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Michael Bride - Lead & Rhythm Guitar,
Vocals |
Additional singers: MARC STORACE,
GARY BARDEN , DORKAS KIEFER, MICHAEL VOSS, AINO LAOS, YAN, ELA
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| The
Review |
Like Liberty & Justice and Deacon Street, here is another
conceptual piece of melodic rock. Mostly lighthearted singer/songwriter-pop
oriented AOR (likewise to L&J and DS), with various vocalists
both male and female, Beggars Bride is the brainchild of producer/songwriter
Holland "Holggy" Begg, for which he makes his debut doing
his own thing.
You have to admit he tried, but the music is just way
too strange at times or just too pop. The record starts strong,
you do have high points like "Broken Hearts," sung by Krokus
frontman Marc Storace, the dark "Open Sea," and the jumpy
"Eight Feet Below" which are the more interesting points on
'Boulevard of Broken Hearts,' but unfortunately it stops there.
A lot of the record is plagued by weird ideas such as "Ruled
by Clowns," which sounds like "The Monster Mash" on acid,
"I Think it's Over" treads the line into mainstream soft rock
categories, and I can't decide whether "First Way Out" is
a parody or homage to hair metal. Maybe AOR and Melodic Rock
isn't cut out for concept records, and as for the concept,
I just didn't get "it." Begg should stick to producing other
artists; he did a fine job with Oni Logan's (Lynch Mob) solo
disc 'Stranger In A Foreign Land.' However, the production
quality is clean, the musicianship is tight, so you have to
give Begg credit in that respect. Then again, this is his
project, and passing it off as something personal is probably
the best way to describe the musical stance of the record.
-
Tommy Hash
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