JØRN have been going for a number of years (since 2000), and have seven full-length album releases behind them. This “best-of” new release takes in tracks from each release to date (with a heavy dependence upon the ‘Lonely are the Brave’ album), apart from the recent studio album that was only released in June this year on a different label. Jorn Lande on vocals may be recognised by some as the current and original Masterplan vocalist with Igor Gianola on guitars also being the current U.D.O. guitar player. I always look at best-of albums as either a career ending release or way to introduce new fans to the band, but then I could be wrong in both cases being the cynic that I am!
I cannot help getting the Whitesnake and DIO-isms out from my head, the opening tune ‘Man of the Dark’ presents itself as a latter day DIO arrangement all with a vocal sounding like most European True/Power Metal bands. The difference is that the guitar solo produces a controlled expulsion of ideas, without having to go nuts and play a million notes at once, and arrangement wise, this is a band thinking about what they were doing at the time, there is no junk here, its all a bit special, whilst never that “heavy”, you could say it’s more epic than anything. The new version of ‘Young Forever’ included in this release has lots of progressive leanings, this is until the solo bursts out and gives you a slight surprise considering everything else was well controlled and balanced. However, this is a welcome break to be honest, you could have been sucked in by the tune just playing in the background if it had gone on any longer, but this event has given the track a new lease of life. This is good thinking. ‘Living with the Wolves’ shows a David Coverdale influence vocally, and also comes prominent on ‘Sunset Station’. The whole album shows what a complete package this band has been over the years. This is quite a pleasant listen for fans of classic heavy and more recent power metal and an album that will no doubt help the bands back catalogue sales, even if this is the second best-of release by this band courtesy of AFM Records in the last couple of years.
This is another fine introduction to the artist for new fans, and a good selection of greats for current fans of JØRN.
http://www.myspace.com/realjorn
http://www.jornlande.com/
http://www.afm-records.de/de/home/new_releases.html
