OZONE (not to be mistaken for the notorious Moldovan-Romanian pop trio) is the long awaited collaboration between two of the most well renowned voices and writers in the UK melodic hard rock genre - Chris Ousey from the likes of VIRGINIA WOLF and HEARTLAND, and Steve Overland, known from being in FM. Just the prospect of two great vocalists doing a whole album together may be enticing enough, but add to that the experienced guitar playing and production ability of American Mike Slamer, and you know the result will be good. Oh... and you have two members of the legendary KANSAS lending their hand to some backing vocals too!

With a line up of musicians like that, expectations are naturally high for OZONE's first album, "Self Defence", and thankfully, the whole band totally delivers! The opener, "Tiger By the Tail" cleverly builds the sound with a simple yet catchy guitar hook and swelling keyboard/organ part, before a solid mid-tempo groove kicks in that gives the track a firm backbone throughout. "Let the Good Will Out" features a more bluesy guitar riff and attitude, and impeccable vocal performances! The band are more than capable of changing things up, with "So Blind" being a top notch ballad, featuring an acoustic guitar intro and all the other expected flourishes.

"Self Defence" is an album where it would be possible to talk about absolutely every song to considerable length - they're all equally fantastic! Every track feels fresh and exciting, with the clean and precise, yet bluesy and soulful, vocal performances of Ousey and Overland elevating the whole album to another level! The other components of the band reach just as high a level too - there is a beautiful balance between the keyboard/organ parts and the guitars, solos cut through in just the right way, and, to put it simply, no track feels like filler!

Basically, this is an absolute cracker of an album! You can't really say much more than that!