As I press the play button, the first notes of "Say Goodbye To The Sun"
begin, and the room is filled with powerful, rhythmic bass & drums, 'dirty'
vocals and the amazing, melodic and powerful sound of guitars! After about
twenty seconds, the track's powerful rhythm will get you to start the
headbanging! With amazing riffs, beautiful backing vocals and a powerful
chorus, this track is simply excellent. After that is "Anymore", which also
has amazing guitars, and its great melodic hard rock rhythm will steal your
heart, as its chorus takes you on a musical journey!
The third diamond in a row is the melodic "Until I Left You", with Jeff Scott
Soto's excellent voice "bonding" perfectly with the track, and in combination
with the great guitars and the rhythmic, as well as melodic bass, the result is
an excellent track that's certainly going to become a classic!
Joel Hoekstra has a long history in the industry, for his work with Night Ranger,
Trans Siberian Orchestra and the show Rock of Ages, it's evident even from the
first three tracks of the album, that what he has given us is an incredible piece of
melodic hard rock work! Thankfully, his collaboration with David Coverdale and
Whitesnake did not stop him from completing this great album!
Let's see what awaits us up next...Coming in calmer rhythms and crystal-clear vocals
is "Long For The Days", to which you can't help but close your eyes and enjoy it to
the fullest! Continuing the album in the same quality footsteps are "Scream",
"Never Say Never", "Changes" and "The Only Way To Go", with the third one winning
the 'battle' amongst them due to its rhythm! Finally, closing the album rhythmically and
melodically we have "Dying To Live", "Start Again" and "What We Believe"!
In the album, we have performances from various fantastic musicians, such as Jeff Scott
Soto, Russel Allen, Tony Franklin, Vinny Appice and Derek Sherinian – all of whom are one
of the reasons as to why the album is of such high quality! Joel Hoekstra released an album
that is definitely amongst the top 5 best ones of this year, with tracks that you'll fall in
love with and will be listening to for a long time! This guy's music is of incredible quality,
it's no wonder he plays alongside David Coverdale! Don't make the mistake of missing out
on this album and the excellent music it offers, because you'll only be doing yourself a disservice!
As for the score, I can't rate it anything higher than 10/10, though I can do as colleges do,
and give it a 10/10 with honors!
George "Snaki" Lane 10/10: "Joel Hoekstra released an album that is definitely amongst the top 5 best ones of this year, with tracks that you'll
fall in love with and will be listening to for a long time! As for the score, I can't rate it anything higher than 10/10, though I can do as colleges do,
and give it a 10/10 with honors"
For BeRock Radio MiniZine (2015)
