AOR: a genre that I have never fully embraced, nor discarded. I don’t know about you lot out there, but I always feel a bit embarrassed after I played music of this kind. It’s not really groundbreaking and it’s not really disposable either – almost like a movie with a really bad script but good acting. It might be iffy music, but its enjoyable…

Anyway, this band has long been recognized as one of the leading bands in the European AOR/Melodic Rock scene and after many years of plying (playing, I should think :)), they offer us a compilation album featuring all their greatest hits. I hate bands that have “greatest hits”, as it just makes me think of commercial radio fodder like Elton John and Madonna, but most of the songs on this compilation aren’t half bad.

It goes without saying, but anybody into 80s Metal/Rock like DOKKEN, BON JOVI and QUIET RIOT or even newer acts like EDGUY will find something of worth in these 17 tracks. I am not that familiar with most of this band’s output so I cannot determine whether this compilation is fully representative of their career, but some of my favorite tunes on here include: “Break Away”, “I Wanna Know” and “Holding On”.

If you love catchy (poppy) choruses, rather harmless riffing and sappiness,then cop this! It may be a bit cheesy at times, but it entertained me and that’s all I could ever ask of this sort of music. (Online May 19, 2006)