{"id":56517,"date":"2017-12-31T10:16:10","date_gmt":"2017-12-31T15:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=56517"},"modified":"2019-01-06T09:06:28","modified_gmt":"2019-01-06T14:06:28","slug":"millenium-hourglass-the-complete-sessions-music-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2017\/millenium-hourglass-the-complete-sessions-music-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Millenium | Hourglass: The Complete Sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"What comes around, goes around\u2026 Be it a nostalgia rush or the cyclical nature of the music industry \u2013 recent years have seen a resurgence of Melodic Hard Rock in all its varieties. If a band considered \u2018classic\u2019 to the genre hasn\u2019t reunited yet, you can be sure some of its musicians will join forces under a brand new moniker. Also, there are a plethora of brand new acts following the footsteps of their \u201880s and early \u201890s heroes in terms of sound and style. However, back in the 1990s, it wasn\u2019t all that rosy. If it hadn\u2019t been for the relentless work of small labels such as Now & Then Records, Melodic Rock and its sub-genres might have ended up as a forgotten product of a bygone past. And then there was Frontiers Records, and the tables started to turn.<\/p>\n

Among other Now & Then\/Frontiers acts now regarded as classics, there was Millenium founded by the American guitarist Ralph Santolla (Eyewitness, Deicide, Iced Earth, Obituary etc.) Out of four albums recorded by the group, three featured Todd Plant (Eyewitness, Cryptic Vision) on vocals. 2000 release Hourglass<\/em>, on the other hand, was recorded and released with no one else but certain J\u00f8rn Lande on board and featured guest appearances by keyboard players Dag Stokke (TNT) and Don Airey (Rainbow, Ozzy Osbourne, Deep Purple etc.). Seventeen years later, this album gets reissued by Divebomb Records under the title Hourglass: The Complete Sessions<\/em>, complete with bonus cover tracks recorded at the time.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing better than to intrigue the listener from the onset, and that\u2019s what Millenium apparently aimed at with \u201cPower To Love,\u201d The eclectic structure of the track incorporates anything from Melodic Hard Rock to tints of Neoclassical and Progressive in an unexpected, intriguing manner. It might be an overstatement to dub \u201cPower To Love\u201d a Melodic Rock answer to Queen\u2019s \u201cBohemian Rhapsody,\u201d but the same kind of genre-crossing approach is certainly present in both tracks.<\/p>\n

Another highlight of the album is the mid-tempo title track, which abandons the infectious Rock anthem formula in favor of more complex sound embroidered with a slightly Zeppelin-esque chord progression and Coverdale-esque vocal performance. The spirit of early Whitesnake is revived again in \u201cI Will Follow,\u201d a slow-ish, bluesy, sensual piece with an intimate aura to it as well as rich guitar work. An expressive yet bitter ballad \u201cNo More Miracles\u201d shows Santolla at his best again, his elaborate solo followed by beautiful keyboard passages. <\/p>\n

Obviously, there wouldn\u2019t be a Melodic Rock album with a handful of tracks that tick all the right boxes when it comes to this particular genre of music. \u201cWheels Are Turning,\u201d \u201cSuperstar\u201d and \u201cRocket Ride\u201d are all fine guitar-driven pieces of Pomp Rock with a heavier edge whereas \u201cI Still Believe\u201d or \u201cMasquerade\u201d slow down a little bit. <\/p>\n

In \u201cRain,\u201d echoes of more modern sound can be detected before a beautifully melodic chorus unveils, the mid-tempo thus blending with the rest of the album seamlessly. The opening verse of \u201cAnybody\u201d has the ephemeral, delicate aura to it only to morph into a really heavy and muscular track further on. Its ominous outro riff has surprisingly Sabbath-esque flavor to it, making it a somewhat sinister final touch to the album. <\/p>\n

As for the aforementioned additional tracks, there\u2019s hardly a surprise behind the choice of Hard Rock\/Arena Rock classics Millenium covered during the recording sessions for Hourglass. Their take on \u201cOn And On\u201d is a bit heavier and more straightforward than its 1981 original recorded by Michael Schenker Group, albeit Lande\u2019s (un)surprisingly good in imitating Gary Barden\u2019s original vocal lines. \u201cI Surrender\u201d comes next, an infallible (or blatant) copy of the original Rainbow song with the exception of guitar work in its latter part. \u201cJane\u201d, originally done by Jefferson Airplane, recreates the aura of the early \u201880s Arena Rock perfectly. \u201cLove Is Like Oxygen\u201d shows how much potential was there among The Sweet\u2019s often underrated works and how much of it was lost in it’s edited, better known single version. Millenium certainly does it justice here, Santolla, in particular, putting his stamp all over the track.<\/p>\n

Hourglass<\/em> is by far the best Millenium album and it\u2019s high time it hit the shelves again, especially considering the fact that rare gems like this one are eagerly sought after by record collectors these days. Certainly not the only album available when it comes to testifying to J\u00f8rn Lande\u2019s vocal abilities, but a showcase of his talent anyway, it also has Ralph Santolla and Shane French both delivering tremendous guitar work. Well-crafted melodies and picturesque lyrics reveal solid songwriting partnership between the two, reflected in each and every song on the album. And although everyone who\u2019s into Melodic Hard Rock should be already familiar with Millenium\u2019s complete works \u2013 for those who aren\u2019t yet, Hourglass makes not only a good start but also a must.<\/p>\n

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

Band:
\nJorn Lande – Vocals
\nRalph Santolla – Guitars
\nShane French – Guitars
\nManfred Binder – Bass
\nOliver Hanson \u2013 Drums<\/p>\n

Additionals Musicians:
\nDon Airey \u2013 Keyboards
\nDag Stokke \u2013 Keyboards, Piano
\nHoward Helm \u2013 Keyboards
\nTracy LaBarbera – Keyboards<\/p>\n

Track List
\n1. Power To Love
\n2. Wheels Are Turning
\n3. Hourglass
\n4. No More Miracles
\n5. Superstar
\n6. Rocket Ride
\n7. I Will Follow
\n8. I Still Believe
\n9. Masquerade
\n10. Chasing Time
\n11. Rain
\n12. Anybody
\n13. On And On
\n14. I Surrender
\n15. Jane
\n16. Love Is Like Oxygen<\/p>\n

Label: Divebomb Records<\/p>\n

Website: http:\/\/www.divebombrecords.com\/site\/bands\/millenium\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: [usr 9 size=20]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska — Sr. Columnist — What comes around, goes around\u2026 Be it a nostalgia rush or the cyclical nature of the music industry \u2013 recent years have seen a resurgence of Melodic Hard […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":56510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14091,2378,14093,923,2888,14092,2102,14089,14088,2746,270,1054,14087,12354,14094,519,1063,1190,14090,8480],"class_list":{"0":"post-56517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music-reviews","8":"tag-dag-stokke","9":"tag-deep-purple","10":"tag-deicide","11":"tag-divebomb-records","12":"tag-don-airey","13":"tag-eyewitness","14":"tag-frontiers","15":"tag-hourglass","16":"tag-hourglass-the-complete-sessions","17":"tag-iced-earth","18":"tag-jorn","19":"tag-jorn-lande","20":"tag-millenium","21":"tag-music-review","22":"tag-now-then","23":"tag-obituary","24":"tag-ozzy-osbourne","25":"tag-rainbow","26":"tag-ralph-santolla","27":"tag-tnt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56517","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=56517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}