My first 'touch' with the Shark Island name was via the guitar wizard Michael Schenker himself. As a long time fan , I recall year 1991; at that time, Schenker had formed the Contraband project - featuring a set of remarkable musicians of 'those days', they released just one album - and as soon as I grabbed the album, I couldn't help but noticing the voice of a singer called Richard Black. The man was the singer of a band called Shark Island.
Shark Island - quite known within the ranks of U.S. Hard Rock lovers - released a set of 'indie' efforts in the mid-80's. Achieving a deal with the Epic label in 1989, they managed to put out their 'normal' debut album called Law Of The Order. An excellent album of 'touching' guitar-driven melodic Hard Rock, with major cuts like Paris is Calling, Spellbound and Shake For Me, the album sold really well worldwide. Still, the usual 'label' shit occurred and an enormous number of 50-60 songs for possible follow-up albums were to be 'dusted' on some shelf for many years as Shark Island called it quits. The album reviewed here - the band's comeback after 17 years - features some of that pile.
For those familiar with the supremacy of Law Of The Order, the present CD stays way ahead. Lack of intensity, low vibes, sound-alike cuts - all of them in mid-tempo basic - cannot build it up to make a remarkable album. Some of Great White (a lot of GW, now that I listen to the album again), enough of ordinary U.S. 'mellow' Rock and total absence of powerful guitars. Richard Black (a reincarnation of GW's Jack Russell at times?) sings outstandingly (again) and tunes like Go West, I Had A Dream and Heaven are surely A-class. But that's where the story ends.
I could understand the meaning of these songs' writing 'formula' if they were all cuts newly 'forged' (I guess some really are; which ones by the way?). But - to be honest - to have some of them destined for a Law Of The Order follow-up album, I'm glad they did not eventually get released back then. Even if you were devastated by the band 17 years ago, try this before you go ahead and buy.