by Martin Popoff
Di'Anno - Nomad
(Perris)In a move that has pleased a few critics so far, Di'Anno combines the aggro rock of his lost years with the East London yobbo pub power metal of his slightly less lost years. It makes sense for the man, Di'Anno working on parallel with Dickinson in that he's found a bunch of youngbloods to fulfill his vision. Or theirs, given that all the music is by Brazillian guitarist Paulo Turin. In fact Nomad is a fairly good vehicle for Di'Anno's increasingly unbridled, free, surprisingly versatile and very often locked-on vocal er, stylings. The sum total sounds like the Halford album rough all over, less hooks, more army, more navy, every song kind of meaner, inscrutable, unshowy, over which Di'Anno belts out well-reasoned protests to the various injustices he's seen in his many years traveling the world (hence the title Nomad). It all sounds sort of dodgy (those English terms just seem to flow when you're talking about a jolly Cockney like Paul), well-meaning, beer-goggled and somewhat comfy/homey to the man's public, we metal folks forever indebted to Di'Anno for showing up at the grandfatherly age of 16 for those fateful Iron Maiden auditions back in November '78.
Rating 7.5