Q: Ain't you over this melodic-metal sh*t yet?
A: Science still searches for a cure.
Q: How come Tony Harnell can't decide whether to sing in TNT, Westworld, Starbreaker, Bumblefoot/Wildflowers, video games, solo bands or his shower?
A: Who cares? He always tethers that flay/massage voice to artful songwriting and ace musicianship. So he can peddle his wares anywhere; he is just not permitted to quit.
Q: Is guitarist Magnus Karlsson a shredder or a melodist?
A: Both, and he'll make sure you know it in every song. Scares up perfect keyboard parts, too. Subtract 1 percent for the granular distortion he gets from those damned solid-state amps, but he probably prefers to spend the time perfecting his technique rather than babysitting those temperamental tubes.
Q: How does new Starbreaker drummer Anders Köllerfors fit in?
A: An avatar of technique and imagination, Köllerfors admires the double-kick drive of Judas Priest's Scott Travis more than the cushioned roll of former Starbreaker/TNT drummer John Macaluso. Recorded loud and bright, Köllerfors' drums now make Starbreaker sound like a machine gun spitting daisies. We expected such evolution after a 10-year band hiatus, and the hard skins are offset by many sensual intros/outros/echoes, making for a hi-contrast palette.
Q: The songs?
A: Best choruses: Back to back on the buffalo-galloping "Last December" and the socko ballad "How Many More Goodbyes." Highest energy: the desperate title track and the opening "Pure Evil," a drums-fueled ripper in the Priest "Painkiller" Scott Travis mode that is not the first rock song to end with an atom-bomb blast, and not, we hope, the last. Best belated surprise: Starbreaker must have waited until their third album to record "Starbreaker" because the song hailed from Judas Priest's own 1977 third album, and Harnell enjoyed screaming it as much as I enjoyed flashing back on what a rockin' drummer Priest's Simon Phillips was before he became a fusionisto (and still is). The tuff & flexible Les Binks, too ('78-'79), wow.
Q: New Year's resolution?
A: Not to neglect regular plays of all three Starbreaker albums. They reveal new depths and heights every time.