HOUSE OF LORDS – Cartesian Dreams

House Of Lords is one of those bands that had an impressive entrance into the Hard Rock/Metal scene and then threw themselves intro turbulence that most of the times leads to the inevitable hiatus or split up. This band also belongs to another elite group, one where those been ‘managing’ to avoid total success and failing almost 100% in creating a solid fan base to support and follow them. But, this is all history and here is the successor to the very good Come to My Kingdom that saw the light of the day a year ago. Actually, Come to My Kingdom had some really catchy tunes in the way that all the arena Hard Rock fans love to have and it did send a hopeful message for the future album. And so, this message was true!

Title track “Cartesian Dreams” opens the album with some wonderful vocal lines that stick to the listener’s mind from the very first seconds. The mid-tempo groove is so catchy that foot-tapping will be the least the listener will do. The keyboards -as always- play an important role in House Of Lords’ music but not in the Progressive Hard Rock way (thankfully). They are there, to enhance the melodies and at times to take over the leading role following the trademark Hard Rock US recipe. With “Born To Be Your Baby” the band gets a little bit heavier with additional guitar work and kind of looks towards Winger’s side, especially during the sing-along-chorus. Winger pops again during the keyboard-driven power ballad “Sweet September” where the piano sounds raise the American Hard Rock flag way up high.

Compared to its successor, Cartesian Dreams sounds way more solid and at a certain level, more fresh as if the band has rediscovered its own sound. James Christian once again proves, and underlines, his singing abilities dealing with a wide vocal range without over doing it. His timbre binds perfectly to the music and characterizes the sound of this US band. Jimi Bell does his stuff with the guitar with a hearty sound, bringing to mind many influences from Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Y&T and Cinderella among others.

The last two years the Hard Rock scene has been experiencing a great revival with many new bands and quite old ones that produced very good / excellent albums. House Of Lords is definitely one of them and whoever had the chance to watch them on-stage will endorse this saying. This is such a nice album that should be considered -at least- as a candidate in the best 2009 album lists.