Béa at
Metalheart-webzine.com wrote:
Lion Music re-releases the third album of the melodic hard rock group House
Of Shakira “III + DVD “Live at Sweden Rock, 2006””. This
release has a live DVD that I won’t review as I did have only the CD. The
songs of this album alternate between mid tempos, ballads, hard rock, rock even
AOR, the whole of it extremely melodic. Some songs are somehow progressive and
can be similar to the influences of the group like for example « Wings
». The songs have rather well done soli, melodic and technique at the same
times. It is an easy listening album because well varied and begins with a « Pellucid
Part I », traditional track for the group, to continue with « Alien
» more aggressive and powerful, « In Your Head » is in a more AOR
style with very present chorus. « Nearly Orgasmic » is a ballad. « Spitted
Hairs » is an entire acoustic and rather “bald” comparing to the rest
of the tracks. To be short, those who know the group will very certainly to
happy to find again the group with this third album which stays one of the best
of the group and to have the bonus DVD, it’ll be an occasion for those who do
not know House Of Shakira to discover a good melodic group.
Tommy Hash at
Ytsejam.com wrote:
Another great lost melodic hard rock/metal classic is finally unleashed again.
One of the crown jewels of House of Shakira’s catalog, III features the
band with some of their finest melodies, harmonies, and grinding riffs, where
their sonic approach that would lead them to records such as First Class
and Retoxed would be set in stone with this one – they really have it
together here. Very much in the vein of TNT, Hardline, Extreme, Fair Warning,
and the Galactic Cowboy’s first two albums (especially with the harmonies), III
balances out the smooth AOR pop tuneage with heavy riff driven bravado –
offering up some great rock and roll with the heavy edge. This record shoes
stylistic changes in the songwriting department, going from all out heavy
hitters such as “Wings,” “Black & Blue Skies,” &
“Unspoken” where it’s all about the hard driving groove and lush
harmonies - yet the diversity shows on the emotionally acoustic “Spitted
Hairs,” the bluesy Stat-laced ballad “Nearly Orgasmic” and the
eased back harmony driven “Unforgiven;” so III exposes an
assortment of great songs, but a consistency for the band’s knack for melodic
passion (it’s not one of those albums where every song sounds the same) -
certainly being one of the high points in House of Shakira’s career.
Also included is a DVD of a performance from the 2006 Sweden Rock Festival
featuring HoS classics and a cover of “Seven Bridges Road.”
This album originally was released in the year 2000, which is a time that when
you look back at mainstream music all you can think is “?.” Although it
might have been a time when power metal and progressive metal was finally
boiling into the minds of metalheads, sadly, AOR & melodic metal was still
the underdog – eight years later you have to think you yourself, “where was
I & why in the hell didn’t I hear about this record back then” –
nevertheless, it sounds just as good now as it did back then, if not better; so
here you have it – no missing out this time around.
Rating: 4,5/5
Metal-temple.com
wrote:
Would you trust a band after such a name? Initially "no", but
eventually "yes". This is not a ’new’ release for HOUSE
OF SHAKIRA but most of a re-release of the - now rare – "III"
album, which originally came out in 2000. One point is the album’s
original issue is quite hard to find now; another point is the DVD ’bonus’
of the re-release. The third – and most promising – is that we’re
talking (maybe?) ’bout the finest HOUSE OF SHAKIRA album. (the
DVD disc was not included in the promo stuff available by the label,
hence...no data here...) "III" is said to be the most
’look after’ HOUSE OF SHAKIRA creation. I can understand
this, due to the album’s consistency and ’melody spread wherever’
multitude. From a band that (nowadays) has limited of chance to join the
’Premier League’ of European melodic Hard Rock – even if many
would wish for it to occur asap – it is "III" that
brought the Swedish rockers in the foreground of fans’ attention. A
band that exists for more than sixteen years, with a ’quality’
studio discography of four albums, offering a good doze of hardhittin’
melodic Rock as a mix of influences from bands like JOURNEY, (some of)
TALISMAN/GOTTHARD, TYKETTO and SURVIVOR. Meaning: enough of major AOR
climaxes with sweet choruses, mid-tempo attitude mostly, some of dynamic
grooves and creative riffs/solos that – on the other hand – will not
possibly impress the experienced melodic Rock fan. Andreas Eklund’s
voice is positive and will make you feel more than comfortable. You’ll
’hear’ Jimi Jamison, Tommy Shaw, Danny Vaughn, Steve Lee and (to an
extend) Steve Augeri. This re-release is remastered and comes with a ’bonus’
"Live at Sweden Rock Festival 2006" DVD. For HOUSE
OF SHAKIRA fans this offer and only can be ’rather on the spot’.
But, anyway, "III" is a fine album of European melodic Rock;
you should surely give it a try if you’re a fan of the genre.
