Michele Luppi`s Heaven
Strive

September 2005
Released: 2005, Scarlet Records/Sound Pollution
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

Michele Luppi’s Heaven is a melodic hardrock act led by Michele Luppi from Italy. Michele’s is also a member of Vision Divine; this is his first solo effort.



Michele has put the main focus on lead vocals and keyboards, and beneath it all lay some really melodic guitar play done by different guest guitarists. I can hear musical similarities with bands like Journey, Mr. Big, Europe and even the early Bon Jovi albums.



Michele’s album features numerous guests, but the only one I am familiar with is Alex de Rosso (Dokken, Headrush, Shadows Fade) - lead guitar on one track. Some other guest stars: Oleg Smirnoff – keyboards and Olaf Thorsen – lead guitar on one track from Vision Divine and Maurizio Solieri – lead guitar on one track, he’s from Vasco Rossi.



This album was conveniently recorded in Michele’s own studio MiLu’s Rocklab, and naturally, he produced the album by himself as well. He has also absolutely done a great job—it sounds just like a melodic hardrock production should, and nothing else. In addition to production, Michele did all vocals; he also plays keyboard, and is the sole songwriter.



Out of 10 tracks, five are up-tempo ballads. The melodic hardrock tunes are called “Trust”, “Feel Alive”, “Stars” and “Time for love”—these are my favourite songs, by the way. “If you walk away”, “Always remember you”, “Tell me all about it”, “Wasting my time” and “The castle inside my head” are the up-tempo/straight ballads. As most of the titles reveal, most of the lyrics are about my least favourite subject: love. Despite the boring love themes, the material is quite good. He has some very competent musicians on this album, and he takes the songs with another level with his brilliant vocals. (Although, the album would have been much better if Michele had narrowed down the ballads.)



If you are into bands like Mr. Big, Journey, old Bon Jovi, and the later Europe albums, you are going to like this a lot.



Labels: http://www.scarletrecords.it and http://www.soundpollution.se