VELVET THUNDER

House Of Lords remain one of the premier American melodic rock bands having been with us since 1987 and their albums are always guaranteed to thrill and please. Formed by former Angel keyboard player Greg Giuffria, they are another band with numerous changes in personnel behind them but now seem far more settled with James Christian on vocals, Jimi Bell on guitar, Chris Tristram on bass and B J Zampa on drums and they are also the team that brought us the splendid Saint Of The Lost Souls in 2017.

Indeed, they no longer have any original members in the band but Christian does come as close as you can get as he joined only one year after their formation when he replaced David Glen Eisley and he did supply the vocals for the self-titled debut in 1988. The band have always had that big stadium rock vibe and have been purveyors of finely crafted melodic rock over the years with their personal brand of AOR always being super slick and emotion filled. They blend stadium rock anthems and perfect ballads with ease and their radio friendly sound has developed and grown over the years.  

As usual, the songs are well written with the band working with Mark Spiro (Giant, Bad English, Cheap Trick) on most of the material as well as with Tommy Denander, Chris Pelcer, and Richard Hymas and all of the writers have managed to nail the traditional House Of Lords sound. James Christian again drives the band with his perfect delivery and his guitar complements the smooth perfection that Jimi Bell has brought to the proceedings with his delicious delivery. Christian is also behind the great keyboard and piano work that is such an integral part of their sound and helps give everything that epic flavour that is their stock in trade. New World – New Eyes is now their twelfth album following on perfectly from its predecessor and is a logical progression and sees an increased use of keyboards further emphasising the AOR nature of the band. Christian is a fabulous AOR vocalist and deserves every plaudit that comes his way and Bell simply gets better and better. They have never quite scaled the heights like Journey, Boston or Foreigner and it is doubtful that we will sees those days again when the rock giants ruled the airwaves but when these bands continue making such perfect AOR albums then there is always hope.

New World – New Eyes is a hook laden melodic rock delight with its roots put down in the 80s but honed to perfection for today’s audience and their mixture of hard rock and beautifully delivered ballads still remain so vital and valid and will surely be welcomed by their huge fan base.