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Heads up! He may
be unknown to many, but Robby Valentine
has released his debut album back
in 1992 and in the long run he attained
the acme of "Falling Down in
Misanthropolis", only a year
after the remarkable "The Most
Beautiful Pain". An artist well
known for his classical studies, his
"obsession" with pomp
melodies blended with a touch of AOR,
progressive and Queen (a huge touch
there) in his sound, but mostly known
as a unique flashy persona from Holland.
Variegation is the
proper word for me to describe the
sounds that give and go here. Songs
based on pure pomp perfection are
next to guitar driven up-tempo or
prog with a darker mood or even electronic
music ("Rock Me Like A Hurricane").
A little bit modern and heavier but
the typical Valentine is always present.
Eccentricity is another key word for
Valentine and he never stops to amaze
us howsoever. This sound diversity
in his albums there's still
alive and kicking and no one shall
ever accuse him for being predictable,
that's for sure! The first three
tracks plus "April Fool"
and the sensational "Searching
Forever", which by the way could
be his best monster ballad, are my
personal highlights. Nevertheless,
there's no song that could be
defined as an average one, in fact
there's a suitable song for
each one of you. He's a gifted
songwriter after all.
With each song composed
and every instrument played by R.V.
plus all that supported by a crystal
clear and powerful production (Robby's
work as well) you can say: yes we
do have a winner. Valentine sounds
heavier than ever and you can easily
place this record among his best so
far efforts, as his first 2 albums
and the last year's release.
Then again to cut a long story short,
we don't have many operatic
melodic hard rock singers. Right?
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