{"id":47207,"date":"2014-11-28T15:55:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-28T20:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=47207"},"modified":"2014-11-28T15:55:45","modified_gmt":"2014-11-28T20:55:45","slug":"angels-or-kings-kings-of-nowhere-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/angels-or-kings-kings-of-nowhere-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels Or Kings | Kings Of Nowhere<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"AngelsWith their American counterparts having the time of their lives down the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, California, in the late \u201870s and the \u201880s the British must have had their mecca for rockers to hang out at too. Thus the emergence of the Manchester\u2019s Oxford Street club circuit and places such as Banshee or Rockworld, which were to witness the foundation and early days of the numerous bands\u2026 well, at least until grunge came and destroyed it all, similarly to the Sunset Strip scene. But even though the world\u2019s never heard from the majority of these bands again, one fallen into obscurity after another, one of the most promising acts of the Manchester scene, Angels Or Kings, is back and ready to rock. It\u2019s enough to check out their album Kings Of Nowhere<\/em> released in October 2014 via AOR Heaven to find out there\u2019s still much more to this band than just a story in Tony Bell-penned book Life In A Bus Lane. <\/p>\n

Hearing a keyboard-laden, bombastic intro that opens the first track \u201cAny Other Girl,\u201d you could have sworn the information on the album\u2019s back cover that read 2014 is simply a matter of mistake. Huge \u201880s-infused pomp rock sound is the one that drives the aforementioned song as well as its follow up \u201cA Harder Place,\u201d proving beyond any doubt the band\u2019s never left their late \u201880s legacy behind. And even if 2010s saw the rise of the entire legion of contemporary bands who try to emulate the melodic rock style of the late \u201880s\/early \u201890s, there is still something genuine and somewhat unrepeatable about the sound of those who learned their chops right then in the glorious era. Many a band might have tried, but they never reached quite the same level Angels Or Kings are at with their infectiously catchy, keyboard-laden AOR hooks (\u201cIce Turned To Rain\u201d) and soaring, semi-acoustic power ballads (\u201cReal Life\u201d). <\/p>\n

Apart from its charming \u201880s vibe \u2013 an impression even strengthened by the use of tinkly melodic keyboards \u2013 a mid-tempo \u201cSame Star\u201d features an emotionally laden, fantastic vocal performance of Baz Jackson that may be compared to those regarded as the classic voices of the AOR genre, from Lou Gramm to James Christian. And while \u201cSomeone To Save Me\u201d or the groovy \u201cLeft Me In Love\u201d are hardly a novelty music-wise, there must be some reason why one still can\u2019t get enough of listening to guitar-versus-keyboards melodic rock gems like those two. The eighth song on the album is \u201cA Night Like This\u201d that skillfully balances between the ballad-esque verses and powerful choruses. It\u2019s followed by \u201cAnother Lost Boy\u201d and \u201cSame Old Love\u201d \u2013 both driven with monstrous synth sound you\u2019d hardly believe to be conceived in 2014 instead of thirty years prior to this. \u201cIf Her Tears Could Talk\u201d takes this keyboard-laden pomposity even further, the intro being a worthy successor to the classic ones of Europe\u2019s \u201cThe Final Countdown,\u201d Asia\u2019s \u201cHeat Of The Moment\u201d or Van Halen\u2019s \u201cJump.\u201d The final title track \u201cKings Of Nowhere\u201d is more guitar-oriented and thus gravitating a bit more towards hard rock than AOR, yet still incredibly melodic.<\/p>\n

It must have been the sheer bad luck Angels Or Kings didn\u2019t make it back in the late \u201880s, their once promising career finished faster than it began. But as it turns out, their meticulously crafted, perfectly polished music was worth of waiting for right until 2014. Now every melodic rock aficionado should have only thanked Heavens for the group\u2019s Firefest-fueled reunion that resulted in the release of their album. Kings Of Nowhere<\/em> is a perfect representative of its respective genre, full of synth-driven rock anthems, sumptuous lead guitar work and monstrous choruses that are simply catchy-to-the-utmost. Released just in time to become one of the best melodic rock\/AOR albums of 2014, it\u2019s thus highly recommended.<\/p>\n

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

Band:
\nRob Naylor: bass
\nSteve Kenny: guitars, keyboards
\nBaz Jackson: vocals
\nTony Bell: guitars<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1.\tAny Other Girl
\n2.\tA Harder Place
\n3.\tIce Turned To Rain
\n4.\tRead Life
\n5.\tSame Star
\n6.\tSomeone To Save Me
\n7.\tLeft Me In Love
\n8.\tA Night Like This
\n9.\tAnother Lost Boy
\n10.\tSame Old Love
\n11.\tIf Her Tears Could Talk
\n12.\tKings Of Nowhere<\/p>\n

Label: AOR Heaven<\/p>\n

Website: www.angelsorkings.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Senior Columnist — With their American counterparts having the time of their lives down the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, California, in the late \u201870s and the \u201880s the British must […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":47208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[10348,8939,9075,2317,10349,2847],"class_list":{"0":"post-47207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-angels-or-kings","9":"tag-aor","10":"tag-aor-heaven","11":"tag-cd-review","12":"tag-kings-of-nowhere","13":"tag-melodic-hard-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47207","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=47207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}