Jorn Lande is an excellent singer who has been into the Metal music industry for more than a decade. His first official recording was the one with the Norwegian band VAGABOND with which he released their debut album in 1994. If you read Jorn's biography you would come across of some several famous artists and bands that have used his high vocal potentials; in the long collaborations catalogue we find: MASTERPLAN, BEYOND TWILIGHT, BRAZEN ABBOT, Ken Hensley and Russell Allen among others. Lately, Jorn has been dealing with his solo career with some re-releases after the quite good album The Duke that saw the light of the day in 2006.
I think that I made more than clear the fact that Jorn is an experienced musician that has been around for quite some time; if you are unfamiliar with his works let me assure you that he has a powerful voice that is deeply influenced by Ronnie James Dio and of course David Coverdale; the influences with the latter singer were employed in the album Once Bitten that was a product of Jorn's collaboration with the ex-WHITESNAKE guitar duo Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden in the band THE SNAKES.
Honestly, I lost my interest on the live recorded albums as soon as the DVD made their first steps in the Metal music; indeed with the DVD you get the whole picture of what happened upon the stage the day of the recording. These were my exact thoughts when Live In America reached my hands for reviewing purposes; in fact I thought What? No DVD? Fortunately, this release earned my interest and more, after the very first spin! I mean Jorn sounds great and the tracklist is just amazing! He has chosen the best tracks from his solo albums and added some cover songs that really spice things up.
The first cover is DIO's Straight Through The Heart and the second is an excellent version to DEEP PURPLE's keyboard driven Perfect Strangers. Jorn seems to enjoy every second of the concert and performs in his best in the groovy almost bluesy Duke Of Love, the melodic We Brought The Angels Down and Soulburn that comes from the MASTERPLAN era. The audience of 'ProgPower VII Festival' seems to enjoy the band's performance especially during the excellent almost 18 minutes long WHITESNAKE medley that gloriously closes the gig.
You should already have figured out that this double CD release impressed me and made me wising that Jorn and his company will make a stop in Greece. The release becomes more enticing with the addition of three studio tracks: a brand new recording of the title track of his third solo album Out To Every Nation, a BLACK SABBATH medley Lonely Is The Word/Letters From Earth and the unreleased Sacrifical Feelings. So, if you are a fan of the mid 90s Hard Rock sound trust me and buy this album without second thought!