Surveillance – Angelstation (2006)

There are certain singers that stick to the point of singing in various bands/projects, in no way willing to form a permanent act (or not capable of, anyway…) for a long time and perform only via this one. To the point: count the bands/albums Graham Bonnet, Joe Lynn Turner, Jeff Scott Soto, Tony Martin, Glenn Hughes etc have been involved in. I think Lee Small will be an ‘anticipated’ addition to the list in the near future.

This Wolverhampton, UK hard rockin’ act features some good names of the current scene. Lee Small – first of all – was a member of UK Hard Rock band Pride while I think he has already worked with Glenn Hughes and Tony Martin. As for Paul Hodson (can’t ‘estimate’ if he’s a full member; I suppose not…), he’s known for his works with Bob Catley and Hard Rain (Hard Rain’s background singer Sue McCloskey contributes vocals to Surveillance’s album, by the way) while axeman Connor Emms and drummer Daz Wootton did some stuff with Headspeed in the past.
Angelstation is the band’s debut effort. In brief: Lee Small’s voice – a singer clearly influenced by the dynamics of Glenn Hughes – is very remarkable, relatively to the music style he focuses on. The rest of the team is also on a fine level. Hence, the ‘base’ for a good album is set. And… that’s it. A set of songs that draw no extreme attention to the ears of the listener is the summary. Hey, not a single tune is bad. Not even boring, I’d comment. But – on the other hand – no song did turn my hearing ‘system’ on. Predictable European Hard Rock music – glad to see it’s set ‘away’ enough from the Frontiers standards we’ve been fed up with lately – that will apply only to diehard ‘melodic’ hard rockin’ fans.

In Motion
Burning
Reflections
Middleman
The Primitive Soul
Messiah
Mary (Awaken Part One)
The Holy
The Ghost In You
Awaken (Part Two)
Truth

Lee Small – Vocals
Connor Emms – Guitars
Jon Hayward – Bass
Daz Wooytton – Drums
Paul Hodson – Keyboards

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