Chasing Shadows - Empire

The fourth Empire album was originally released in late 2007 in Europe. Being I'm in the US, I don't hear of these releases. I randomly emailed Rolf one day in early January saying how much I liked a track from his last one, and he told me there was a new one out and (again) graciously sent me a copy of it.

The last two featured former Sabbath singer Tony Martin on it. This time around, they didn't use Tony, the vocalist was former Rainbow singer, Doogie White who appeared on just one album with Rainbow, that being 1996's "Stranger in Us All". It was really nice to hear Doogie again. I thought he kind of got the shaft when Ritchie went off and pulled his John & Yoko move to play his Renaissance music. Anyway, Doogie's vocals on this album are very strong, and fit the previous feel of "Empire Rock" well.

What makes all these albums cool for me is Rolf's guitar work. It's got a crunch and a melody that you don't find in a lot of tunes these days - and I really wish the Empire albums would get more coverage here in the US. They don't. This one however, was released in the US, and you can order it now at a reasonable price, so I suggest you hit the cover art here and order a copy.