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Jorn - Lonely Are The Brave

Published May 31 2008


*
=Staff's pick

Lonely Are The Brave*
Night City
War Of The World
Shadow People
Soul Of The Wind
Man Of The Dark
Promises*
The Inner Road
Hellfire*


Genre Hard Rock/Heavy Metal
Jorn Lande
Vocals
Tracks 9
Tore Moren
Guitar
Runningtime 46 Min.
Jorn Viggo Lofstad
Guitar
Label Frontiers Records
Sid Ringsby
Bass
Release 06 June 2008
Willy Bendiksen
Drums
Country Norway
-
Keyboard
Similar artists Masterplan, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, Dio

Jorn Lande is a busy man. Lonely Are The Brave is his fifth solo album with original material since the release of the debut Starfire in 2000. During this period he has been a member of Masterplan, Allen/Lande, Beyond Twilight, Millenium and Ark, participated in numerous projects such as Ayreon and Avantasia for example and if that wasn't enough he also has released a live album, one compilation with re-recorded songs and a cover album. Phew!

Lonely Are The Brave was recorded with the direction of renowned producer Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Pretty Maids, TNT) and the final product leaves you with a feeling of déjà vu. The sound and song writing from his previous solo efforts is recycled, classic hard rock with a metal edge. The lack of progression is one aspect why this album fails to impress me. Already on the predecessor, entitled The Duke, I noticed that the quality of the song writing had decreased a bit from what he offered on albums like Worldchanger and Out To Every Nation. On Lonely Are The Brave this fact is more than evident; despite that there are only 8 new songs (Hellfire is a remake of a song which he originally recorded with Beyond Twilight) the album consists of fillers and the highlights are few. This is probably not leftovers from The Duke, but it most certainly feels that way.

This is by no means bad and the performance is of course top notch. The title track is a decent opener that would have qualified on his previous works and the melodic Promises is in fact great and really works as a wake-up call during the ride. Hellfire is also a superb composition even if I prefer the original version that he did with Beyond Twilight. The doomy Soul Of The Wind is an interesting composition as well which strongly reminds me of Candlemass and Black Sabbath. The rest however is quite uninspired a-day-at-the-job material that we have heard from Mr Jorn a dozen times before with the exception that it was much better then.

I strongly recommend Jorn to consider working with other song writers in the future, or at least focus on one essential detail; take your time and don't rush to the studio until you have much better material. I would hate to see this downward spiral continue considering the fantastic voice he is in possession of.

See also review of: Life On Death Road , Traveller , Symphonic , The Duke , The Gathering , Unlocking The Past

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

9

5

7

8

4

 
Summary



5 chalices of 10 - Hawk


Related links:

www.jornlande.com
www.myspace.com/realjorn