick of the forefathers of heavy rock! The album rolls dynamically through its entire running time! The intensity cools off through the mid-paced Haunted, where piano plays a bigger role, and of course the instrumental waltz Parisienne Walkways, and then the passion flares up especially hard in the title track, where Bonett attacks the chorus with surprisingly furious rage. Wall Of Sound right behind it keeps up that intensity too. The production has contrast between the instruments, and depth. The drums have a thunderous sound that revives the legacy of the biggest names in drum production (Appice, Rondinelli, Powell). As already said, the keyboards keep the riffs company all along the way, underlining the hardness and “rock” intensity of the sound. Taylor is excellent! The polish of the songs themselves proves the album came from his pen. Taylor builds on the main riffs in the transitions in a tastefully refined way with gorgeous interludes, and he pays special attention to polished solos, where he likes to flirt with Blackmore. That feeling burns especially bright in the instrumentals and in the track Silent Fall.
“Welcome To America” is an album that will please all fans of the good old school of British hard rock like Rainbow, UFO and Thin Lizzy. That said, Taz Taylor Band aren’t the kind of band that injects obscurity into its sound, like The Lizards or other bands today that lean on the legacy of Black Sabbath’s Tony Martin era. The album in itself doesn’t offer anything earth-shattering musically, but its great quality is unmistakable, and that’s what counts! As such, “Welcome To America” has a strong pull for Rainbow fans.
Lineup
Taz Taylor – guitar
Bob Miller – keyboards
Dirk Krause – bass guitar
Richard Livoni – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Graham Bonnet – vocals
Production
Taz Taylor
Track list
1. Surface Tension
2. Fighter’s Fist
3. Parisian Walkways
4. Radio Luxembourg
5. Haunted
6. Welcome To America
7. Silent Fall
8. Wall Of Sound
9. Reprise
10. Goodbye Mr C
Running time: 42:29
