Dangerdog Music Reviews :: © 1999 - 2024 Craig S Hartranft :: All Rights Reserved
No part of this this website, including design and music reviews,
may be reproduced in any form or by any means without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
- New Music Reviews
- |
- Archives
- |
- News
- |
- Submissions
- |
- About
- |
- |
New Music Reviews, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, AOR, Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal
Recent Reviews
October 2024
- Casandra's Crossing: Garden Of Earthly Delights
- DGM: Endless
- Daytona: Garder la Flamme
- Fate: Reconnect 'N Ignite
- Frost*: Life In The Wires
- Aries Descendant: From The Ashes Of Deceit
- Fans Of The Dark: Video
- Radioactive: Reset
- House Of Lords: Full Tilt Overdrive
- Cleanbreak: We Are The Fire
September 2024
- Sinner's Blood: Dark Horizons
- Serious Black: Rise Of Akhenaton
- Eclipse: Megalomanium II
- SteelCity: Reverence
- Hydra: ReHydrated
- Heartwind: III
- Gabrielle De Val and the Dragonlords: Tiger
- Find Me: Nightbound
- The Nail: The Nail
- Timeless Fairytale: A Story To Tell
- Stryper: When We Were Kings
- Phil Mogg: Moggs Motel
- Pure Reason Revolution: Coming Up To Consciousness
- Jordan Rudess: Permission To Fly
August 2024
- Siege Perilous: Creation's Call EP
- Paralydium: Universe Calls
- Mike Tramp: Songs Of White Lion Vol. II
- Bite The Bullet: Looking For Paradise
- All For Metal: Gods Of Metal (Year Of The Dragon)
- Hammerfall: Avenge The Fallen
- Jim Peterik & World Stage: Roots & Shoots Vol. 2
July 2024
- Ironflame: Kingdom Torn Asunder
- Spektra: Hypnotized
- (Michael) Palace: Reckless Heart
- Mr. Big: Ten
- Dark Mile: Dark Mile
June 2024
- Kaipa: Sommargryningsljus
- Sunbomb: Light Up The Sky
- Seven Spires: A Fortress Called Home
- Atlantic: Another World
- Xeneris: Eternal Rising
- New Horizon: Conquerors
- Issa: Another World
Outloud: Let's Get Serious
Outloud: Let's Get Serious
Melodic Hard Rock
4.5/5.0
Facebook
AOR Heaven
Words by Craig Hartranft, 30.04.2014
One of the great European melodic hard rock bands, Outloud, is back with their third album, Let's Get Serious. To be more correct it's more a Greek and American collaboration with the awesome vocalist Chandler Mogel fronting the foursome of Greek musicians.
Outloud: black is their favorite color.
As you may recall from the previous two albums, Outloud creates some darn tasty and catchy melodic hard rock rolled up in an AOR wrapper. However, listening to the first song, Death Rock, they may throw you off. It comes off as some cryptic blend of heavy rock with, at times, the pace of speed metal. It's still has melody, but it's more raging and heavy than one might expect from Outloud. Toy Soldiers strikes a similar chord: heavy, nearly moving like a power metal song, with a powerful solo from Adrenaline Mob's Mike Orlando.
But in between, there's the classic AOR melodic hard rock which they do so well. I Was So Blind, the first single, Like A Dream, One More Time, and Bury The Knife move with powerful arena ready and steady groove and melody. Bury The Knife is one of the longest numbers, and about two-thirds bursts into that aforementioned power metal groove. In the middle you get a bit of break, with an acoustic guitar ballad dialing things down. But the catchy melodic rock returns with All In Vain, A While To Go, and Let's Get Serious, and instrumental, some of the best thanks to Bob Katsionis' sharp guitar work. But all the players excel here, with kudos to Nile drummer George Kollias who handled all the drums on this album. Finally, in an interesting choice for a cover song, Outloud reinterprets 1980's Enola Gay by new wave band Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD), giving the song a harder and fasteer groove, with the guitar basically taking over the synth line. Though album cover art is kind of dumb, Let's Get Serious is a strong return for Outloud, offering genuinely catchy classic AOR melodic hard rock. Easily recommended.
Outloud - Let's Get Serious (Album Trailer)
Tweet
Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.
In Short
Let's Get Serious is a strong return for Outloud, offering genuinely catchy classic AOR melodic hard rock. Easily recommended.
Find A Review
Alphabetical Index
New & Notable
By far, Sweden's Eclipse is one of my favorite bands. Always consistent and always entertaining, Eclipse has been delivering their 21st century version of melodic metal rock since songwriter, producer ... [ Read More ]