Avi Rosenfeld & Tasos Lazaris - 2021 - Very Classic Very Metal

(52:53; Avi Rosenfeld)

Track list:
1. Bataclan 4:37
2. Rise 6:00
3. Rainbow Far Away 4:33
4. By the Power of My Sword 5:07
5. Hear the Devil 5:03
6. Birds of Metal 5:25
7. Song of Honor 5:30
8. Out of the Clouds 4:25
9. Big Bad Waves 5:05
10. Underwater 7:08

Line-up:
Avi Rosenfeld - guitars, backing vocals
Tasos Lazaris - vocals
with:
Miguel Angel Seiz - bass, drums
Claudio Acampora - guitars
Dionysis Maniatakos - keyboards
Neil o Neil - bass
Vesa Haapanen - drums
Daniel Swain - bass
Mattia Hagge - Hammond
Patrick Davies - guitars
Milan Pecanac - bass
Daniel Lizotte - bass
Michael Berry - Hammond
Marco Palazzi - Hammond
Giovanni Maucieri - drums
David E. Moreno - keyboards
Aage Halleland - drums
Cedric Camus - bass
Victor Hugo Santafe Ossa - Hammond
Jon Garcia - bass
Tymoteusz Milowanow - guitars
Mateusz Przystal - bass


The album "Very Classic Very Metal" is the first full length album collaboration between singer and instrumentalist Tasos Lazaris and composer and instrumentalist Avi Rosenfeld. The latter is a productive and creative artist with a passion for classic era hard rock and metal, an affection that has been explored on dozens of albums in the last decade or thereabouts, while Lazaris is more of an unknown quantity for me. The album was self released by Rosenfeld in the fall of 2021.

While the title of this album might indicate that we have a lot of classic era metal in store for us, that isn't actually the case here. The main parts of this album revolve around hard rock as a matter of fact, but with a couple of slices of metal thrown in.

In fact this album kicks off with an energetic and catchy affair that will give all fans of classic era NWoBHM some sweet and recognizable fare to enjoy, complete with powerful vibrato vocals. Vocals that will be a recurring feature throughout here of course, in the vein of Bruce Dickinson here and later on with a bit more of Ian Gillan and Ronnie James Dio touch to it as well.

The latter two references also say quite a bit of the kind of material we will find on the rest of this production. Songs made in the spirit of and with the sound of the classic Mk. II line-up of Deep Purple come and go, some with a slight flavoring of Uriah Heep, other with the more smooth and contemporary sound the band explored on their "House of Blue Light" album. An expressive number with funk and Latin undercurrents makes it's way onto this album as well, possibly referencing some of the more out there compositions that a band like Led Zeppelin created towards the end of their career.

Among the most impressive songs we are treated to follows a slightly different path however. Majestic, epic atmospheres, Eastern sounding melody lines and tones and mystical moods define two of the songs on this album, drawing in references from Zeppelin's 'Kashmir', Rainbow's 'Stargazer' and other songs of a similar nature, and delivering the songs in a style that I suspect many fans of the latter of the named examples will find instantly recognizable. These are songs that many in a western audience will appreciate by default, as the tones, timbres and scales used are unusual and exotic for most western ears.

My personal pick from this album is one of the tracks which takes on a vastly different sound however. 'Song of Honor' is the name of my favorite cut here, an instrumental that makes liberal use of western folk music elements and has a bit of a closer relation to progressive rock as well.

The drawback for this album is that some of the individual performances do sound like they are phoned in rather than the results of a band in a studio, with mix and production suffering a bit and possibly also song development. Like in sports it is managing to get those final 1 to 3 additional percentage points that is the big challenge, and this album isn't among those that manage to reach such a top level.

As with all other albums I have encountered by Avi Rosenfeld at this point, these are albums that come across as affectionate homages to classic era hard rock and metal crafted and put together by passionate enthusiasts. And those who would describe themselves as passionate enthusiasts of this kind of music in general and the bands referenced in the review in particular should have a very good chance of enjoying the music explored on this production.

Olav M. Björnsen, February 2022

Links:
https://avirosenfeld.wixsite.com/avirosenfeldbandgigs
https://www.facebook.com/Tasos-Lazaris-109559920452604/