How strange... A band that's almost unknown in your country releases a double-CD Best Of collection. Blame it on the orgasm of bands bouncing from all over the world every day, shoot the record labels which sign almost every single one of the bands mentioned above... I don't know. This intro should not be taken as a reference to Millenium, just this The Best Of... And More release put my mind into deep thinking 'bout the music industry. And who gives a shit 'bout watcha sayin', pal. You think I got lots of money to waste?, the voice is heard saying. Damn right, please proceed...
Millenium is a melodic Metal band founded by Ralph Santolla, former member of Iced Earth & Death and now with ex-Skidrow frontman Sebastian Bach, in 1995. The band released three studio albums - Millenium (1997), Angelfire (1999) and Hourglass (2000) - on Frontiers Records. Their recent Jericho release - on Metal Heaven, a sub-label of AOR Heaven - is not 'officialy' featured in this Frontiers years collection. Millenium included in their line-up some very well known musicians of the Hard/Heavy scene, such as vocalist Jorn Lande (Ark, Masterplan, Y. Malmsteen) - lead vocals on the Hourglass album - and guitarist Shane French along with vocalist Todd Plant (Doobie Brothers), Manfred Binder on bass and Oliver Hanson on drums.
This Best of release covers tracks from each of the Frontiers studio albums, adding some very tasty surprises starting from the infamous covers sessions that featured the Hourglass lineup (with Jorn Lande and current Deep Purple keyboard player Don Airey) performing well known Hard Rock classics such as MSG's On & On, The Sweet's Love Is Like Oxygen, Jefferson Starship's Jane, Rainbow's I Surrender, plus 2 unreleased tracks from the Hourglass sessions and demo tracks from the band's Jericho last studio CD. Lets see... a total of 10 unreleased songs. Although the band is listed as a US act, I'd definitely put them in the Swedish box, since crystal-velvet-clear vocals backed by melody-full guitars under a platinum production bring to my mind no other than Europe, Y. Malmsteen, Talisman and Madison. You can judge from that 'bout everything else.
If someone is already a Millenium follower, this double CD features enough previously unreleased material so as to be purchased. Otherwise, it's an opportunity to check (another) melodic Metal band, if you're into that kind of music. As for me? I surely didn't waste my time, but I also don't remember a single song right now.