Impellitteri

Stand In Line

LeadAxe High Priest's Other Side

Review Score:

(6/10)
"Stand in Line" was the album that drove the final stake in the heart of shred, a full decade after the release of Van Halen and 4 years after the release of "Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force." And not because it was bad, oh no - like all releases with Graham Bonnett on vocals, it was the topper of an increasingly heavy string of albums that got heavier with each release - Rainbow's "Down to Earth", MSG's "Built To Destroy", the first Alcatrazz album, and finally this.

Chris's band of veterans are extremely capable and the album, packed with Euro-metal melodicism, has a slamming mix that is probably one of the loudest, most compressed metal albums ever released - yet still punchy has heck. The songs are far beyond Chris's first EP release, and the mark of Bonnett with the intellectual, historical lyrics (White And Perfect, Leviathan) and melodies (Secret Lover in particular) is just riveting.

That's not to say that this album hasn't received its fair share of criticism, particularly from Yngwie fans. Chris goes overboard in many spots, topping off almost every solo with a burst of sextuplets and a pinch-harmonic bend that occasionally sinks the otherwise superb material (and solos) with showboating. It's ROCK folks, and you've never heard such unchecked ego before. Thank goodness that it's pretty damn good.

Ignore the so-so single, "Stand In Line" and the covers - "Since You've Been Gone" (Which Bonnett sang before with Rainbow) and "Somewhere over the Rainbow" (dang, that Rainbow connection again!) and enjoy rest of the disk. If only for the three songs mentioned previously, your money will have been very, very well spent.

More Reviews: