Naked butts and monoliths
Moonstone Project is the brain child of Italian guitarist Matt Filippini and he's gathered together quite an impressive list of musicians to accompany him on 'Time To Take A Stand'; Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice and former Purple and Sabbath vocalist Glenn Hughes line up alongside Steve Walsh, Graham Bonnet, Kelly Keeling, James Christian, Eric Bloom, Paul Shortino and Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice. Something of a supergroup in the making that suggests this could be a pretty special album!
What you get is a blues tinged hard rock album that is just crammed full of impressive musicianship at every turn. The overall sound is reminiscent of much of the earlier work of many of the assembled guest artists, very much in the vein of Deep Purple, early Whitesnake with the odd Rainbow style chorus. Opening track 'Slave of time' kicks off with some slide guitar before breaking into a classic hard rock riff over which ex-Michael Schenker and Dokken vocalist Kelly Keeling delivers powerful vocals. As you'd expect it's heavy and melodic with a good rolling riff, catchy chorus and impressive guitar. The guitar work however is totally eclipsed by the solos on 'Not Dead Yet', which mid way through the song just explode into life!
With so many guest musicians with differing styles and qualities there is always the danger that the finished product will not blend together but Filippini appears to have got it just right. The change of vocalist is certainly noticeable but none of them are too removed in style from the preceding contributor for it to make a real difference. Some of the songs are a little weak and disappointingly Glenn Hughes first appearance on 'Rose In Hell' is one of them, it just doesn't flow as well as the earlier tracks despite the fact that it's the first time Hughes and Paice have recorded together for over thirty years!
There is a decent mix of tempos that provide welcome variety but whilst the material is strong there are no real stand out tracks, which is disappointing and prevents the album progressing from good to great status. Final track 'On the Way to Moonstone' comes close though with the chorus and instrumental parts combining well to provide a fitting ending to the album. That said, in a time where many bands are striving to explore the extremities of any given genre (often to the detriment of the music), it's refreshing to get back to hard rock basics that give everyone involved the chance to really shine and prove that they are masters of their craft. Admittedly the lyrics are rather throwaway standard rock fare but when the tunes are this solid they really are an after thought and don't detract from the overall impression.