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Kingdragon: Hide The Sun

Melodic Rock/AOR

3.5/5.0

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Retrospect Records
by Craig Hartranft
10.03.2013

Formed by vocalist and keyboard player George Aspiotis, Kingdragon has been working the Greek rock scene since 2006. They've had some success opening for major acts like Gotthard, House of Lords, and Eighties rockers Firehouse, and cutting an EP of four songs back in 2008. Now they arrive with their first full-length album, Hide The Sun, signed to American label Retrospect Records.

Kingdragon: blurry.

Aspiotis's goal for Kingdragon was creating classic melodic rock, and the band succeeds at this, leaning more to the AOR side of the genre. If this was 1987 you might find this CD in your favorite record store.

There is some harder stuff here pushing outside the AOR envelope like Last Time, Judgment Day, and Asian Star. But mostly this is revved up AOR melodic rock which often sounds heavier if you turn up the volume. While the sharpness, or edginess, may be noticeable, it's tempered by strong melodies and sprinklings of synthesizers as with Living for Tomorrow and Dreams Are Broken, a tune that might remind you of a Journey song.

Guitarist Anastasis F offers some strong leads throughout, a large bonus for the album. Obviously, Aspiotis's vocals are intended to be the main attraction (after all, it's his band). He definitely has a strong clean presentation and stays within his range. There also seems to be some female background vocals. But there's no credit given to someone, so I suppose my ears are playing tricks on me. Bottom line: Kingdragon's Hide The Sun is more than adequate, often entertaining, classic AOR melodic rock, a bit edgier, but also, at times, predictable.

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Kingdragon's Hide The Sun is more than adequate, often entertaining, classic AOR melodic rock, a bit edgier, but also, at times, a bit predictable.

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