Onward – Metal Express Radio

ONWARD – Reawaken

April 25, 2014 Dan Skiba

Onward is a USA-based Power Metal band that issued a small handful of albums, but has since disbanded due to the death of their vocalist Michael Grant. Pure Steel Records has resurrected the band via reissues of previously released albums. Onward’s 1st album Evermoving was a quality debut featuring the guitar prowess of Toby Knapp, boasting a playing style similar to Randy Rhoads. Onward’s 2nd album, Reawaken, is more stylistically Epic than the first, and Knapp’s guitar playing is (unfortunately) polished up to conform to that subgenre. Overall, Reawaken is a quality release, but tires some after the midway point.

ONWARD – Evermoving

March 28, 2014 Dan Skiba

Onward was a USA-based Power Metal band that disbanded in 2012 due to the death of their vocalist, Michael Grant. Evermoving was the band’s first release (2001) and is being reissued. Impressive as all get out is the guitar talents of Toby Knapp — if you haven’t heard of him, he’s about as close stylistically to Randy Rhoads as anyone ever has been. The only “problem” with Evermoving is Knapp’s wonderfully “rough” guitar playing is paired with the typical “clean-sounding” Power Metal vocals and rhythm section (and that blend doesn’t pair up), but Knapp’s guitar performance is worth taking notice.

A TRIBUTE TO URIAH HEEP – A Return To Fantasy

August 18, 2003 Dan Skiba

Creating tribute albums is a tricky endeavor. Let’s be realistic…many things can go wrong with a tribute album from the get-go, causing the listener to wonder if the album was really intended to honor the tribute band or artist in the first place! To start, nobody creates a tribute album for a “no-name” band or artist…the band or artist is typically a household name (as is Uriah Heep) and the songs are known well by their fans. Adding to the challenge, the tribute band’s or artist’s sound and style likely have become fondly entrenched into the fans’ musical memory archives. As is the case with virtually all tribute albums, the bands participating normally embellish their own flavor and style, which unfortunately can quickly alienate the loyal fans of the tribute band or artist who feel nobody should jack around with “perfection”. With the above in mind, the formula for success when creating a tribute album (at least in my book) is: 1). Choose the bands carefully – Having Snoop-Doggy-Dog try to cover a Metallica song, for example, just isn’t going to work. 2). Don’t disrespect the tribute band by skimping on the production quality – Keep it professional and up to snuff. 3). Keep the interpretations of each song down to earth – Fans of the tribute band generally are going to be quickly turned off if slow tempo songs are suddenly fast-paced and vice versa. 4). Lastly, make sure most of the songs selected for the tribute album are recognizable – Listeners who have an interest in the tribute band, but can’t recite each song off of each album on demand, want to hear songs that feel familiar. Overall, A Return to Fantasy scores high on most of the criteria listed above and is a solid tribute album from …READ MORE

ONWARD – Reawaken

February 19, 2002 Frode Johnsrud

Onward can easily be described as one of the most, if not the most promising, heavy metal band to come out of the States in the last years. Toby Knapp, the band’s brilliant guitar player, is no newcomer to the scene, having been a key member in Darken, a black metal band that released an album in 1998. Singer Michael Grant is identical with the singer from Legend Maker, a Colombian band that impressed me a few years back with their The Path To Glory album. Grant, not being Colombian though, sings in a strong and powerful quite typical American way, maybe best described as epic? No, not epic, but slightly epic, while most of all soulful and emotional yet heavy and aggressive without going into hardcore singing (thank God!). Despite a good singer and a very skillful and creative guitar player who can handle the whole metal register and more, Onward never forgot that the main focus behind creating music is to make great songs. Where a lot of talented players use the song as an excuse to show off their technical abilities, Knapp and his band, also featuring Chris Payette on bass and Jon Pereau on drums, deliver melodic metal with strong (ever)moving rhythms, sometimes going into fast blasts as well as mid-tempo pounding. And Toby pays great respect to an incredible but unfortunately underestimated (and forgotten?) guitar hero with the cover of Japanese Loudness’ “Clockwork Toy”, a version that sounds like Akira Takasaki was riffing himself. Don’t expect America to reawaken to Metal to Reawaken, as history shows that quality is not synonymous with what sells, but if America wakes up again – Onward will be have to hire more than one accountant…