CHINA BLUE – Twilight Of Destiny

China Blue is a somewhat recent, yet old, project. Keyboardist Eric Ragno (Takaro, Ted Poley, Steve Grimmet, American Angel) originally formed the band back in the late 80s only to have it fall apart. In a somewhat common feat nowadays, the idea of bringing the concept back to life recently caught fire, with new members onboard and melding newly written material with the old.

Vocalist Tony Mills (TNT, ex-Shy) is especially of note in this formation and, sure enough, his voice marks a major highlight on this release, as musically the overall contained impression seems oddly anonymous. This despite the (although modest) named line-up within the genre and thus the quality performances to go with it, which is to be expected. For, aside from Ragno and Mills, China Blue inhabits the likes of guitarist Josh Ramos (of Le Mans, The Storm and successor to Neal Schon in the excellent Hardline) and drummer Zano Pedersen (Malicious).

In a style of music where hooks are the law (or should be), and melodies (granted they are ever present) that in this case are hardly smitten for the most part, Twilight of Destiny isn’t particularly memorable. “What Do You Need But Love” has that 80’s vibe and with Mills’ voice intact it does spring to mind earlier works of Shy. There is a bit of a Progressive touch at work as well; “Changing Ways” has great interplay between that of guitars and keyboard, with an unexpected turn right after the solo passage. “Don’t Be A Stranger” and “Take Me As I Am” are among the stronger offerings here where well-crafted choruses are concerned. The quieter moments should have been laid out more evenly as well, and the ending with “A Last Goodbye” is strikingly non-effective, not even wrapping up the album on a high note.

The overall feeling is that Twilight Of Destiny should be a very good piece of work when one considers the nuances and attention paid to detail, but  the end result is way too low key and even drifts into varying sequences of downright dull passages that outnumbers it’s opposites. The highlights are all too few and in the end there isn’t much that marks a high profile on here to grab the attention of the ear for too long.