lista zespołów Hard Rock Gary John Barden Love and War

Some tracks are more memorable than others. They contain melodies which will be in your head for years. As far as I’m concerned, MSG’s “Cry for the nation” and “Armed and ready” are examples of such cult songs. At that time, Gary Barden was the front man of the combo Schenker and it clear that his voice and his talent explain a lot the recognition and the fame of the band. Since then, Gary has never stopped working: he worked with Gary Moor, Statetrooper (Brian Robertson), Praying Mantis, Silver (…) while also recording under his own name. He is now back with his third solo album called “Love & War”.



While his first opus didn’t really receive a large success due to the fact it was mostly a compilation of slightly modified, old MSG’s standards, the second one, “The Agony and Xtasy”, was a good surprise, revealing a Gary Barden in great shape. So, why shall he have changed anything to the recipe? For this new album, the bases remain the same: the second musician, Michael Voss (Casanova, Bonfire, Silver), old friend of the singer, is still part of the game. He is taking care once more of the production and also most probably of the guitar and the bass lines.



The good news is that our most favourite English singer conserved his Olympic shape and his inspiration. “Love & War” contains several diamonds imposing respect and reminding us that Gary Barden is a musician with a great experience he knows how to use! First observation: the production is prefect and the sound huge. The compositions sound hard rock, sometimes tending towards FM, both powerful and melodic. The rhythmic is made of strong riffs, often old-school but with a real modern touch brought by the arrangements and the quality of the production. All the verses are efficient, their melodic side coming with the chorus, mostly during the pre-chorus and the refrains. But let it be clear, there are no boring passages where huge doses of keyboards coming with girly chorus would try to impose themselves laboriously! If there is a soft aspect to look for, it will be found in the melody itself. And to prove we are not listening to a commercially-oriented album, one can observe that only one of the 11 tracks is a ballad: “In Love and War”. That song is really beautiful and Gary’s performance will give you the shivers. The remaining tracks are of pure hard rock, often with old-school tricks where the singer takes really his place, appropriating for himself all the songs by giving a gigantic amplitude to them. A track sounding hard, FM, rock or modern, his voice is never caught out and he finds each time the little trick that fits well and proves Gary Barden is a great artist. Several personalities nicknamed him “THE voice of British hard rock”, and believe me they are not far from the truth: if he is not the best, he is part of the bests!



I will add a word on the guitarist’s huge performance: all the soli are great, merging speed and melody. The effects, the sound, everything is perfectly calibrated to give the best result with these already-well-conceived compositions.

When one listens to tracks of the quality of “The last samurai”, of the extraordinary “Dragon’s fire’ and its intro of Pan-pipe, of “Love lost” with its seventies’ side or again of the sublime “In Love and War”, how not feeling respect for this man who has not lost an ounce of his genius?



Gary Barden signs once more a melodic album of great quality. Hiring again Michael Voss was the best choice he could have done. The two friends’ complicity gives birth to amazing pieces: maybe working with people named ‘Michael’ is efficient for him ;o). In all cases, if you are a fan of melodic hard rock, “Love & war” is for you, you mustn’t miss it!



Translated by Heavyboy