CARL SENTANCE – Mind Doctor

Perhaps you heard about Persian Risk (UK and US version of the band) and got caught up with the great voice? Or maybe you wondered who was the guy singing on the 1999 album of the Swiss band Krokus’, Round 13? Or who played, and is still playing, with the famous Deep Purple/Ozzy Osbourne keyboard man Don Airey? Or perhaps you wondered who played with the famous Geezer Butler in his own band? The answer for those questions can be only one: that person was and still is, the vocal man from Wales, Carl Sentance.

After serving his time with numerous bands that varied from Classic Rock/AOR to Heavy Metal, Sentance finally made it through and recorded his own solo album, Mind Doctor, under his emblem of long years of Rockin’ service. Aside from Sentance’s many years of experience and own self-touch, along came, to his aide, some friends that he worked with in the past and still works in the present. Those guys are no other than Don Airey, which Sentance sings with his band, Chris Childs of the veteran band Thunder, which took the role as Sentance’s bass player and co-producer and finally there was Harry James that took care of the drumming. With those well-picked mates, Sentance made a nice melodic and touchy start to a, with hope, a fruitful solo career.

The Mind Doctor album, besides being full with all of Sentance’s past endeavors, it reflected influences that were driven mainly from the traditional making of British Metal and Hard Rock. Many of the tracks on the horizons of Mind Doctor might be compared to early eras of Deep Purple, Whitesnake, AC/DC, Thunder and numerous AOR oriented acts. As many of those groups mentioned, Sentance, on his album, tried to take the safe route for a debut Hard Rock album and the result that came out, as a risky deal as it was, turned out to be no more than a nice effort to play it out of harm’s way. Those decent efforts were made no matter how catchy it turned out, with too much resemblance to past songs of both AOR and Hard Rock. It is rather weird, but the first and foremost expectation from Mind Doctor was that it would be a kind of album that would dole out to be a summary of Sentance’s past. Actually, the direction that the guy set himself up for was close to being a summary, yet where did the NWOBHM part (Persian Risk wise) go? Sentance, on his fixation with 70s/80s Hard Rock, mostly on their catchier side, maybe forgot that he did and still can take on heavier stuff than this.

Furthermore, there are several songs that just do not sit well with the talents of Sentance, yet, he still had something to say with other tracks, which on their whole are impressive. Mind Doctor displays tracks as “Rain” (a wonderful opener showing the amazing singing talent of Sentance), “Don’t Walk Away” (although a bit banal, it’s still a very nice ballad made with simplicity and can be quite enjoyable), “Girl’s Got Rhythm” (Sentance tried doing it AC/DC style with a flinch of hope to go forward with it), “I Want Your Name” (a nice dweller in the kind of Deep Purple meets 80s AOR fashion), “Fire Rock” and “Crazy” (as the opening track, a true show of force by a great singer). Other tracks ranged from solid to okay as they have their moments of fame.

Mind Doctor could have administered a better subscription for the longings expected to be met by a guy such as Carl Sentance. With expectance that his second attempt will be with his rather, more NWOBHM roots of Persian Risk. Until then, everyone will just have to wait and see.