Voices Of Rock is another all-star melodic rock collaboration album, this time put out by AOR Heaven. The songs have all been written by Chris Lausmann (Bonfire, Frontline, Jaded Heart) and Michael Voss (Casanova, Mad Max) and the pair also handle production. Joining them are Angel Schleifer, Tommy Denander and Bertram Engel. 

Vocal duties are handled by a succession of instantly recognisable superstars of the melodic rock scene. 

Kicking us off we have James Christian from House Of Lords who puts in his usual quality performance but is let down by a somewhat lacklustre song in Voodoo Woman. That is remedied for the following track, WIld Thing, sung by Jean Beauvoir, which is a decent up-tempo rocker. 

Terry Brock gets a superb song in the shape of Nightingale and delivers a classic brooding and dark performance, followed by Dan Reed’s song, Over And Done, which plods along amiably enough without really igniting any sparks. 

Hardline’s Johnny Gioeli is one of my favourite singers but, like James Christian, is a little unlucky to find himself with Phoenix Rising, one of the weaker songs. The same cannot be said though of Harem Scarem’s Harry Hess, who is up next with another in the category marked “dark and brooding” and as usual he delivers an excellent, if understated, vocal performance on Irresistible, adding to a great song. 

Goran Edman gets an up-tempo and uplifting song in China In Your Hands and performs it brilliantly. One of the real album highlights for me. Robin Beck adds a female touch to proceedings with Underloved, yet another strong track. Steve Overland then belts out what has to be one of the albums very best tracks, Slip Away, echoing some of the breezy up-tempo rock/pop of classic early FM. The album closes out with Gary Barden singing Love Is Blind, another decent song and performance. 

Overall, you cannot argue with the quality of singers brought together for this album, even if a couple of the songs don’t quite do them justice. That said, there’s certainly plenty of quality on offer, making this a very worthwhile purchase and it has to be said that the album’s production is spot on, which obviously helps. 

The strength of this album is in its diversity with a glut of really good songs, covering all aspects of melodic rock style from dark and brooding to uplifting and up-tempo, with the icing on the cake being the chance to hear so many of your favourite singers all in the one place. I’m sure you will all have your personal favourites which could provoke a healthy debate, but what it does highlight for me is the strength of the melodic rock genre at the moment.