A strong album that many of you will enjoy listening to.

The name of Pete Ahonen might be familiar to some of you, he is the guitarist and song writer with the excellent melodic metal band Burning Point, who have released some great albums over the years. Pete decided to form the band Stargazery around 2007, when he started writing some songs that just did not fit in with the sound of Burning Point or his other band Ghost Machinery. The reason for not fitting in with his other bands, was that the songs he was writing at the time and which ended up on this album were no less heavy than the ones he was writing for his usual day jobs. It was just that the songs that finally ended up on the Stargazery CD had a more, shall I say, dated style to them, a 70's/80's Rainbow/Sabbath vibe going on if you will, and let me tell you I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff.

Now don't worry that you may have heard this type of thing a 1000 times before, or that it's outlook and sound isn't new or far reaching (which it isn't), just be happy that this is a strong, punchy hard rock album with some great cuts on it. So if you love songs like 'Kill The King', 'Tarot Woman', 'The Mob Rules' or 'Die Young' and miss the kind of classy hard rock that was everywhere 25/30 years ago, then Stragazery might be the band you have been looking for. 'Everytime I Dream Of You', title track 'Eye On The Sky', 'Jester of Kings' and 'How Many Miles' are all very strong rock songs, played and sung with a forceful vigour, and then topped of with the superb guitar work of Pete Ahonen, which makes them that little bit more special. Stargazery won't win any prizes for being original (a word I have used a lot this issue) but again I have said it before and I'll say it again - who cares? The songs on 'Eye On The Sky' are good, the musicianship is top notch, and all in all this is a strong album that many of you will enjoy listening to, nuff said.

Ian Johnson