Band:	Grand Lux
Album:	Carved In Stone
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	January 2007

01. 1000 Paper Cranes
02. Fallen Angel
03. Escaping The Clouds
04. Eye Of The Storm
05. Through Dirt
06. Like Hail From Blue Sky
07. Love Reflection
08. Never Fall
09. Eternity In Fire
10. Rainbow's End

Grand Lux started its career in 1999 and this new combo from Norway released a first album "Iron Fist" in 2005. But even if it's a new band, they chose to play an old school music, a good old Hard Rock in the vein of White Snake, AC/DC and all those masters of the 70s and 80s. "Carved In Stone" is a nice album of Hard Rock, maybe a bit unequal but pleasant nonetheless.

For a second album, one cannot say that Grand Lux failed. "Carved In Stone" is a good album, full of catchy songs with a cool old school Hard Rock spirit. Though, the album is not so linear and the band found the way to give an old school touch to its music with however some modern sounds. As an example, "Escaping The Clouds" is a bit similar to the music of Mr Jorn Lande (with his solo albums), with however a totally different vocalist. It's not bad at all, and believe me when you'll listen to this album, you'll don't have a bad feeling that you can have with something which is clearly "too long".

On the other hand, and it's not a real super problem, the album goes a bit in a dozen of directions. Of course all the songs are Hard Rock, but some are really bluesy ("Through Dirt") when some others are classic, and some last ones are really modern and clearly influenced by Heavy Metal. It's varied so it's good, but sometime the difference between the songs is so big that it is a bit hard to follow the principal direction of the album.

"Carved In Stone" is a good album of Hard Rock. Full of energy, this release was made for the fans of old school music and I'm sure that these fans will like the music of this really good band from Norway. "Carved In Stone" is maybe a bit messy in its structure but it's not really problematic and with time, I'm sure that the band will be able to release a lot of other good albums. No, the Hard Rock is not dead yet, and "Carved In Stone" is one new living proofs.