By Moose

I was kinda surprised when I picked up Classic Rock this month and found myself wondering why I only had a handful of their Top 50 2007 CD's in my collection?? Ok, so no-one actually has their No 1 as it's not actually been released officially, although it's been in production for longer than Isambard Kingdom Brunel took to dig Box Tunnel and blag some second hand chains to use for his fancy bridge near Clifton. That's Chinese Democracy by Guns 'n' Roses in case you're wondering - it'll probably be good when it eventually gets finished, but I'm not holding my breath. Actually, I hadn't splashed my own personal cash on any of the Classic Rock Top 10 - I must be losing my touch…….

10 - Tesla: Reel To Reel. An interesting and not at all obvious collection of covers recorded in what sounds like a low-ish spec home studio type set-up. Fortunately the fun they had making it shines through most tracks.

9 - Puddle Of Mudd: Famous. A late 2007 release, and yes it is a bit similar to both of their previous releases, but the catchy hooks and the ballsy guitars are all present and correct.

8 - Linkin Park: Minutes To Midnight. Still the best exponents of the rock/rap crossover thing, this time with added environmental concern and a slightly more grown up approach to some of the material. Worth catching live if you get the chance.

7 - Night Ranger: Hole In The Sun. The pop-metal experts from the 90's return with the original line-up and some beefed up rockers that's definitely not trading on their past even slightly. Yes, Night Ranger in 2007 rock!

6 - Roadstar: Glass Mountain. Released without even a hint of publicity just as the band were splitting from creative mentor/songwriter/manager Laurie Mansworth, it's a low key follow-up to their excellent debut CD from 2006. But it's excellent - hopefully 2008 will see some stability for 'em.

5 - Velvet Revolver: Libertad. Slash shows Axl the meaning of the word prolific, having released and briefly toured the 2nd offering from VR in the time it's taken GnR to pick the font for their new CD's sleeve. Nothing especially challenging, but the combination of the slightly odd vocals from Scott Weiland plus the in your face Les Paul from Slash works a treat.

4 - Danny Vaughn: Traveller. Another twelve killer tracks from Danny and his UK based band. Yeah, it's all been done before, but the combination of driving acoustic, powerhouse rock and more hooks than a fisherman's tackle box tick all the right boxes for me.

3 - Alter Bridge: Blackbird. Awesome return from the ex-Creed boys, this time with vocalist Miles Kennedy contributing to the songs a bit more while beefing up the overall sound by playing guitar too. The track Rise Today ended up being my favourite from 2007. Miss them at the Academy on the 25th of Jan at your peril……..

2 - Dream Theater: Systematic Chaos. How do they keep coming up with so much quality material after all this time??? Especially when most songs have more ideas in 'em than most other bands full CD's!! This release has everything - light and shade, fast and slow, pounding drums, frenetic guitars and astounding keyboards too. The songs are great and nearly the whole thing translated to their live show too.

1 - Chris Cornell: Carry On. The 2nd solo outing for the ex-Soundgarden ex-Audioslave front man, and he's clearly enjoying the freedom of being his own man again. The songs have that similar quirky feel that the stuff from his solo debut had, and while it took a while to get into my head, once it was there it was hard to shift. Yeah, the cover of Billie Jean is a bit naff, but the theme tune from the latest 007 movie makes up for that - and then there's 13 other tracks of magic. Amazing……..

On the live front my gig of the year was easily The Answer at Trinity back in the spring - a young band making their first steps to a medium/large venue as if they were born in the dressing room out the back, and a rather healthy crowd turning out to witness what was going on too - well done to everyone that made it. Hopefully 2008 will be a big year for them - new CD and hopefully more live shows. Other excellent gigs included Dream Theater at Newport, FM and Tyketto at Firefest in Nottingham, and various bands at Download - especially Bowling For Soup. Unfortunately I didn't get to see much in the way of local bands this year - must work harder on that in 2008, drop me a line if you fancy a review of your own gig at some point.

Actually, local rock/metal generally was a bit thin on the ground for me, although Onslaught managed to finally get their highly anticipated Killing Peace CD in the shops - a brutal return to form, perhaps a bit too brutal for even my metal tuned ears, especially the vocals. Having said that, if old school thrash is still your thing, you won't go far wrong by picking up a copy.

For me it was Queensryche. Having still not got over the disappointment of 2006's Operation: Mindcrime II, their covers CD hasn't made it into my CD player for even a second listen, and then they go and pull out of the dual headline December tour with Thin Lizzy at the last minute with what sounds like an excuse not to bother. Yeah, they're due back to Bristol in June next year, so that might make up for it, but they have a huge amount of lost ground to recover in my view.

So that's it - where did the year go?? See you somewhere in 2008…...

Moose.