Hammer readers may remember Jorn Lande for having shared a stage with Glenn Hughes (and, briefly, Phil Anselmo) during Heaven & Hell’s farewell tribute to Ronnie James Dio at the High Voltage Festival in 2010.
Hence the fact that this orchestral collection includes remakes of The Mob Rules by Black Sabbath and Dio (the band’s) Rock’N’Roll Children. In fact, the Norwegian has dabbled in several genres, including power metal, prog and blues rock. Surprisingly, then, save for those odes to RJD, Symphonic focuses upon the singer’s hard rock-based solo endeavours, updating no fewer than six offerings from last year’s cheesily titled current disc Bring Heavy Rock To The Land.
Jorn has an excellent powerhouse voice and his classically enhanced stab at Rock’N’Roll Children weighs in among this album’s highlights, as does a reworking of 2004’s Behind The Clown. But given that chances to collaborate with an orchestra don’t grow on trees, spreading the net wider to include tunes recorded with Masterplan, Ark, The Snakes, Allen-Lande or any number outside collaborations would’ve made things more interesting.
