To celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of their debut album, Hartmann have released an album containing five new songs, five cover versions and five live numbers recorded in concert, including some duets with his bandmates in Avantasia. The production, again care of Sascha Paeth, is superb, the vocals are simply awesome, and the guitars crunch away but yet again I find myself having issues with the album itself. It feels disjointed, and this isn’t helped by some somewhat unusual covers. While Billy Joel is an interesting choice, it is somewhat unwise to be covering a band like Free unless there is real depth and presence in all elements, and while Hartmann is a fine singer, his register and style is very different indeed to Paul Rodgers, and no-one in his band has the licks and presence of Kossof, Fraser and Kirke.

It is the live cuts at the end of the album which are the most interesting, and it is when listening to these that one really gets the impression of what the guys can do in the right environment. This album is an interesting experiment, but it might well have been better to release a live album in the manner of a ‘Greatest Hits’, as that way they could have celebrated their best material in a manner which shows them to their best ability. As it is, this is somewhat hot and cold, interesting, and solid but disjointed and will be aimed far more at fans than the casual punter.

Rating: 6/10

Links:
https://oliverhartmann.com/
https://www.prideandjoy.de/