Flashback CD Review #60 - Bob Catley - Spirit of Man

This review was written for the Rock Is Life.com website in 2006.

Bob Catley
Spirit Of Man
Frontiers Records - 2006
http://www.bobcatley.com

What's The 4-1-1?

The Magnum vocalist steps out on his own again with his fifth solo release. Spirit of Man is the follow up CD to his 2003 release When Empires Burn.

Genre

Melodic Rock / Hard Rock

The Good

When the material is described as being epic hard rock, that does certainly give one hope that it will live up to that billing. For the most part, the album does hit the highs it promises. The music is almost uniformly excellent. It has got the right mixture of hard rocking energy, some really great guitar work that alternates between the fast soaring finger work and crunching rock riffs. I found listening to the album that the music enveloped you as you listen. You feel surrounded on all sides with some fantastic hard rock sounds.

The epic feel is best captured by the song "Judgement Day". It's simply the best song on the album. "Heart of Stone" gets the album off to a great start, very energetic kickstart for the CD. Catley's vocals are outstanding. He capture the intent of the vocals and just drives it home. I think his vocal work is the main thing that sells the power ballad "Last Snows of Winter".

The Bad

There are some decidedly mediocre songs on the album. The closing track "End of the Story" is actually quite good, but the last minute of the song is just a flat out song killer. The title track is rather boring. If there was a song to cut from this CD it would definitely be "Spirit of Man". I also felt nothing for "Walk on Water" and "The Fire Within Me".

I guess it's not always possible to make each song on an album stand out on its own, but you could do much better than these tracks.

The Verdict

While it is true that Bob Catley has had a career spanning 25 years, Spirit of Man is the first time I've listened to any of his work. I really enjoyed his vocals and will be interested in checking out more from him.

The press materials liken this album to the late 1970's Rainbow and Dio sound. I don't hear the Dio influence myself. Dio and Catley's vocals are very dissimilar.

However, musically speaking I do get the Rainbow comparison. Rainbow is on of my favorites from that period of time, so sounding reminiscent to them can't be considered a bad thing. British hard rock is alive and if its any indication with Spirit of Man, it is thriving quite nicely. If you get a chance to check this album out, you'd be remiss as a music fan if you passed it by.

Did You Know?

Bob Catley not only leads the reformed Magnum, but also continues as a member of another band called Hard Rain. Gary Hughes, the frontman for the band Ten, wrote the first three Bob Catley solo albums The Tower, Legends and Middle Earth.

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5