What we have here is the remastered rerelease of "A Matter Of Time", the debut album from LA Melodic Rockers MESHEEN. Here's the spin though, the record was never released since recording in 1994 (ok outside of a few CRD copies many years after recording).  So whatever the correct terminology is, it's hats off to the label Cult Metal Classic for giving this hidden gem a polish and letting us hear these tunes to a wider audience for the first time.

And what a gem it is.  A real time capsule of Melodic Rock (I'm not going to call it A.O.R, because it's heavier than that) from the late 80s early 90s, but because of the quality of the songs on offer here they sound authentic, not outdated.  Some of the kudos for this must be the sympathetic modern remastering, creating a harder and less synthetic sound a lot of albums of this type suffered for at the time. OK some of the song titles still have a dusting of cheese, but not enough to clog arteries.

Lets talk songs.  From the restrained opening of track no.1 "Fight For The Peace", with its slow-burn sexy musical subtext, its Ted Heath's vocals that grab your attention.  It's like the dude has been gargling honey mixed with just a little bit of gravel.  This is a voice as good, if not better than most of his contemporaries, we are talking Rock God pipes here guys!  "Big Fat City" pacing wise is similar, and has a suitably big fat chorus, and show the rest of the band were no slouches either.  The guitar sound on this is to die for.

Track 3 is the title track "A Matter Of Time".  Is the sort of uplifting neo-ballad, that I could hear a modern band like INGLORIOUS making their own.  Also I could imagine his being done as a stripped back version, just vocals and acoustic guitar, give a bit of a blues hue.  Oh wait! A bit like "The Bigger They Are (The Harder Thy Fall)", which is an example of exactly that style, it reminds me of EXTREME, in both the quality of the vocal and sublime string bending.  Yes it is such an early 90s thing, but who cares, 'cos it is brilliant!

Seriously there isn't a bad tune on the album.  Ok some show their age, but like fine Wine or and aged single malt, it makes it taste that much smoother. I really do not know how MESHEEN were not huge, perhaps circumstances, possibly timing, 5 years earlier and some of these songs would be on heavy rotation on MTV.  Perhaps Grunge had its hand in their demise, all I can say we've missed out on a quality band, so I am grateful to Cult Metal Classics for filling my ears with these sounds.