Axel Rudi Pell
“The Crest”
(SPV / Steamhammer)

“...I’m proud to say that there isn’t one double bass number (and) the new tracks mark a return to our roots...” and in Pell’s sense (along with mine) that means 11 years old when he heard Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar that would shape his destiny from then on. Hot off their recent “One Night Live” DVD comes this outstanding new album that definitely goes back to the classic Rainbow (with Dio) era on classic rockers like ‘Devil Zone’ and ‘Prisoner Of Love’. However, what really bowled me over was the passion and soul of ballards like ‘Glory Night’ where Johnny Gioeli’s vocals rate a star performance and are the best yet on any ARP release. Along with the attention holding instrumental ‘Nobless Oblige’, it once again speaks bounds about the musical talents of Axel Rudi Pell himself, having worked extensively with Johnny on the vocal directions via Skype, even though he is modest in playing it down himself as a team effort. An excellent man with an excellent album to match in its entirety.

-Shan Siva

Axel Rudi Pell
“One Night Live” DVD
(Steamhammer / SPV)

A legend on the German metal scene with no less than 20 albums under his belt, Axel Rudi Pell is a famed name for classic melodic heavy metal for over a quarter of a century. “One Night Live” captures the full concert performance at last year’s Rock Of Ages festival in front of 5,000 fans with tracks like ‘Strong As A Rock’, ‘Mystica’ and my personal fave ‘Fool Fool’. Whilst this DVD is a ‘mininum’ package devoid of any additional extras besides the concert footage, the production quality is excellent being filmed with 10 cameras and continues to follow the trend in high quality live audio visual work that is now reaching a level where one must ask whether it’s absolutely necessary to even attend the show itself given you actually get the best view in the house - again and again! But what I love best about “One Night Live” is Axel’s own proclamation that this is a genuine unedited live capture complete with all mistakes - coming from a consummate performer like him, he must be daring us to actually find some - talk about German perfection personified!

-Shan Siva

Axel Rudi Pell
“Mystica”
(SPV)

Axel Rudi Pell. It sounds like a rare vintage and so it should. For a quarter of a century guitarist and band leader Axel Rudi Pell has been rocking from Steeler in the 80s to his own band - which had appearances from Charlie Huhn and Jeff Scott Soto no less - defining his own sound i.e. melodic metal & ballads with a penchant for the supernatural in the course of his 17 album career. ‘Mystica’ is his latest opus and closely follows the path blazed by its predecessors ‘Kings & Queens’ and ‘Shadow Zone’ with around half of the 10 tracks being accounts of the five knights adventures and the remainder like ‘No Chance To Live’ featuring more contemporary subjects like animal testing. The final track ‘The Curse Of The Damned’ is a sorta sequel to the track ‘The Clown Is Dead’ offa the ‘Magica’ album, and features some of Pell’s best guitarwork both technically and emotionally. Produced by Pell himself (and faithfully supported by lifelong bassist Volker Krawczak amiably called ‘The Dustman’ - now that’s affection for you!), this album has brought the band full circle which in the words of Pell himself are that ‘...we have our own sound, but on ‘Mystica’ we sound even more homogenous and musically coherent’. Long live the king.

-Shan Siva