TAKARA - Blind In Paradise

12 songs
53:19 minutes
***** *
Lion

Bandpage

Takara was originally formed in 1987. The producer of their first demo tape was Jeff Scott Soto. He was so shocked about the non existent talent of the singer that he decided to do the job himself. Jeff Scott Soto maybe doesn't always choose the best bands, but he has an excellent voice for rock music and medium metal. Although the music is nothing more than moderate hard rock with a few highlights (for instance the opener Take U Down Or Fly To Your Arms), Soto's voice puts the song a bit above average. Takara released two albums in 1992 and 1995, and Blind In Paradise in 1998. The first three tracks are up-tempo rockers, but the CD also contains slower stuff showing parallels to classic AOR bands. Love Is Gone could as well be a Whitesnake song. Don't Wanna Be Alone is a typical hard rock hymn, close to the Scorpions. No Love's Enough is closer to Y&T. The re-release is a must for every AOR fan, but only for them. This was the third one and the last one to feature vocalist Jeff Scott Soto. They released in 2001 a fourth CD with a new singer called Michael James.