Swiss rockers Gotthard formed in Lugano in 1992 helmed by Steve Lee and Leo Leoni. Their first release was a 12 track album titled ‘Gotthard’, followed 2 years later by ‘Dial Hard’ which featured a cover of The Beatles ‘Come Together’ and ‘Rock and Roll’ by Led Zeppelin. The next album released in 1996 named ‘G’ also had a Led Zep cover ‘Immigrant Song’ as well as The Hollies and Bob Dylan covers. The band carried on releasing albums every few years until 2009. Sadly on Oct 5th 2010, Gotthard front man Steve Lee went on a 2 week motorbike bender around America and sadly died in a crash. Gotthard haven’t released anything or tried getting a new singer since.
In July 2010 they recorded a live album ‘Live in Lugano’; it was to be their last album together as a band.
Delivering a perfect intro into ‘Unspoken Words’ with the funky little simple riff and a simple but cracking drum pattern, the epically melodic power metal vocals pop in and sounds superb! The chorus a beautiful array of high pitchness from vocalist Steve Lee, together with group vocals to be proud of. ‘Gone Too Far’ starts off with a riff reminding me of Kamelot, but as the vocals come in it changes the whole feel to it. The chorus has Steve singing but also some other bloke, not sure I like his voice very much, why I’m thinking he sounds like Gok Wan. (If you don’t know who that is you’re therefore a legend to me)
A different turn altogether with ‘Top of the World’, a beat which makes you want to clap your hands in the air or shake your ass, and an almost rocky glam feeling with the vocals.
With the whole recording you can tell the band gel well together, everything in time, sounding like they are having fun and giving off that uplifting mood, especially in ‘Unconditional Faith’. ‘Shangri-La’ has an atmospheric intro then in with some cheesy riffs and the vocals throwing out attitude all over the place. Another catchy as hell chorus (I wish I knew the words to sing along to). A very emo track is ‘Heaven’; if you listened to it you know you guys would love to sing it on Karaoke pissed out your faces in a half empty pub.
‘Lift You Up’ sound quite fantastic, the drumming makes you want to bounce and the little guitar intro sounds like it could be Steve Vai.... ok maybe not... but still I liked it. ‘Sister Moon’ sounds very country (Get the Whiskey out). A grindy, dirty feel to this makes it that little bit more special and the Whitesnake influence (Steve was a big Whitesnake fan) shows on this one.
Moving on to the last track ‘The Train’ opens with an acoustic piece and clean vocals, fit for a band like Poison, completely different from the rest of the recording. A stunning track to end the album.
http://www.gotthard.com
Charlene Rance
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