Customer Reviews

Gotthard

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gotthard's self-titled debut might not have stood out from the crowd much in 1992, given the sheer volume of bands playing melodic rock at the time, but it would prove to be the launching point of one of Switzerland's most successful bands ever, and one of the few bands from that era that has continued to serve up high quality melodic rock year after year.

From the very beginning Gotthard has specialized in upbeat, catchy, feel-good, melodic rock & roll, and I'd argue that they're the best they are at what they do. A few hair metal trappings in the early days doesn't change the fact that Gotthard had a solid rock sound inspired by bands like Y&T, Whitesnake, Van Halen, and to some extent Rainbow, and that sound remained true no matter what musical trends came and went.

Gotthard's debut album is simply an incredible melodic rock album, and alongside Tyketto's Don't Come Easy and the self-titled Von Groove debut is one of that era's strongest debuts. All of the elements that made Gotthard such a success (everywhere but America of course) are in place here, from the slamming guitar hooks to Steven Lee's raspy (but powerful) voice, to that upbeat tempo that makes Gotthard albums impossible to listen to while sitting still. You just have to get up and move when a song like Hunter comes on. Even their ballads are impressive enough to keep you from hitting the skip button. The album also features the first of what would become several fantastic covers of classic songs. This time it was Joe South (and later Deep Purple's) Hush.

I'm a total fanboy for this band, so I may not be the most objective reviewer for this album. Still, I can't imagine anyone who is into classic and/or melodic rock being disappointed by this rockin' album. If you're into bands like Danger Danger, Tyketto, Von Groove, Fair Warning, Bonfire, or Pink Cream 69, this band and album should be an absolute winner. Order now; operators are standing by!

This is the first album of the swiss hard rock band called Gotthard. If you love Deep Purple, Whitesnake and Dio YOU HAVE TO BUY THIS CD. ALL (I say: all) songs are excellent: The sound is hard and the singer is probably the best hard-rock singer with Ronnie Dio. As a guest VIVIAN CAMPBELL plays a great solo on the song "Firedance". Don't miss it. Believe me, you won't regret it.

The debut album from Gotthard (1992) is a solid rock effort and it's more or less obvious that Gotthard are influenced by Whitesnake's "1987". The music is guitar riff based heavy metal with some blues and a lot of melody. Singer Steve Lee has a very good voice and the rest of the band is without doubt good musicians. It's too bad that Gotthard haven't got the attention they deserve because this band is just as good as any other band in this genre. If you like Tyketto, Hardline or Lionsheart you will probably like this album. The material is strong and songs like "Standing in the light", "Down town", "Firedance", and "Lonely heartache" should please any fan of traditional but melodic heavy metal. My only objection (which lower the ranking from a 4 to a 3) is that the songs are rather similar to one another and in the long run they have a slight tendency to melt together.

Gotthard is a amazing band they write good songs played them well and yet like the wildhearts,they fly under the radar.Songs like hush the hunter ,going down ,firedance ,are classis but no one gives them any credit ,no radio stations that is.The guitar playing on this is great and the song writting is unreal ,throw a little deep purple ,rainbow ,with a dash of white snake and you have gotthard.Buy this cd i tell you you wont be dissapointed ,i hope this review was helpfull to you.

A strong debut album from the swiss act!
I recommend this for fans of: AC/DC, Deep Purple, Dio, Scorpions.
Pure classic hard rock.

Swiss hard rock veterans having peculiar spelling of upturned "t" as the band name has been unknown to the music fans outside Switzerland, Japan and some of German and Europeran metal fans community. Its debut album gained high appreciation from metal fans particularly of Europe and Japan. They already had a number of live concerts in Japan and most known to us by theme song for late Swiss K-1 champion Andy Hug.

Debut album in 1992 has full of really no-nonsense straight-ahead hard rock enough to hold the presence among the rock connoisseurs.

STANDING IN THE LIGHT is edgy yet catchy uptempo rocker somewhat close to that of BON JOVI. DOWNTOWN is pure Euro-metal probably influenced from German classic metal bands such as SCORPIONS. FIREDANCE is an excellently made mid-tempo emotional power ballad. HUSH is of course the cover of DEEP PURPLE classic and well cared for. MEAN STREET ROCKET and TAKE ME are feel-good uptempo rockers probably loved in live concerts. ANGEL and ALL I CARED FOR are excellent ballads showing they are well cut out for pop approach as some of the latest releases show.

Verdict: Well-refined for the debut. Struggling for shining out of the crowds.
Rating: 84 out of 100 Nice start for the debut.
Recommended for: Bon Jovi, Whitenake, and German metal fans.

Do you love Dio' s The last line and Holy diver, Whitsnake? Then buy this cd. The songs are all great clasic hard-rock pieces and the singer has great voice. Is that enough?