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New Music Reviews, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, AOR, Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal
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September 2023
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June 2023
- Night Legion: Fight Or Fall
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Kick: Memoirs
Kick: Memoirs
Melodic Hard Rock/AOR
4.0/5.0
Over the last 20 or more years, Kick, in its various forms, has always been always been the work of brothers Mikey and Chris Jones. Mikey is the principal songwriter, plays bass, and handles the vocals. Brother Chris handles the guitars and production. You can read their bio and check their discography on their website but, if I'm correct, Memoirs is the fifth Kick album on the books.
Kick: brothers in music.
Memoirs is an apt title for this recording as it will instantly remind you of Eighties AOR melodic rock, even a little edgier. You certainly get this at the very start With Doesn't Take Much and Thrill Seeking Junkie. But it really kicks in with Radio, a sharp guitar song written for Malcolm Dome's Total Rock radio show. Another edgy guitar driven song comes later with The Future's Ours, one of the hard rocking songs here, and the crisp lines within Never Lost That Feeling.
One of the curious things about the Kick sound comes from Mikey Jones' voice which, while still melodic, is somewhere between a punk sneer and an Alice Cooper snarl, at times. You might catch this on Urban Refugee which, speaking of Vincent Furnier, could have been a Cooper song in another context. Another interesting aspect of the Kick sound is their use of keyboards. They often appear at the beginning of song and then either have a noticeable presence, as within Thrill Seeking Junkie, or pushed to the side, as within Highway to the Sun. Overall, while it took me several spins to digest, Kick's Memoirs is a solid and entertaining album of traditional melodic hard rock. Recommended.
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In Short
While it took me several spins to digest, Kick's Memoirs is a solid and entertaining album of traditional melodic hard rock. Recommended.
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Formed in 1999 by singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Erik Martensson, Sweden's Eclipse is well into their third decade of making music. In the recent past, their recordings and reputation have ... [ Read More ]