HOUSE OF SHAKIRA – III (Rerelease)

Last year Swedish Melodic Rockers, House Of Shakira (HoS), released new material in the form of Retoxed which ended a nearly three year draught of new material for the band. Retoxed hailed rave reviews and once again made fans yearn for more HoS. Attacking while the “irons are hot”, the band, in conjunction with Lion Music, has seen fit to reissue their third album, originally released in 2000, which had the unimaginative name of III. (Note: to completely entice even the avid fan, the CD is being released with the added bonus of a “limited edition” 11 track multi-camera live DVD entitled Live At Sweden Rock Festival 2006 featuring a “best of” song selection from the bands catalogue of work. Unfortunately, the DVD was not made available to the press so this review only critiques the audio portion).

If you never heard III the first time around then you’re in for a Melodic Rock treat. At the pinnacle of this release the band come across as a harder version of 80’s circa Journey… powerful melodies and a sufficient amount of guitars. It doesn’t take long for the initial prime example of these characteristics to kick in with the post introduction track “Alien”. The track is categorized by edgy guitars, Melodic… almost Steve Perry-like vocals by Eklund all fueled by a nice, catchy melodic chorus. “Alien” is followed by the slightly slower yet moodier “Wings” that still packs an arena size wallop and includes another mammoth vocal performance by Eklund to boot.

“In Your Head” is more commercial but is really carried by the great, multi-tracked “feel good” chorus. HoS actually had captured the classic spirit of Journey here… the ability to take bleak lyrical content and turn it into a “feel good” song. Of course Hallstensson’s wonderful, “Metallized” guitar solo, replete with some nice false harmonics, is just icing on the cake. “Black And Blue Skies” is another winner with a heavier guitar presence then it’s proceeding tracks but still holds onto the album’s reins and keeps in line with the aforementioned characteristics.

The main problem with the release is that the second half of the album is more ridden with slower, more ballad-like tracks. Gone is the upbeat tempo displayed in opening tracks “Alien” and “In Your Head” for example. Simply stated, the last half just doesn’t leave that strong of a mark as the first five full tracks. Thankfully, the release ends on one of the stronger pseudo-ballad tracks in “Unforgiven” which has a strong chorus.

Bottom line, Journey fans should truly get excited over this re-release especially with the added buying incentive of the advertised DVD. Melodic Rock fans can expect a truly exhilarating feeling out of the gate on this one but might end up losing some interest on the slower, more plodding second half!

Lineup

Andreas Eklund – Lead Vocals
Mats Hallstensson – Lead Guitars, Acoustic Guitars, Vocals
Anders Lundström – Guitars, Keyboards
Per Schelander – Bass, Keyboards, Vocals
Tony Andersson – Drums