MetalMind 2013
The Dark And The Light
Back to basic or a study in mimicry for one of the hard rock’s greatest chameleons.
“Now you know I never lost the hunger, I was always here,” runs the welcoming line here. Right, since his stint with RAINBOW, which ended quite inauspiciously, Doogie White has lent his voice for many a project as if chasing his predecessor Joe Lynn Turner into the field, but this time he does a Jorn trick in terms of vocal originality.
Rejoining his ’80s band, the singer delivers the second LA PAZ album in two years to reshuffle the classic moves, and if tellingly titled opener “Little Black Book Of Songs” picks up where “Stranger In Us All” left off without shedding the Blackmore ghosts from Chick McSherry’s slide-caressed fretboard, the catchy drive of the self-mythologizing “Old Habits Die Hard” and “The Good Old Days” copies David Coverdale‘s way with rock ‘n’ roll.
The piano-led ballad “Lonely Are The Brave” is where White’s soulful vocals are at their best and where his heroic stance is kept to a minimum, unlike in the epic “Men Of War,” which doesn’t deliver on its Scottish promise, and the sax injection elevates the “Shadow Of Romance” blues elegantly. Yet generic tropes are smeared all over the angry “Devil In Disguise” and the swaggering “Don’t Drink With The Devil.” So there’s not a lot of a titular contract, the result being enjoyable – but in the fast food kind of way.
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