FEINSTEIN - Third Wish

11 songs
58:38 minutes
***** *
Steamhammer / SPV

Bandpage

David 'Rock' Feinstein is something of a legend in his own right. Original guitarist with Elf and The Rods, he may never have been a member of the truly big, but considering that Elf's vocalist was David Feinstein's cousin Ronnie James Dio who later became famous with Rainbow, Black Sabbath and eventually all by himself, but that's a different story.

That's why it's rather unsurprising to hear that Third Wish is deeply rooted in 70s epic hard rock, knowing all the tricks of the trade, from the fast paced opener Regeneration to the groovy mid-tempo Rebelution, treading epic territories with the 9 minutes long title track and closing the album with a convincing intrumental called Inferno. To prevent from falling into a hopeless retro journey, the production administered by Feinstein himself and Joey DeMaio of Manowar fame is very powerful and thus transforms Third Wish into the proof that old people still know how to rock hard.

All those of you who still like to dwell in nostalgia with bands like the aforementioned but also more 'modern' ones as Riot or Virgin Steele will be delighted by Feinstein's delicate combination of those different elements of hard rock, pomp, hymnic vocals (provided by Artension's John West) and gritty dirt. If I had been able to review this album about 10 to 15 years earlier, I would have immediately fallen for it, but the way it is now, I can tolerantly approve of the skilled talents at work here, but wonder silently if anyone but the die-hardest hardrock fan will want to have this admittedly little original album.