Italian based AOR outfit MY Land, and their vocalist Guido Priori, have twice before featured in the pages of HRH, firstly with Priori's solo tribute to the music of Journey and more recently with the independant release of the self titled debut My Land album. And now here we are a couple of years later and the band are all set unleash their sophomore effort, No Man's Land.

Since the release of that debut album the band appear to have underwent a series of line up changes, with only Priori and drummer Paolo Morbini remaining from the line up responsible for that first CD. The reasons behind such whole scale changes are unclear as the press release that accompanied the album makes no mention of the fact and likewise gives no indication of the roles played by the guests credited on the CD, namely the ubiquitous Tommy Denander alongside former Europe six stringer Kee Marcelo.

Such sketchy details in the promo kit doesn't help when reviewing an album but regardless of such oversights My Land have produced an album that proves to be something of a winner. True out and out AOR albums have become something of a scarcity in recent times as the trend has been more towards melodic metal and hard rock releases but My Land have certainly bucked that trend as No Man's Land, good on first listen, gets better and better on repeated plays. 

A lot of what was said in the HRH review of the band's debut still holds true for this sophomore release. The good news is though that the band have dropped the instrumentals and vocalist  Priori has developed his “own” sound more and more, no longer sounding akin to Rush's Geddy Lee in places. Again as on that debut album the band still come across as a blend of Journey, Toto and Survivor, with occasional references to the likes of Strangeways, Fair Warning and, in particular, Hugo’s solo albums. In truth both (Someday) Love Leaves You Lonely and How Much Love sound sound very much like tracks from the excellent Hugo debut album. Other highlights include the up-tempo opener Anytime and the very Toto influenced Voices whilst The Wind Of Late September proves to be a real "grower". 

On the downside the song titles employed by My Land are perhaps slightly clichéd in AOR terms and at times, even though he has developed more of his own style, Priori's vocals come across as a little one dimensional, although this could be said to be down to the mixing of the CD as, in places, the vocals do seems to lost in the mix. Luckily the positives far outweigh the negative aspects of No Man's Land. The fact that it is chock full of up-beat, smiley AOR that draws it's influences from some of the biggest names in the genre means that if AOR is your cup of tea then this will most definitely appeal.

Let us know your views on No Man's Land

Track Listing

Anytime
The Wind Of Late September
(Someday) Love Leaves You Lonely
Heat of Emotion
How Much Love
Age Of Dreams
Voices
Step Closer
Running In The Night
Prisoner Of Love

Line Up

Paolo Morbini - Drums
Guido Priori - Vocals
Clod Corazza - Bass
Will Medini - Keyboards
Hox Martino - Guitar
Massimiliano Passerini - Guitar

Related Links

My Land - Album Review

Guido Priori - Album Review