House Of Shakira - HoS

Almost 5 years passed since the band’s last studio work “Retoxed” in 2007… and in the meantime the band’s lineup has undergone some serious changes. There’s a new vocalist, Andreas Novak (Mind’s Eye), a new bass player, Basse Blyberg, and a new drummer, Martin Larsson. Thus, the 3/5 of the band has changed… and logically those changes have infected the music of House Of Shakira. Honestly, it’s like listening to a new band… so I can’t see the reason why they went along with this name and they didn’t choose a different one… as they did make a new start.

 

The band still plays rock music but with more 70s-80s classic rock influences… along with various rock & roll, melodic rock and hard rock elements. This is a notice for all the old fans of House Of Shakira that may wait to listen to the melodic rock/AOR music that the band used to play.

 

The “new” band plays well, the production is very good & rockin’, as the album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Mats Hallstensson… but even though this new music style will enthuse or disappoint some fans of the band… I still can’t find any strong songs here… neither any big hooks… just OK, ordinary rockin’ tunes. Nothing exciting to listen to… and surely nothing that will bring on new fans… moreover, it will dissatisfy a number of the band’s loyal followers. The best song here is the emotional ballad “Lost In Transition”. I remembered having written in the "First Class" (2004) review back then: ...the most encouraging thing of all is that the band can and will release something even better than this one in the future… but fairly, I do not see that coming anymore. If you’re an old-time fan of HoS, better try hearing some songs from this album before getting it…