JAMES CHRISTIAN – Meet The Man

James Christian is probably best known for his work as singer with the band House Of Lords. With them, he chalked up singing on four studio albums, including their most recent reunion album (The Power And The Myth). Meet The Man is actually Christian’s second solo effort, with his first being released some ten years ago.

After the successful House Of Lords’ reunion album, Christian decided to also make a comeback as a solo artist. In doing so, he called on several mates to help in the songwriting department. The list includes songwriting contributions from House Of Lords bandmates (Chuck Wright and Lanny Cordola), Stan Bush, and the late Judithe Randall, who was Christian’s artistic mentor.

The opening track, “After The Love Is Gone,” is one of the heavier guitar oriented tracks on this release. It’s no wonder, actually, as this is one of the songs written by Wright & Cordola (bassist and guitarist respectively for the House Of Lords). This song could have easily appeared on any of the House of Lords’ releases. The other contribution by this songwriting duo is “Hold Back The Night,” which is closer to a ballad, but finishes with some tasty lead guitar playing delivered by one Roberto Vanni. The title track, “Meet The Man,” starts out with some vocal sampling that just might be Robert Plant or David Coverdale. The listener can decide if it’s the former, the latter, or Christian himself as the track moves into a guitar rhythm that sounds like it came straight off of Whitesnake ’84!

Throughout the release, Christian’s vocals are quite effective. He’s definitely one of the more accomplished male AOR singers in the industry. The remainder of the album plays out in the same fashion; Christian delivers on vocals while Vanni (and JM Scattolin) deliver gritty guitar rhythms. Vanni gets his cuts in on frequent guitar leads and fills. It’ll take a keen ear to appreciate everything he’s doing in the background. His playing might be the distinguishing feature that makes this release standout compared to other AOR releases out there.

Christian’s second solo effort, for the most part, hits home with it’s effective AOR style, playing mid-tempo to balladic songs, with often-memorable choruses and ballsy guitar. The downside is that this CD might contain too much “quiet time,” in the form of slower tempos, for the majority of Metalheadz out there. The positive side is that a lot of the tracks contain memorable choruses capped off by some impressive lead guitar playing by Vanni.

Bottom line — this is a solid AOR effort by Christian as long as you can live with the frequent balladic “downtime.” If that’s not your forte, then you can always hit the skip button on your player to advance to the next tasty guitar tidbit.

Lineup

James Christian: Lead and Background Vocals, Keyboards
Biggs Brice: Roland Drums
Roberto Vanni: Lead Guitars
JM Scattolin: Guitars
Robin Beck and Francis Benitez: Background Vocals
Fabrizio Grossi: Bass, keyboards, Programming, Samples, Production