Quality Melodic Rock
Its great to hear a band whose main objective is to produce great, consistent music. All too often bands tend to turn out mediocre crap, but very few manage to achieve such a high level, and maintain it, across to what is now Hartmann’s third album, the aptly titled ‘3’. It does what it says on the tin, but if it was up to me, I'd have called it ‘12’. That what it is for me, as I have to score this thing out of 13
So, following on from the mega melodic debut ‘Out In The Cold’, and its mighty predecessor ‘Home’, ‘3’ proves (to me anyway) to be Olli Hartmann’s finest work to date. Still on board are Mario Reck - Guitars, Armin Donderer - Bass, Juergen Wuest - Keys, and Dario Ciccione - Drums
For those not in the know after several other side projects and bands he (Olli) joined the progressive rock project CENTERS in 1995, which released two albums over the next 3 years. During this time he also started working as a professional studio singer and guitarist doing commercials and composing songs for well known German radio and TV stations. After this he founded, along with Olaf Lenk, the successful and talented At Vance. After 4 years he bailed and has guested on such well known artistes albums for Avantasia, Edguy, Hammerfall, and Empty Tremor.
Opening track ‘I Won't Get Fooled Again’ is a pulsating, classic track; great melody, catchy chorus, riffs a plenty, this track has the lot, and set the stall for the rest of the album. ‘From Outta Space’ has a Kings X groove to it. Distorted opening vocals, before Olli’s trademark sound kicks in. ‘Suddenly’ has ‘single’ written all over it and is Hartmann at his best. The album follows a similar path as the previous two, but the quality of the songs on offer is of a more consistant, higher quality with few, if any real fillers. ‘All I Can Say’ is the first ‘lighter moment’ or a ‘mobile moment’ on the album, another single contender. Basically Hartmann has created a great mix of songs with heavy rockers (‘IWGFA’ & ’ Lost In Havana’), mid tempo rock ('Right Here Right Now')and ballads (‘Forgotten Innocence’ & ‘Dont Tell Me Its Over), covering enough bases for most melodic rock fans tastes. All this, and he’s even managed to rope in Tobias Sammet (Avantasia) for a duet on the song ‘Brothers’.
Basically, to summarise, this album is sooooo good! It continues on from the previous 2 Hartmann albums, only this time with a more consistent, higher quality approach. Excellent stuff