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Ryan Hamilton And The Traitors - The Devil's In The Detail (2017) {Fannypack Records 18831}
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© 2017 Fannypack Records | 18831
Indie Pop Rock / Glam Rock / Power Pop

The place to begin discussing “The Devil’s In The Detail” is, oddly perhaps, right at the end. Because the last minute and nine seconds of this is a hidden song called “Ode To Idiots” in which Ryan Hamilton takes internet trolls to task on the snottiest country punk this side of Jason and the Scorchers. He ends it with the gleeful line: “I know you live with your mum and I’ll be seeing her again…” and in so doing shows why he just might be the best writer of pop rock songs with incredible hooks that we have right now. He showed this on “Hell Of A Day” his solo record from a couple of years ago, and now in his new band with The Traitors, he underlines it, dots the I’s crosses the T’s and delivers something approaching a classic.

There are a few artists out there that, without trying to change the world, succeeded in accomodating the old recipes to the present day. In the domain of Progressive rock, The Flower Kings is the perfect example. Following a path not unsimilar to Spock's Beard's, the swedish band led by guitarist Roine Stolt achieved to leave its mark in the middle of the Nineties, accompanying the rebirth of Progressive rock. It remains on top of the genre nowadays. It is no surprise then if, after having paid tribute to most of the giants of the Golden Seventies, the artists of today tend to care about that second generation as well. That's how the Musea label and the Colossus fanzine created an album in four CDs, tailor-made for the excellency of The Flower Kings: "A Flower Full Of Stars - A Tribute To The Flower Kings".

Mike Slamer remains one of the unsung and criminally underestimated guitar heroes of rock. Much like fellow peers Michael Lee Firkins and Reb Beach, he is one of those guys with amazing chops, touching all sorts of work over the course of a career and never quite realizing the credit they deserve. He has been the guy behind some of the most amazing melodic hard rock releases of the past 20 years. The list includes, but is not limited to, Steelhouse Lane, Seventh Key, Slamer, and Terry Brock, and we can’t forget his work in the 80’s with Streets (featuring Kansas singer Steve Walsh) and the 70’s with City Boy…

Following the positive reactions and a wide media echo on their self-titled debut in 2012, Devil's Train got their follow-up in the pipeline, now. Again and again have their supporters expressed their joy about a band still combining the heavy sound of the 80s with the classic hard rock attitude of the 70s. Even though, Devil's Train had been thought to be a short-term side project in the beginning, it got clear pretty quickly that everyone had simply too much fun working together to quit – the outcome is quite impressive indeed. Instead of keeping it easy and following the straight concept of traditional heavy rock with a biker attitude, which had been so well accepted in the past, Devil's Train have been refining and enriching their individual style for their classically titled follow up „II“ without compromising any of their principles.

Few bands from the classic rock era that had some commercial success, yet never attained true stardom, have maintained such a steady release schedule in the 21st century as the Strawbs have. About 40 years on from the release of their debut, Dancing to the Devil's Beat finds them still at it, with a lineup in which all but one of the members served with the group back in its heyday. It would be quite unusual for a band with such a long career to be making major stylistic departures at this point, and the record has the kind of bittersweet, somber, narrative songs for which the Strawbs are known, as well as their characteristic mixture of folk and progressive rock. Both wistful regret and muted anger at the vagaries of war and conflict are voiced in the lyrics…