A New Revenge - Enemies & Lovers

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One thing we got from 80's metal were bands that tried to make comebacks in the 90's minus some key players thus hired guns were brought in. These usually ended up with the band dissolving completely or the original line up returned to hit the nostalgia circuit of the 2000's. A NEW REVENGE are a group of said hired guns collaborating for an original grouping of songs, and it took me a bit to process my thoughts on this "Super Group" (Labels words, not mine as I'll explain) Obviously their talented otherwise they wouldn't have played with, and this is just a sampling, DIO, THE SCORPIONS, ALICE COOPER, JUDAS PRIEST and so on.  To me though, a true super group would be the guys these musicians replaced, the ones who got the fame and notoriety for the band in the first place. With that said and out of the way, “Enemies & Lovers” is technically near perfect, I've just heard it many times before. For example, I found myself humming the bassline for "Only the pretty Ones" (still a very nice path Phil Soussan took) the first time I heard it.

From the opening rift on "The Distance Between" I found myself in a paradoxal toe-tapping boredom. Like I said, these guys know their shit, "The Way" has an incredible hook chugged out by guitarist Keri Kelli and ex-Judas Priest frontman (yea, I know so shut da f**k up!) Tim "Ripper" Owens shows he has a set of pipes that in reality are some of the best in metal on "Glorious" I actually have been a fan of drummer James Kottak since he played with The Scorpions, solid and able to lay down a solid groove any bass player worth his salt should be able to click with.  There was a moment at 2:44 on "Enemies & Lovers" where he rides his crash cymbol to enter back into the main chorus and I don't know why it stuck in my mind. "Scars" sums up this CD perfectly, Formulaic but performed to perfection. I mean perfect! Guitar and bass sound, drums with the right amount of room noise and Tim's awe inspiring voice. Unfortunately it's the sound of Popevilrattcinderwarreso-on. I will say this though, I would LOVE to see them live, and basically isn't that the whole reason these bands are STILL successful today?

Songwriting: 7
Originality: 6
Memorability: 6
Production: 8