his band is formed around a core consisting ot Phil Naro, vocals, and Silvio Simone, guitars. Naro used to front KISS drummer Peter Criss' solo band plus that he used to be in Talas together with bassist Billy Sheehan (of David Lee Roth's band / Mr Big fame). Simone has played with, among others, another great Canadian rocker - Tom Cochrane.

The Blood Red Flower lineup is completed with drummer Randy Cooke (ex-Kim Mitchell / The Four Horsemen) and bassist Stan Miczek (Sass Jordan). So I'd pretty much say that quality was expected on beforehand. But enough of the name dropping. Did the boys deliver then, you might ask!? Oh yes, this is an incredibly powerful and surprisingly modern album (at least to these ears who are used to music by old farts ;)). I think I can hear traces of some modern UK bands like Oasis and the likes, yet it has traces of Beatlesque melodies and crunchy guitars with a seventies rock feel.

Naro takes the songs in very unorthodox directions when it comes to the vocal melody lines on some tracks. So this album sounds very fresh and even groundbreaking yet there are familiar odd bits here and there. I guess the simple recipe, yet so hard to implement, “take the best of the old, the best of the new and then add the some of your own personality” worked.

Naro has a good voice and he is using it to perfection. The vocal performance on the album is very personal and with loads of class. The way he writes the vocal melody lines, the way he phrases and the vocal arrangements are simply top notch. The songs are fairly complex at times but it never gets pretentious, not even when they bring in a string section complete with a cello and all as is the case in the intro of my fave track off the album, the spooky “Dogs Of Doom”. That song has it all and I would love to hear it done live.

I will not go through the album song by song but in my opinion there are no fillers on the album in my opinion but it's not an album for all occasions since it is sounding a bit dark and moody yet not aggressive. Most of the time I can't decipher Naro's lyrics which can be cool since it leaves the interpretation to the listener. Enough of the rave and hype now. :)

Check out Phil Naro's own webpage where you can find more information on his various projects and even order his album including the Blood Red Flower CD at http://www.philnaro.com

LH, October 97

http://www.hedenstrom.com/