NOELY RYAN – Escape From Yesterday (2016)
“Escape From Yesterday” is the debut album from Greeks NOELY RYAN, a band founded by a Thin Lizzy tribute act known as Remember Lizzy. Of course, as you imagine, their music is strongly influenced by the legendary Irish band, but the guys add their own touch as well.
Noely Rayn’s songs are constructed around a twin-guitar pattern as Thin Lizzy patented decades ago, with the addition of more melodic harmony vocals arrangements and a bit of vintage AOR touches.
The first pair of tracks opening the album are by far the weakest on the release, without a doubt a wrong move by the band. Not to say are bad songs, but generic.
Things start to get interesting with ‘Dazzling Eyes’, a really melodic tune with dynamic rhythm section, an early ’80s AOR little feeling and a sax line into the mix that works well. The harmony vocal arrangements are strong and the leads even better.
Talking about the main vocals frontman Michael Dandoulakis is one of the best winning cards in Noely Rayn. His clean, soulful and quite potent tenor chords provide a special charm to the songs. Dandoulakis is also part of a pretty well praised Whitesnake tribute band called Saints & Sinners, so this gives you an idea of his vocal quality.
And then arrives the best song on the album, and the one that makes it worthwhile: the pretty awesome ‘Remember Our Midnight’. The track is Whitesnake influenced in its structure, but it’s the mentioned Dandoulakis who elevates it with a performance bringing to mind Jeff Scott Soto in his years with the band Eyes. A really good melodic rocker.
Another really fine track is the slightly AORish ‘Painted Sky’, including keyboards / synths in the background.
‘I Wanna Run’, the melodic rocker ‘Oceans Of Sorrow’, and the veryyy Thin Lizzy-like ‘Best Things’ are all effective numbers.
Then ‘Sins’, adding acoustics to the electric guitars is another cool song, a midtempo melodic rocker that reminds me Vivian Campbell’s Shadow King, while closer ‘Laochra’, after its Celta intro, apart of the Thin Lizzy vibe has some early TOTO in its verses.
“Escape From Yesterday” is a nice, gentle album from Noely Rayn, a band with strong influences from the aforementioned acts but capable to write decent own songs.
All is very melodic, well performed (with very good lead vocals) and for the most part the songs are effective rockers. Production feels a bit restrained, with a more bombastic job this material would rank higher.
Anyway, “Escape From Yesterday” is a fine indie release that worth to investigate by fans of classic rock, timeless melodic rock music.
01 – Walking On The Edge
02 – Borders Of Love
03 – Dazzling Eyes
04 – I Wanna Run
05 – Oceans Of Sorrow
06 – Remember Our Midnight
07 – Painted Sky
08 – Best Things
09 – Sins
10 – Laochra
Michael Dandoulakis – Lead & Backing Vocals
Panos Papapetros – Guitars
Johnny Sinnis – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Nikos Papadopoulos – Bass, Backing Vocals
Akis Gavalas – Drums, Percussion
BUY IT !
www.cdbaby.com/cd/noelyrayn
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