You’ve got to hand it to German guitarist extraordinaire Michael
\nSchenker. Despite the rises and falls in the tide of popularity
\nthat hard rock\/heavy metal has faced, he’s continually risen above
\nthe waves to put out music that has appealed to the masses.<\/p>\n
You also have to hand it to him that, in the face of a revival
\nin popularity of metal, Schenker didn’t just turn up the volume
\nknob on his Flying “V” and set out to shred the eardrums of
\nlisteners as a “welcome back”. On his latest album with the Michael
\nSchenker Group,
\nThe Unforgiven<\/i>, Schenker seems to put more of a focus on the
\nrhythm guitar work and more subdued solos. In retrospect, this was
\nthe smartest move he could have made.<\/p>\n
Working again with a backup group of musicians you probably
\nhaven’t heard of – vocalist Kelly Keeling, guitarist\/keyboardist
\nSeth Bernstein, bassist John Onder and drummer Shane Gaalaas –
\nSchenker walks the line for all 12 songs between the sheer power of
\nhard rock and the more sensible nature of popular music. Some might
\nsneer and say that such a mixture could never work. However,
\nSchenker proves quickly that it indeed does work, and his band
\nmakes it work well.<\/p>\n
Ironically enough, it does take some time for Schenker and crew
\nto build up a good head of steam. The first few tracks, such as
\n“Rude Awakening,” “Hello Angel” and “The Mess I’ve Made,” are okay
\nefforts, but they don’t seem to hold the promise of something
\nspecial in the works. Musically, they are sound efforts – but more
\noften than not they seem to be fighting to work their way into the
\nbackground.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, things start to click on songs like “Fat City N.O.”
\nand “Tower,” songs that show just how good this band is. Keeling’s
\nvocals are pure and powerful, while Schenker seems to put his
\nattention on creating more harmonious, controlled solos – certainly
\na far cry from what some would have expected from him. But Schenker
\nis definitely onto something with this approach; by controlling his
\noutput on the electric guitar and mixing it in with some brilliant
\nacoustic work, he actually displays his six-string skills better
\nthan if he had attacked his axe in full-shred mode.<\/p>\n
The bulk of
\nThe Unforgiven<\/i> continues in this powerful vein. “Pilot Of
\nYour Soul” and “The Storm” are wonderfully beautiful tracks that
\nhighlight the best this incarnation of the Michael Schenker Band
\nhas to offer, while others like “Live For Today” and “Forever And
\nMore” are almost as powerful, but are equally worth your
\nattention.<\/p>\n
Some fans of good guitar work might not see the different
\napproach that Schenker takes towards his playing as a step in the
\nright direction; in that case, they’re not looking at the whole
\npicture. It would have been easy to turn
\nThe Unforgiven<\/i> into a showcase piece for Schenker’s
\npyrotechnics a la the glory days of heavy metal. Instead, Schenker
\nhelps to show that hard rock, like all forms of music, must evolve
\nin order to continue to live. In the case of
\nThe Unforgiven<\/i>, despite a slow start, Schenker shows that
\nhe’s adapted quite well, thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6080],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38881","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-michael-schenker-group","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38881"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}