Welcome to America. The Land of Opportunity. The Land of the relative Dream. The Land featuring the most controversial aspects in all issues. The more most of the world opposes to the actions of every American government, the more various American products we cannot live with out. This applies to American music, as well. Form the Mississippi Blues to today's Nu-Metal activities, anyone can find some genre/sound to collide to in America. Welcome to America.
Taz Taylor - born in Walsall, England - pays tribute to his guitar heroes Michael Schenker and Gary Moore. I have not yet remembered if I've heard of this axeman before; few are the chances. Hence the surprise that one of the finest hard rockin' voices of all time did sing in this album. Graham Bonnet: responsible for MSG's Assault Attack (1982) and Rainbow's Down To Earth (1979) legendary Hard Rock albums. Phew, can we judge this 'smoking' voice? Hell, no. I was curious enough to see how he'd handled things in this bad-artwork release. The mist was unveiled as soon as Fighter's Fist entered the arena...
Taz Taylor is surely an old-school guitarist. Hence, similarities to the aforementioned axeman plus credits from Ritchie Blackmore and Eddie Van Halen are more than obvious. A low-profile musician, delivering great soloing with traditional sound is all you can get. The songwriting points to a mid-Rainbow style added by an early MSG 'blend'. In addition, leads dedicated to Gary Moore's talent are noticeable (a nice instrumental version of Parisienne Walkways opus is featured here).
The rest of the band needs no special attention, simply for the reason that they are 100% dedicated to what they're doing and the sum is faultless. As for Mr. Bonnet, he's like the old wine: getting better and better, he delivers great singing in Fighter's Fist and Happy Hour while his general performance is as expected. Not to forget: Goodbye Mr. C. is a 'surprise' tribute tune. Just think of Ozzy's early solo years, as a hint...
Taz Taylor gets big credit for cooperating with such an anthemic voice. Still, the tunes are good enough by themselves. No originality, of course, but I do not think this is the scope of this release. Omitting the mediocre CD cover, Welcome To America sees a good purchase for friends of the Thin Lizzy and Rainbow family trees.