{"id":28308,"date":"2013-03-18T15:01:21","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T20:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=28308"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:34:10","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:34:10","slug":"charing-cross-sinspiration-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/charing-cross-sinspiration-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Charing Cross | Sinspiration<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– News Editor \/ Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"CharingIt\u2019s been five years since Swiss melodic hard rockers Charing Cross\u2019s debut album We Are\u2026Charing Cross<\/em>, one of the more promising debuts in the European melodic hard rock scene in recent years. The band is finally back with a follow-up, titled Sinspiration<\/em>, and they haven\u2019t lost any of their energy, even if things are a bit rougher around the edges this time around.<\/p>\n

What made We Are\u2026Charing Cross<\/em> such an effective album was how flawlessly the band walked the line between melodic rock and heavy metal, much like Jaded Heart and Pink Cream 69 do so well. Charing Cross totally nailed the sound that Edguy tried \u2013 and failed \u2013 to pull off with their last couple of releases. With Sinspiration<\/em>, that sound is still very much present, but it\u2019s starting to fray a bit. It\u2019s a heavier album than the debut, with a much more prominent metal edge, but it also seems rougher in terms of production and to some degree the vocals. Peter Hochuli sounds less polished here, and seems to struggle with the language barrier.<\/p>\n

Whatever its flaws, there are some good songs on <\/em>Sinspiration<\/em>, like the very upbeat, very catchy \u201cRoad to Nowhere\u201d (and you\u2019ll swear that\u2019s Edguy mainman Tobias Sammett singing) and the hook-heavy \u201cHell on Wheels\u201d and \u201cComing Home.\u201d There are also some obvious filler songs too though, so in the end it\u2019s up to the listener to decide whether the good outweighs the not so good, which isn\u2019t a problem the debut had.<\/p>\n

Sinspiration<\/em> has some strong songs, but in the end it\u2019s just not kind of follow-up album you might expect given how strong Charing Cross\u2019s debut was. If you\u2019re already a fan of the band, by all means check out Sinspiration<\/em> for yourself, but if you\u2019re new to the band and enjoy the heavier melodic rock bands like Jaded Heart, Pink Cream 69. Shakra and Evidence One, you\u2019ll be better off starting with We Are\u2026Charing Cross<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nMarkus Flury (b) (v)
\nRiodi Halter (d)
\nAndre Dormann (g) (v)
\nPascal Zwyssig (g) (v)
\nPeter Hochuli (v)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tMiracle Man
\n2.\tFallen Angels
\n3.\tTwilight Zone
\n4.\tAlone
\n5.\tRoad to Nowhere
\n6.\tComing Home
\n7.\tHandful of Pain
\n8.\tH8
\n9.\tThrill Me\/Kill Me
\n10.\tHell on Wheels
\n11.\tWild Honey
\n12.\tTwisted Mind
\n13.\tAshes to Ashes<\/p>\n

Label: Fastball Music<\/p>\n

Website: www.charing-cross.ch<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 6.75\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – News Editor \/ Senior Columnist — It\u2019s been five years since Swiss melodic hard rockers Charing Cross\u2019s debut album We Are\u2026Charing Cross, one of the more promising debuts in the European […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[336,3987,2847,334],"class_list":{"0":"post-28308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2013","7":"tag-cd","8":"tag-fastball-music","9":"tag-melodic-hard-rock","10":"tag-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}