Toseland

Right from the opening bass riff of ‘Too Close To Call’ you can tell you are listening to a mature and very talented band and the following 10 tracks just go on to prove that James Toseland is far more than a curio.

His last album was a stormer and he has definitely learned from the plaudits he got for that album – he has upper the melodic content and dropped some of the keyboards, the whole thing is faster and he has a great sense of taking the listener with him.

‘Living In A Moment’ epitomises the approach with a monster riff driven by high speed drums and Toseland’s vocals remarkably clear and punch.

‘Stranger Things’ has a feel of classic NWOBHM, the screaming guitar very much in the line of Tygers of Pan Tang or Saxon and you simply can’t keep your head from bobbing.

Favourite tracks would be the anthemic ‘We’ll Stop At Nothing’, ‘Puppet On A Chain’ which hits all the right buttons or the title track – just monster.

He isn’t a totally original musician – who is these days – but the mixture of speed rock and the couple of power ballads is exciting and he really doesn’t suggest a weakness but he definitely does show that he will be around for years at this rate.