Laos

God damn what a 2nd half of this year we?re gonna have with all the great album releases. MTM Classix has some impressive stuff to be released soon and first out is Laos.
This AOR/Melodic Hardrock gem was released by Teldec in 1990 and was produced by Erwin Musper (Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Scorpions). Unfortunately this album vanished pretty fast and became a collectors item and was really hard to find but now the people on MTM has taken care of that. This is what I call a classic album with fantastic songs and catchy hooklines with lots of sing-a-long moments.
Laos were fronted by the unique and powerful female singer Gudrun Laos. Alongside Frank Fricke (guitar), Ralf Hansmeyer (guitar), Thomas R?ben (bass), Wolfgang Schindler (keyboards) and J?rg Michael (drums) that now plays with Stratovarious.
The production was crystal clear with a fresh sound already back then but the Classix serie has digitally remastered the album so the sound is awesome.
They have also put in the 3 bonus tracks "Love Sweet Love" and "Come Tomorrow" that has a Heart feel over them. As well as a cover version of Boston?s classic "More Than A Feeling".
These tracks has been taken from Gudruns two CD-single releases back in 1993 and 1995. The songs are nice but far away from the quality of the rest of the album but it?s rare stuff. So if you?re into stuff like Witness, Vixen, Saraya and If Only- then there is no time to lose, just get a copy of this classic album because this is even better than the mentioned acts. I think this is one of the best female fronted albums of all time.
This is tough AOR when it?s best and I could pick out 10 out of the 11 tracks from the album, Yes it?s that good. So I will just mention a couple of the songs like "Why Is Good Love", "Now That It?s Over", "Jericho", "Heartbreak Road", "Higher Ground" and "One More Time" will take you to AOR heaven. These songs has it all with huge sound, memorable choruses, powerful background vocals and most important ,the melodies are all over the record.
The only song that feels out of places is the average rocker "Long Shot" that don?t reach the same level as the rest of the tracks.
So don?t miss this opportunity to finally get your hands on this brilliant one and only released album from this excellent band. Even that it?s 15 years since it was released it sounds damn good and is full of energy. So don?t hesitate to get yourself a copy of this classic album because nobody makes this kind of albums anymore.