Rating: 3,5/5
Jason
Richie at Getreadytorock.com wrote:
The Swedish melodic rockers third album gets a re-release plus the added
bonus of a live DVD. House Of Shakira are one of the best melodic
hard rock bands around and they rarely disappoint. Their third album saw
them take the Journey influences of their debut ‘Lint’ (every
home should have a copy of this album!) and the harder edged rock of ‘On
The Verge’, meld them together and create this monster album! ‘Alien’
and ‘Wings’ really see the band rock out and then some,
whilst ‘In Your Head’ is a classic AOR/melodic rock anthem,
think Van Halen meets Danger Danger. ‘Rainbows And Butterflies’
highlights the band’s pinpoint harmony vocals, whilst ‘Splitted
Heirs’ showcases the harmonies again but in an acoustic setting.
‘Unforgiven’ is another stick-in-your-head melodic rock
anthem. This album features very strong songwriting and melodies which
were missing at times of their second album. Well done to Lion Music for
making this classic album available again (it was originally released on
MTM who have since sadly gone out of business) plus you get the live DVD
as well. After ‘Lint’ this is the best album so far by this
very talented and enjoyable band.
Rating: 4,5/5
Simon
Bray at Hardrockhouse wrote:
I don’t know about you people out there in what I like to call HRH
land but I’ve never really got into House of Shakira and I have
no idea why. They should be right up my street as I like melodic rock
immensely but they’ve never actively done it for me. In fact I’d go
so far as to say that last year’s Retoxed almost made me lapse
into a coma – but that’s not what we’re here for right now, we’re
here for Lion Music's reissue of III, originally released back in
1998. To these ears III is much more like it, whether it be the
FM like In Your Head or the bizarrely titled Nearly Orgasmic
which is actually quite sweet in a mid tempo Gotthard type of way. Back
in the day many of these songs would have gained a shed load of radio
play and House of Shakira would be pretty well known instead of
being members of an increasingly small sub-genre which is a shame as
this is well played and well crafted stuff. Occasionally the band delve
into the heavier side of melodic rock as on Black & Blue Skies
which gives the album a good deal of variety and should make it appeal
to all lovers of hard rock, not just those who like the rock nice and
fluffy. With this release Lion Music not only include the album but also
a bonus DVD however, annoyingly and as is the rule, the DVD was
unavailable for review so we’ll give it a swerve but it looks like a
bit of a winner.
Rating: 7/10
Scott
Jeslis at Metalexpressradio wrote:
ast year Swedish Melodic Rockers, House Of Shakira (HoS),
released new material in the form of Retoxed which ended a nearly
three year draught of new material for the band. Retoxed hailed
rave reviews and once again made fans yearn for more HoS.
Attacking while the “irons are hot”, the band, in conjunction with
Lion Music, has seen fit to re-issue their third album, originally
released in 2000, which had the unimaginative name of III. (Note:
to completely entice even the avid fan, the CD is being released with
the added bonus of a “limited edition” 11 track multi-camera live
DVD entitled “Live At Sweden Rock Festival 2006” featuring a
“best of” song selection from the bands catalogue of work.
Unfortunately, the DVD was not made available to the press so this
review only critiques the audio portion). If you never heard III
the first time around then you’re in for a Melodic Rock treat. At the
pinnacle of this release the band come across as a harder version of 80’s
circa Journey… powerful melodies and a sufficient amount of guitars.
It doesn’t take long for the initial prime example of these
characteristics to kick in with the post introduction track “Alien”.
The track is categorized by edgy guitars, Melodic… almost Steve
Perry-like vocals by Eklund all fueled by a nice, catchy melodic
chorus. “Alien” is followed by the slightly slower yet
moodier “Wings” that still packs an arena size wallop and
includes another mammoth vocal performance by Eklund to boot. “In
Your Head” is more commercial but is really carried by the great,
multi-tracked “feel good” chorus. HoS actually had captured
the classic spirit of Journey here… the ability to take bleak lyrical
content and turn it into a “feel good” song. Of course Hallstensson’s
wonderful, “Metallized” guitar solo, replete with some nice false
harmonics, is just icing on the cake. “Black And Blue Skies”
is another winner with a heavier guitar presence then it’s proceeding
tracks but still holds onto the album’s reins and keeps in line with
the aforementioned characteristics. The main problem with the release is
that the second half of the album is more ridden with slower, more
ballad-like tracks. Gone is the upbeat tempo displayed in opening tracks
“Alien” and “In Your Head” for example. Simply
stated, the last half just doesn’t leave that strong of a mark as the
first five full tracks. Thankfully, the release ends on one of the
stronger pseudo-ballad tracks in “Unforgiven” which has a
strong chorus. Bottom line, Journey fans should truly get excited over
this re-release especially with the added buying incentive of the
advertised DVD. Melodic Rock fans can expect a truly exhilarating
feeling out of the gate on this one but might end up losing some
interest on the slower, more plodding second half!
Rating: 7/10
|