Optimus

John Norum, the god I never found !!

Good album from a very underrated guitarist.

John Norum must get really hacked off with the "ex Europe" tag always attached to his name. After all, he left in 1986 and put out 7 solo albums before joining in the Europe reunion in 2004.I'm sure some fans of his old, clean, melodic guitar style will be turned off by the down tuned guitars evident across all 10 songs here, but they really suit the dark edged material he's offering up these days. He's also come on leaps and bounds as a vocalist, handling the material extremely well.I'll hit you with the highlights. 'Nailed To The Cross' could easily have come straight off a Black Label Society album, it's that good! Grinding riffs and husky vocals, it's an absolute guaranteed floor filler. The other classic is the Glenn Hughes co-write, 'Time To Run'. A swaggering, mid-tempo stomper, it would have fitted easily into one of the more recent releases by the Voice Of Rock ©Elsewhere, the gloomy ballad, 'One More Time' has proven itself a grower, strangely addictive after repeated plays, it draws you back in, very similar to some of John Elefantes solo material, but without the hopeful lyrics. 'Optimus' is the better of the two instrumentals, getting all psychedelic in places.If you've never heard any of his solo material and just pigeonholed him as the "Final Countdown guy", then this could be a very pleasant surprise.

I got this album as a young guitar player just after I'd gotten Start from the Dark (Europe). Since I'd just started playing guitar, Solitude and Optimus were two of the first killer instrumental tracks to inspire me. Today, (nearly 10 years later) I still listen to songs like Chase Down the Moon all the time (the vocals are great!). More memorable mentions are: Nailed to the Cross where, Norum described the lead as his only 'Yngwie-style' solo. Apparently it gave him a headache, he won't likely do much more like it. =p And the cover of the song Time to Run from the band Phantom Blue (which he has credit in co-writing) is a heavy modernized version of the original that I quite like. If you like the heavy sounds of Start from the Dark, you'll like this. But if you're stuck on Total Control and TFC, you should probably look elsewhere.

He has put out some very good solo work but this one disappoints. He really needs to beef up the writing, and find at least a part-time vocalist. He doesn't have the pipes to carry an entire cd, so he should recruit a vocalist for 4-5 cuts, or get a full-time singer as he did with Glenn Hughes. The solos are not up to his standards either.

great cd

PERFECT !!!

Norum is in charge of the mike on this one and certainly in charge of his guitar. Even UK magazine Classic Rock liked this one and they (fairly enough) have panned some of his other releases.The guitar work here is thundering and heavy. But in a 70's kind of way. Which makes sense since John grew up in that environment. But... well I'm sort of lost for words in the about turn this guy has achieved with this album. I can't give it five stars as it does drone a little, but the riffs here would be worth three stars even if the album was marred by Norums usually crap lyrics. And that isn't the case here. And listening to the latest Europe album, the guy took this new found heavy riff style into that band too, which can only be an improvement.Anyone who liked the new Europe album should get this. Anyone who didn't like the new Europe album also should probably get this!