CD-Review: Shylock - "Walking Tall"

Last week Shakra returned with their very strong record "Powerplay". Now the German melodic hard rock band SHYLOCK released their new album "Walking Tall". Can they keep up with the Swiss power rockers?









Why I'm talking about Shakra in my introduction? That's simple: because Shylock make music in the same vein like Shakra, Bonfire, Gotthard, The Scorpions and so on. Just to name a few.
Some would say they are doing typical German "euro hard rock"... and yes of course Shylock do absolutely nothing new on their sixth studio album. But it would be very superficially to punish them because of this fact - Shylock have also a bunch of great tracks in their repertoire.
Just listen to the opener "Walking Tall", the party rocker "Rock DNA" or the beautiful half-ballad "Anything" and you know what I mean. Shylock know, how to write a good straight-ahead  hard rock song with tons of nice melodies. It is simple songwriting without any innovation or much variety but it's all very well played and the production is also very solid.
Songs like the melodic "Bridges", the punchy "Taken It Too Far" or the earwig "Right Now Or Never" are always fun to listen to. And so you have already 6 songs that are worth the money and even the rest of the 13 tracks are all well crafted melodic rock songs.

However, there is a certain monotony while listening to this album. "Walking Tall" didn't make it to grab my attention during the whole play time. I've missed a real over-the-top-hit. Maybe this is due to the fact that Shylock are mostly focused on the choruses. These are well written but a great song consists not only of a good refrain. That's a pity, because Shylock give away some of their potential here.
In addition there is a lack of own identity. The band tries to give each song their own note but in the end most of the songs could have been written by the bands I mentioned above.
Singer Matthias Schenk sounds way too much like Claus Lessmann (Bonfire) ... which is also a compliment, because Lessmann is a very good vocalist.
The guitar work on "Walking Tall" is also very solid, the band sounds really tight but they never reach the high standard of production and sound like Shakra did with their latest work.

You see, there are some critical points to find on "Walking Tall", but nevertheless there isn't a real weak song on this record ... and this is definetly a damn GOOD thing or not? Fans of melodic hard rock should give this a listen. It is Shylock's strongest album so far and worth the money!

8/10

Tracklist:

01. Walking Tall *
02. Rock DNA *
03. I Can't Wait Now
04. Bridges *
05. What It Takes
06. Sad To Know
07. Sliding Through Emotions
08. Taken It Too Far *
09. She Came Along My Way
10. Right Now Or Never *
11. Away From Here
12. Touch My Soul
13. Anything *

* best tracks

http://www.shylockmusic.de/