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Danny Danzi - Danziland

MTM Music (0059732MTM)

Rating - 7.5/10

Review - Steve Cummings


This album has been a long time coming, Danzi's previous album 'Somewhere Lost In Time' emerged in 1999. The wait has been in part due to label problems and 'Danziland' emerges on MTM after the main man split with Z Records.

The opener 'Welcome' is very much a prelude to the album in much the same way as 'TnT' opens up the Crue album 'Dr Feelgood'. The first song proper 'Danziland' itself is full of guitar histrionics and extols the virtues of a Danny Danzi show. 'Eternity' is slightly more laid back, full of vocal harmonies that at times are reminiscent of Queen or Journey. A total killer of guitar solo only compliments this already great song. 'Just A Matter Of Time' again reminds me of latter day Queen surprisingly relying on a soft keyboard introduction with some subtle guitar fills a la Brian May. The vocal almost starts as a spoken whisper before the melody kicks in. The guitar solo kicks the temp up a notch full of McAlpine like shredding before the song returns to the chorus and end guitar fills. 'Let It Go' starts life as a ballad with some soft piano and a plaintive vocal before the rest of the band kick in. 'Only The Strong Survive' is a cool mid-tempo rock song punctuated by little guitar runs and harmonics. 'Wild & Dangerous' starts of with riffing par excellence before dropping into a keyboard/acoustic verse section. The lyrical content of the song has been dealt with many times before with hard luck story dreaming of better times, but the song doesn't suffer due to this. 'Time Passes By', is the compulsory ballad on any melodic rock album, whereas 'Destiny', although starting off piano driven, soon picks up tempo and almost sounds like Axel Rudi Pell in places. 'Fool' starts with multi-vocal harmonies and again brings the Queen comparison to mind. I am sure I have heard the intro to 'All Or Nothing' someplace else but I can't quite place it. The song is nicely paced mid-tempo rocker and that brings us to 'What About Us'. The album closer deals with loss and pain and I read somewhere was about 9/11. Even without the subject matter the song is a heartfelt acoustic rock song with a nice flamenco style solo which may just tug at a few heartstrings. All in all this is an extremely well crafted set of songs combining just the right amount of vocal melody and harmony with some explosive shredding

Let us know your views on 'Danziland'

 

Track List

Welcome
Danziland
Eternity
Just A Matter Of Time
Let It Go
Only The Strong Will Survive
Wild & Dangerous
Time Passes By
Destiny
Fool
All Or Nothing
What About Us

Line Up

Danny Danzi - Guitar/Lead Vocals
Andy Slostad - Guitar/Vocals
Wayne Davis - Bass/Vocals
Timmy Lloyd - Drums/Vocals
Phil Buckleman - Keyboards

 
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