Darren Phillips Project - Volume Two Review

To understand an act as Darren Phillps Project it is necessary to understand deeply the essence of the 1980s pop and heavy. Deeply rooted in the soundtrack of trash B movies of the 1980s those ones with juvenile gangs or high school themes, “Volume Two” shows how sweet life can be if told by a Hair Metal band. But not the standard Hair Metal band, this one is inspired on Winger, Loverboy or Black’n’Blue. If my fan thinks Poison, Bon Jovi or Mötley Crüe are the sweetest thing they ever listened to, don’t bother to listen to Darren Phillps Project. Those bands are Death Metal compared to them. It’s sweeter than the sweeter thing. An album extremely forbidden to diabetics.

Ok, now that everybody was advised we can go on with the review. As I said before “Volume Two” is a trip inside the heavy pop of the 1980s including even the duo kings of FM radios Daryl Hall and John Oates well represented by “You Make My Dreams” and its rock pop full of dancing references. Think of a track to dance. It’s this one. All the album is full of all sorts of keyboards and the sinthetysers that brought the rage and hate of many bands as Manowar that proudly declared this kind of music as false metal – hum, where are Manowar now? Opening track “Stay” should be in some B movie at a school or a gang that were so popular in the 1980s. It’s a well done pastiche of Metal and Hard Rock that uses and abuses of keyboards and well performed guitars. On the other hand, there are tracks as “Drive” that are pretty heavy and reminds the great moments of Hair Metal bands. Great bursting guitar solo a little longer than usual – if guitar solos in Hair Metal songs were mandatory, they had an average length of just a few seconds. Well, not here, the solo is a lot longer and there is more than one. Other tracks as “Hold On” have really heavy guitar riffing which alone could be used in some heavier stuff. The sweetening touch here are the vocals. The idea is to create a contrast of the guitars with vocals. As usual there is a ballad. “By My Side” kicks off acostic to acquire some gain in the beginning to return to the acostic guitars again. To be real fair, the track sounds very nice with an inspired guitar solo. Just loved the epic keyboarding in “Best Man for You.” Reminds a lot just like Kiss “Reason to Live” or Europe’s “The Final Countdown.”

I guess no one here in the page would be able to write a review on Darren Phillps Project and “Project Two.” Sticky choruses, sweet vocals, lyrics about love and love relationships, and all. If you’re in the mood, the album is a spoonful.

Darren Phillps Project “Project Two” will be released on March 03rd via MR Records.

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