The Answer

I went to the recent Whitesnake concert ( also in this issue of the magazine) and The Answer were the support band.

The band were so good I decided to split the review.

The Answer are an Irish band who play some extremely good hard rock music. The music has progenitors in the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC and Deep Purple. I previously saw the band supporting Thunder and they were good. In a short space of time, they've became awesome live! The band are Cormac Neeson on vocals, Micky Waters on bass, James Heatley on drums and Paul Mahon on guitar.

Neeson , apart from one of the best long hair styles I've seen on a lead singer in a few years, has a supremely good, powerful voice. He moves around stage like an epileptic Robert Plant (yes, his vocals are that good).

The drummer, James Heatley lays down a barrage of sound without being either flashy or too intrusive with regard to the power riffs.

Paul Mahon on lead is a versatile guitarist with some lovely lead breaks bringing back memories when rock was king. Nice bottleneck was evident on the blues songs like Memphis Water and, my personal favourite, Preaching.

The band were extremely tight on all the songs.

A frenetic "under the sky" launched the set and went onward and upward from then on.

This is a band that has faith in their own abilites and it shows in the ease as they launch through their reportoire.

The songs were all taken from their debut album.

After the concert , I bought the CD. If you like classic rock with a hard edge to it, I recommend this.

This album does not sound like a debut, it is that polished. Power riffs with a gravel edged voice effortlessly powering over the sound and a nice mix combine to make this a must in the car stereo.

You can also download some free live tracks of the band on their website to give an idea of what I'm going on about. The site also features a player with tracks past and present and different mixes of some of the songs on the album.

Be prepared to hear more of this band soon.