Their latest album 'New World – New Eyes ' of 2020 had shown that the Americans 'House Of Lords' had not aged a bit and that they continued to deliver good melodic hard rock bringing us back to the best of the 70s/80s. They continue their journey with a new album freshly released in mid-September, 'Saints and Sinners'. Resulting from a teamwork, the leader 'James Christian' being well assisted in the writing of the compositions by the guitarist 'Jimi Bell' and keyboardist 'Mark Mangold', they offer us 11 original compositions which distil melodies that we want to go on a loop. We are welcomed by the title song (see the video above) with a first chorus which gives this impression of already known and which is already completely addictive, then, 'House of the Lord' here) continues this beautiful journey in time and could be the ideal cross between 'Foreigner', 'ASIA' and 'Rainbow'. Follows 'Take It All' which has nothing to envy to its predecessors and which offers a mid-tempo with radiant and with a new melody that immediately gets stuck in your head, then, 'Road Warrior', faster and with its 'John Lord' style keyboards, starts the headbanging machine and with 'Mistress Of The Dark', the 'AC/DC' sharp riffs of guitars, even if we are in a more moderate style, are quite close to a 'TNT'. Recovery break (for those over fifty who are beginning to have some osteoarthritis pain!) with 'Avalanche' which takes us on a ballad with a sweet melody that we have already heard hundreds of times but is so effective and which always does so much good. And the second part of the album does not weaken because it starts again with the energetic 'Roll Like Thunder' and its little air of 'Def Leppard' with chanted choirs, then, 'Razzle Dazzle' (not that of 'Deep Purple' from the 2003 album 'Bananas'), sends us a missile with its frantic rhythm. A little slower but just as impetuous, 'Dreamin It All' also does the job, then, 'Takin My Heart Back' is still a remarkable well-muscled hard rock brulot and it's with 'Angels Fallen', a rythmic mid-tempo, that the album ends in a very beautiful way.
In summary, this latest baby from the Americans of 'House of Lords' continues to offer us good hard rock with influences drawn from the 70s/80s and 'Saints and Sinners' should make people happy and go on repeat among all those who knew the golden age of hard rock, a few decades back, and who have excellent memories of it... | |
