MYLAND – Tales From The Inner Planet (2015)
Italian AOR / Melodic Hard Rockers MYLAND is a curious band. The group made a sizeable impact on the European scene with three excellent albums plenty of tasty guitar work, big keyboards and terrific choruses, then decided to go indie and release this, their 4th effort “Tales From The Inner Planet” by themselves in 2013.
The big problem was that the album only was available on physical CD via Myland’s website, ordered by e-mail. There was not major distribution, nor digital download. This turned the CD almost impossible to get due its limited quantities.
Then Myland made available a second press with an extra track, and now another one but again not easy to purchase.
Obviously, the band are not the kings of marketing, and it’s a real shame, because “Tales From The Inner Planet” is one of the best AOR / Melodic Hard Rock albums I heard in recent years and deserve to be listened by all fans of the genre.
Myland always suffered instability in the lead vocalist slot, and for “Tales From The Inner Planet” they had new singer Ruben Sacco, who recorded this album and left the band after (now 2015 they got a new vocalist).
Ruben Sacco proved to be the right shouter for Myland’s melodic waves, as the man owns a clear register and a vocal color similar to the greats Johnny Gioeli (Hardline era) and Tommy Heart from Germans Fair Warning.
In fact, Fair Warning is a really fine reference to describe “Tales From The Inner Planet” sound & style. Production is pristine, open and bright giving room to the superb melodies the band develop all over.
The album still retains Myland’s classic AOR / MR structures but now enriched by highly worked harmony vocal arrangements performed by all members.
“Tales From The Inner Planet” opens with the huge “Wave Of Memories”, a brilliant keyboard driven melodic hard rock gem, a great appetizer of what’s coming-up next. The chorus line puts you into a melodic heaven and the guitar solo is simply breathtaking.
“In The Rising Sun” is just another great example of pure melodic rock stuff ’80s influenced, while “Feel The Fire” grabs you with its uptempo happy rhythm and makes you whistle it for days.
Next “She’s Gonna Runaway” (interesting lyrics) and “Hold On” are both very well crafted songs with powerful instrumentation, nice melodies and ‘clever’ choruses.
“Heart And Soul” moves into some more midtempo AOR paths with a mellower backbone, whilst “Out Of The Shadows” brings back the classy ’80s melodic hard rock sound again with its great harmony, keyboard galore and the sing-a-long chorus line. “Rock Me Shake Me” includes a nice groove in it, a huge guitar sound and it’s among my favorite tunes from the new album.
Finally, “If You Could Say The Same” is another highly melodic diamond with a midtempo AOR spirit very close to a power ballad, yet stronger and with a juicy essence.
I really love what Myland managed to create in “Tales From The Inner Planet”. This is some kind of an underground gem, and again I must say it’s a shame the album is not available for the major public via a proper publish / distribution.
“Tales From The Inner Planet” is a must for every single fan of pure European melodic hard rock / AOR sound inspired in the classic era of the genre, with some brilliant and extremely melodic tracks, powerful and at the same time emotional vocal performances, great guitar work, lots of keyboard runs and memorable choruses.
Absolutely Recommended
01. Wave of Memories
02. In the Rising Sun
03. Feel the Fire
04. She’s Gonna Run Away
05. Hold On
06. Heart and Soul
07. The Last Mile
08. Out of the Shadows
09. Rock Me Shake Me
10. Bad Love Addiction
11. All for One
12. If You Could Say the Same
Ruben Sacco – Vocals
Hox Martino – Guitars, Backing Vocals, Lead Vocals on 6
Davide Faccio – Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Fabian Andrechen – Bass, Backing Vocals
Paolo Morbini – Drums, Backing Vocals
Try Here:
www.star31.com/tales-from-the-inner-planet.html
