Well what have we here?

Good God it looks like the old Adrian Smith and Project just checked into the old house on the hill…

The old Bates' sanctuary is alive and screaming for this one, raided and infested only a few years ago but never having the chance to exhibit those hidden talents held beneath the surface for the last ten or so years.

So Mr. Smith, one of the lead sources of what formerly was and again leads into the dynamics within the Maiden metal machine, heads this team of apparently nameless specters on a grittier and up to date vision of hard rock singularity.

I never cared a damn for that lousy "Silver and Gold" thing he did back in the early '90s so I guess that's what led me to veer away from his newer band back when they first hit the scene.

So far the first couple of tracks don't make me sorry he rejoined Maiden again here but I will say they're a tad more focused and direct and by the middle of song two, "A Quarter to Heaven," there's the patented Smith-led verse.

"Rain's" got a cool vibe to it with its droning guitar intro and fluffy verse while "Believe" is an offshoot of the prior, it's a better all around tune that features the desirable melodic groove in and around a simply laid structure.

"With you Again" is the first ballad we come across and as such isn't half bad-it's got a Maiden's "Wasted Love" meets Zeppelin-like acoustics design before turning into a ride off into the sunset triumph when the dust finally settles.

Psycho Motel's "Welcome to the World" has a little more life than the little I heard of Smith's early post-Maiden offering, blending nicely some of those blessed elements of simple and sweet '80s rock and the seriousness and stomp of '90s attitude-does anyone else hear Kiss's "Carnival of Souls" buried in here somewhere?

Not wholly graceful nor objectionable in most cases, but on a 50/50 scale, PM's '97 release offers slightly more to come away with than just a knife in the back…

Sanctuary Records: http://www.sanctuaryrecords.com/

Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu]