New Releases- 30 April 2000

The new releases featured this week are: (Street Legal, Ken Hensley, Artension, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Stratovarius)

 Street Legal

Street Legal - Thunderdome, on Frontiers Records. Street Legal are a stunning Norwegian hard rock/blues rock trio who have the potential to go places. They can sooth and caress you with a serious ballad on the one hand, and they can rattle your cage with a crunching hard rock killer track the next. Recommended stuff from a very talented band.

Ken Hensley

Ken Hensley - The Anthology, on Castle Music. There are already a couple of Hensley compilations doing the rounds ("Best of Ken Hensley" and "From Time to Time"), and this one contains previously released tracks, remastered, from all three of his solo albums, but this album contains liner notes written by the great man, known for his work with Toefat, Blackfoot and, of course, Uriah Heep. It's reasonably priced (as an import), and the track choice is better than the previous compilations. Hensley's voice, keyboard and guitar playing, as always, are a pleasure to hear.

Artension

Artension - Machine, on Shrapnel Records. This is the fourth album from this very intense progressive metal outfit, led by keyboard player Vilalij Kuprij, and it still features John Onder on bass, Roger Staffelbach on guitar, Shane Gaalaas on drums and John West on vocals. Kuprij is a tremendously talented and fast player, and he's accompanied by some of the best musicians on the scene today.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble 

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - Blues at Sunrise, The Slow Blues Album, on Epic Records. Yet another SRV compilation you might say? Yes, but this time there are a few unreleased versions of tracks you've heard before, such as a live at Montreaux on 15 July 1985 version of "Tin Pan Alley", and "Blues at Sunrise", with Albert King. As the title says, it's an album of slow blues, and, let's face it, who played it better than Stevie Ray?

Stratovarius