{"id":39475,"date":"2014-04-17T19:27:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-18T00:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=39475"},"modified":"2014-04-17T19:27:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-18T00:27:00","slug":"lrs-down-to-the-core-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/lrs-down-to-the-core-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"L.R.S. | Down To The Core<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"LRSFrontiers Records melodic rock explosion continues! And so does, it seems, the present tendency for super-groups to spring up \u2014 in recent months several more appeared, one of them being L.R.S. Their newly released Down To The Core<\/em> album is a unique combination of some of the most polished and practiced talents of melodic hard rock genre; there goes the great Tommy La Verdi (of 21 Guns) on lead vocals, with Josh Ramos (The Storm, Hardline) on guitars and no one else but Michael Shotton (Von Groove, Airtime) behind the drum kit. As for the additional musicians engaged in this project, there are three bass players: the Italian musicians Nicola Mazzucconi (Moonstone Project) and Anna Portalupi (Tarja Turnen, Hardline), plus Jamie Browne. And if you happened to wonder who could be the person responsible for the tinkly keyboard sound (occasionally exchanged for the vintage-sounding Hammond organ), the powerful backing vocals, production and songwriting collaboration altogether \u2026 you would end up thinking about Alessandro Del Vecchio anyway, wouldn\u2019t you? It couldn\u2019t have been anyone else but him, and it\u2019s the Italian melodic rock genius indeed that is largely responsible for Down To The Core<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The album is very cohesive and coherent sound-wise \u2014 and at the same time, absolutely stellar. With his emotionally laden vocals, Tommy La Verdi proves it\u2019s good to have him back on board, and as for the instruments, every note and every chord is in its right place. Down To The Core is a combination of all the elements AOR avid fans treasure the most in music; melodic choruses made for singing along, \u201cwall to wall\u201d harmony of vocals and interesting dialogues between tinkly keyboards and ringing, clean guitar sound. <\/p>\n

It continues like this throughout the entire album, from more dynamic tracks (\u201cOur Love To Stay\u201d, \u201cLivin\u2019 4 A Dream\u201d, \u201cDown To The Core\u201d, \u201cWaiting For Love\u201d) to melodic mid-tempos (\u201cNever Surrender,\u201d \u201cUniversal Cry,\u201d \u201cShadow Of A Man\u201d). At times, L.R.S can go mellow and soft too, such as in \u201cAlmost Over You,\u201d a charming acoustic ballad with a wailing guitar solo, or dramatic tone of \u201cNot One Way To Give.\u201d Song after song, this musical unit combines their obvious experience, great songwriting ideas and brilliant production into one \u2014 and it\u2019s the experience of the musicians involved which is the actual strength of the band, their perfect sense of melody and harmony as well as their outstanding musicianship. <\/p>\n

With Down To The Core<\/em>, it\u2019s relatively easy. If you\u2019re much into sweetened AOR\/melodic rock sound and used to buying Frontiers-labeled releases sight unseen, you\u2019re gonna love this one. It\u2019s one of these extremely polished and well-performed pieces of music which continue the heritage of bands such as Journey, Boston, Foreigner and other classics of the genre, bringing it further into the 21st century. <\/p>\n

And apart from the obvious talents of La Verdi, Ramos and Shotton (as well as the additional musicians, each of them participating in the internationally-renowned bands) it\u2019s Del Vecchio\u2019s clean production and focus on melodies and vocal harmonies that make Down To The Core<\/em> such a pleasant listening. For \u201880s melodic rock aficionados, it\u2019s another must-have of 2014; for everyone else, it\u2019s at least recommended.<\/p>\n

Genre: AOR, Melodic Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nTommy La Verdi \u2013 lead vocals
\nJosh Ramos \u2013 guitars
\nMichael Shotton \u2013 drums, backing vocals<\/p>\n

With:
\nAlessandro Del Vecchio – keyboards, Hammond organ, backing vocals
\nNicola Mazzucconi \u2013 bass, fretless bass
\nAnna Portalupi \u2013 bass, fretless bass
\nJamie Browne \u2013 bass<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1. Our Love To Stay
\n2. Livin 4 A Dream
\n3. I Can Take You There
\n4. Never Surrender
\n5. Almost Over You
\n6. Shadow Of A Man
\n7. Universal Cry
\n8. To Be Your Man
\n9. Down To The Core
\n10. I Will Find My Way
\n11.Waiting For Love
\n12. Not One Way To Give <\/p>\n

Label: Frontiers Records<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Columnist — Frontiers Records melodic rock explosion continues! And so does, it seems, the present tendency for super-groups to spring up \u2014 in recent months several more appeared, one of them […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":39486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[8939,2317,9137,374,9136,2901],"class_list":{"0":"post-39475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-aor","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-down-to-the-core","11":"tag-frontiers-records","12":"tag-l-r-s","13":"tag-melodic-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39475","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=39475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}