AXEL RUDI PELL - Knights Live

11 songs
110:03 minutes
/
Steamhammer / SPV

Bandpage

Axel Rudi Pell is quite a phenomenon. He was the leader of the half-famous Steeler back in the Eighties. When he decided to start a solo career in 1989, he all of a sudden became more and more popular in Germany. The question is why? If I were to be really mean, I'd say that ARP is just an imitation of his idol Ritchie Blackmore, but there is more to him than that.

I am not too familiar with his solo albums (and there have been quite a few so far), but it is a well known fact that Pell excels in long structures. This live double CD for instance has only 11 songs, with an average playing time of 10 minutes each. Of course there are the necessary solo parts (guitar all of the time, drums, keyboards), but apart from excelling in their crafts, the musicians are very professional. Mike Terrana on drums can't do anything wrong anyway, and Johnny Gioeli may have a hard to write name, but also a powerful voice.

When I was younger, I bought the Rainbow live album, and really liked it for being an authentic 70ies live album, with long solo parts, great melodies, and the archetypical sounds of these times. Now Knights Live may not be equivalent to that milestone, but somehow it tries, not even too unsuccessfully, to revive that era of glorious musicianship.

I am not giving any rating. If you love well done 70ies hard rock which sometimes is even a bit symphonic, you'll have to purchase this double CD... or better even wait for the double DVD edition that has the same songs to watch on TV, plus a DVD with interviews and video clips.