Feel The Fire (©2000 Kivel Records)

1: Feel The Fire 2: Save Our Love 3: Reap What You Sow 4: If The Sun 5: Giving It Up 6: Easy Come Easy Go 7: Just Let Me Love You 8: Mission Man 9: Honey Child 10: Walkin The Dog

How I managed to find out about these guys is still something I can’t figure out. If I had to guess I would say it’s part of my amazing ability to triangulate information from disparate sources and come up with pretty accurate findings. Somehow I followed a trail of internet crumbs (Oh I was so tempted to say cookies, but I just couldn’t go that low) and found myself reading about this one. I think I was looking for stuff on Jamie Rowe.

Plug time. NEH Records is a great site for those who miss the more “melodic” rock and roll. They’re quick, accurate, and I’ve never had a problem ordering from them. Selection is robust, and they carry a lot of European and small market releases.

Whew, where was I?

AdrianGale hearkens back to the late 80’s and they really deliver the big sound. I really liked this one, and found myself tapping my foot a lot. The guys in the band are having fun. The playing is good, and other than some occasional weak and flat gang vocals this is pretty tight. Vic Rivera wrote most of the songs, and played drums and guitars. Jamie Rowe gets to use his rock voice again, which is great to hear. Eddie Campbell is a solid fretmeister, and Todd Goldie is the bass player. Too bad they don’t have a drummer. I guess they’re trying to avoid the Spinal Tap thing.

Kivel Records is obviously making enough to cover their costs, and provide enough budget to make solid recordings which is a good thing. Distribution must be a right pain, and I would guess that they’re relying heavily on internet based sales through various mail order houses.

Reviewed May 3, 2003

Under The Hood (©2001 Kivel)

1: Stealin Hearts 2: Reap What You Sow 3: Save Our Love 4: Feel The Fire 5: Feel The Fire (Live) 6: Mission Man (Live) 7: Giving It Up (Live)

Under The Hood is a weird little e.p. It starts off with a cookin' good rocker, then goes unplugged with three very good acoustic variations of songs from Feel the Fire. Given the plethora of unplugged stuff, I was a little leery at first, but they do a nice job.

What sinks this are the three ghetto blaster recorded live bootlegs at the end. The songs are pretty good, but they’re really hard to listen to. I know they’re bootlegs and I’m being overly hard on them, but dang it, it’s my page and I'll bitch if I want to. So do what I do - turn it off after Feel the Fire, and feel good about the album. Oh, you must listen to the whole thing once in a while, just to remind yourself why you're turning it off. To be fair, if you like bootlegs, great. If not, turn 'em off.

Since I'm bitching, who ever did the song order could have shuffled the tunes so that both versions of Feel the Fire weren't back to back. Shame, shame.

Don’t let the lack of stars turn you off this one. If you like these guys get this if you can find it. The first four songs are more than worth the price of the disc.

Reviewed May 13, 2003

Re:Program (©2002 Kivel Records)

1: Still Burning 2: Closer 3: Heartbreak Guaranteed 4: If 5: Over, Said And Done 6: Runaway 7: Heartgames 8: 41394 9: Part Of Me 10: Heather Please 11: No More Chances

In many ways this is a superior release to Feel the Fire. The guitars are bigger, and choruses are thickly layered and on the surface this one hits all the right high notes. Jamie Rowe has a great rock and roll voice, and although he’s often compared to a lot of other singers – notably Jeff Keith from Telsa. I’ve got a lot more Guardian albums in my collection than Tesla releases, so guess who I like to listen to more? Vic, Eddie, and Scott are tighter than on the first album.

So how come it doesn’t grab me?

I guess I can only take so much derivative retro melodic rock. The paint by numbers formulaic approach to rock and roll only has so much spark. I guess this was the problem with the hard rock of the late 80’s and early 90’s to begin with, and why after a few years of chugging out cookie cutter band after cookie cutter band people just stopped listening.

To be fair to these guys, they’re making music they really love, and this is good stuff. Really, this is enjoyable, and fun to crank up. This is nothing original, and I don’t think it’s supposed to be. AdrianGale is an unabashed fan of rock and roll, and they’re doing exactly what they want.

Truth be told, if they release another album I’ll probably buy it.

I did say it was good didn’t I?

Reviewed May 12, 2003

Crunch! (©2004 Kivel Records)

1: Breaking Stride 2: Crunch! 3: Faith 4: Without A Moments Notice 5: Tougher Than It Looks! 6: When In Rome 7: Long Gone 8: The Thin Line 9: Question 10: Freedom 11: This Time 12: Last Call

The last call for AdrianGale with Jamie Rowe behind the mic. Something must have happened behind the scenes because almost as soon as this was released there was a lot of traffic on Jamie's message board about him only being a hired gun, and that he was only there for the money. Which seems strange since Jamie has shared writing credits on many of the songs. Most hired throats don't write their own lyrics. Still I don't pretend to know what happened, nor do I really care. Hopefully, it hasn't killed the momentum for the album. It deserves a better fate than to be stillborn.

Yeah, this is retro rock, and pretty predictable for the most part, but boy did the boys get it right this time. Crunch is without a doubt their best effort. There are a gaggle of killer tunes. I've been playing it a fair bit for a couple of months - it's a driving effort and made for the summer. Crank it up and roll down the windows. The only fly in the ointment is Scott Miller's guitar. Not to be a pain in the ass, but Scott - you can really play, but it sounds cheesy dude. I figure you wanted a unique counterpoint to Vic, but the flat hollow tone doesn't work for me at all. Cheese dude, cheese.

This is a smokin' effort, and hopefully this isn't the end of the line.

Reviewed August 22, 2004

Live Program (©2004 Kivel)

1: Intro/Reap What You Sow 2: Over Said N' Done! 3: Save Our Love 4: Still Burning 5: Part Of Me (Acoustic) 6: If 7: Giving It Up 8: Riffageddon 9: Mission Man 10: Heartbreak Guaranteed 11: Runaway 12: Closer 13: Feel The Fire 14: All My Heart 15: Closer (Remix)

I was skeptical when I first heard about the “live” AdrianGale album. Let me back up a little here (beep beep beep) and say I’ve been on the bandwagon since the first album, and I have a soft spot for big vocals, and crunchy guitars. But as a band these guys were the hard rock equivalent of The Alan Parsons Project. They were studio rats, and that’s not a bad thing – really. But a real band? That was more of a stretch for me.

Being a nutbar, in addition to being a music fan I shelled out my bucks and waited. And waited some more. And a little more. I tried writing to the label – more than once - and never received a reply – which seems to be in direct contrast to what I’ve heard about Kivel – who knows it may have just been me, but it bugged me. So I’m taking an unnecessary shot to vent my spleen; but with small market labels who rely on word of mouth, customer service is the only differentiator and they have to pay attention. Enough moaning, the story has a happy ending, I received the disc, and I have to say “Holy Crap” these guys freakin’ rock.

Of course Vic could have spent the last two years trying to tighten up the mix and get Jamie’s vocals on key – but somehow I suspect this is a pretty raw from the board snapshot of the guys having a blast – with the usual editing to enhance the flow and minimize the spaces between the tunes.

If you miss the old days, and want to hear pure unabashed rock that has a kick you could do worse that these guys – much worse. I guess all that's missing to put the AdrianGale saga to rest is the obligatory "best of" which I'll reckon will be coming before you know it.

Reviewed April 18, 2005