With his 2005 collaboration with Russell Allen, ‘The Battle’, winning our readers poll 12 months ago Jorn Lande clearly has a lot of fans here at HardRockHouse.  Due for release in early January, ‘Unlocking The Past’ finds him paying tribute to his musical heroes, and a quick look at the  track listing indicates that Messer's Coverdale, Dio and Blackmore are the chief beneficiaries. 

Lande is assisted by no less than five guitarists, four drummer, four bassists and two keyboard players, one of which is current Purple incumbent Don Airey, who presumably plays on the storming seven minute rendition of ‘Perfect Strangers’. The choice of tracks is an interesting one and, apart from ’Fool For Your Loving’ less obvious; Thin Lizzy’s ‘Cold Sweat’ (from ‘Thunder & Lightning’) is not one of their better known numbers and Lande handles it well. Similarly, the lesser championed Dio-era Sabbath number ‘Lonely Is The Word’ is an accomplished effort (although train spotters should note it actually segues into ‘The Sign Of The Southern Cross’ and not ‘Letters From Earth’ as per the track listing on this promo copy). 

‘Burn’ is extended to over six minutes, giving some of the backing musicians a chance to shine - an opportunity they grasp with some success. That said, Bad Company‘s ‘Feel Like Making Love’ misses the mark, Lande sings it with ease but the heavy riffs and solo sound out of place. A dynamic run through of ‘Kill The King’ gets things back on track and the delivery rivals the original for passion and chaos. I was racking my brains a bit with the last two songs, eventually remembering that ‘Naked City’ is lifted from Kiss ‘Unmasked’ album; again this is an unusual choice and Lande deserves credit for not taking the logical options although this is a long way from being one of Kiss’ best. ‘The Day The Earth Caught Fire’ must be the version from the American band (and Queen sound-a-likes) City Boy and is great way to close the album, the harmony vocals are spot on and if you don’t know this song then it is a real epic 70’s classic rock number. If you are a fan of Queen’s first six albums then City Boy are well worth seeking out. 

Unless you are a dedicated fan of Jorn Lande whether you would actually choose this CD over any of the originals is unlikely, but nevertheless it provides a welcome chance to revisit songs from the past you might not have heard for some time. As for me, I’m off to dig out ‘The Mob Rules’ and ‘Long Live Rock n Roll’ to remind myself how good they are.