HOUSE OF LORDS – Full Tilt Overdrive (2024) *HQ*
Much loved Hard Rockers HOUSE OF LORDS will release their twelfth studio album ”Full Tilt Overdrive” on October 11th via Frontiers Music. A recording produced once again by the band’s singer and mastermind, James Christian along with keyboardist Mark Mangold, ”Full Tilt Overdrive” does not change nor alter the band’s winning formula but instead offers an inspired and credible album that stands shoulder to shoulder with the best from the band’s repertoire.
House Of Lords stands for stupendous melodies and majestic atmospheres. All these ingredients you will find in abundance on “Full Tilt Overdrive” especially with songs such as the 9-minutes epic “Castles High” and the lead single “Bad Karma”, not forgetting “Taking the Fall” (which has a nod to the band’s biggest hit ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’), and the riveting title track.
Mainman James Christian has kept the HOUSE OF LORDS flame alive for thirty seven years now, and it’s testament to his single-minded vision and stickability that the band are here at all.
The possessor of a golden throat, he’s been at the centre of everything that’s good about this band from the start, and it’s a delight to hear him belting out material of the quality of this album’s title track, not to mention standout cuts ”State of Emergency” and ”Still Believe”; Faithful guitar foil Jimi Bell is here again too, proving once more that he’s a master of the concise hard rock solo (and the not so concise too – his epic efforts on ”Castles High” are quite superb), and basking deservedly in the sunny fruits of his and the boss’ hard work through the lean times.
But it’s impossible to deny the impact newcomers Mangold and Swedish drummer Johan Koleberg have had on this band; the hard-hitting Koleberg must surely rate alongside Ken Mary and Tommy Aldridge as the best drummers to occupy the HoL drumstool.
And Mangold? Well, his stardust-laden fingerprints are all over this album, from the glittering pomp of the Touch-quoting title track to the hefty, portentous hard rock of ‘Castles High’, he powers the whole thing forward with pure, unadulterated class. Mangold and Christian are undoubtedly a marriage made in heaven, and it’s an utter delight to hear them harnessed together again on ”Full Tilt Overdrive”.
It’s too late for this band to make ‘the big time’, whatever that is these days, again, but in their own World they rule the roost, and it’s hard to see them relinquishing that crown any time soon on the strength of this might release.
More power to them, and let’s hope they can keep this going for a few albums more…
Highly Recommended
1 Crowded Room
2 Bad Karma
3 Cry Of The Wicked
4 Full Tilt Overdrive
5 Taking The Fall
6 You’re Cursed
7 Not The Enemy
8 Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye
9 Still Believe
10 State Of Emergency
11 Castles High
James Christian – vocals
Jimi Bell – guitars
Mark Mangold – keyboards
Johan Koleberg – drums
Pre order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Full-Tilt-Overdrive-House-Lords/dp/B0DB2NT36G
