Band:	Axel Rudi Pell
Album:	Diamonds Unlocked
Style:	Heavy metal, Power metal
Release date:	October 01, 2007
A review by:	Jeff

01. The Diamond Overture
02. Warrior [Riot cover]
03. Beautiful Day [U2 cover]
04. Stone [Chris Rea/The Law cover]
05. Love Gun [Kiss cover]
06. Fools Game [Michael Bolton cover]
07. Heartbreaker [Free cover]
08. Rock The Nation [Montrose cover]
09. In The Air Tonight [Phil Collins cover]
10. Like A Child Again [The Mission cover]
11. Won´t Get Fooled Again [The Who cover]

If there is a guy in Germany who is extremely respected in reaseon of his ability to never disappoints us, that's certainly Mr Axel Rudi Pell. For over 25 years, the great guitarist released a lot of albums and they all got good reviews, which means (of course) that this guy is a great musicians and a great compositor. But today, we will not talk about a new original album but about his new project, "Diamonds Unlocked" which is a compilation of cover songs. Let me tell you something, first one more time you'll not be disappointed but it's also really nice to listen to the Metal versions of those really eclectics songs? Axel Rudi Pell rocks no doubt?

When I saw the CD for the first time I was really enthusiast. I mean that it's not so common to see a Metal band which chooses to cover such varied songs. Only some few guys have the balls to do it and Axel Rudi Pell did it only for you! From U2 to Free, The Who and even Phil Collins and Chris Rea (!!!) Axel Rudi Pell, Johnny Gioeli, Volker Krawczak, Ferdy Doernberg and the mighty Mike Terrana covered eleven songs which a lot of class. These new versions are simply excellent with a lot of new things (especially amazing guitars soli of course) and the performance of the guys (especially the singer Johnny Gioeli with his amazing voice) is simply perfect. That's funny but when you know the original "Beautiful Day" and listen to the Axel Rudi Pell's version that's simply? better. And that's the same for the majority of the songs except maybe "Heartbreaker" and "Won´t Get Fooled Again" which are anyway "untouchable" masterpieces. But all in all, this is a really pleasant album and even if these covers are not so different musically speaking, the little additions and the power (in the rhythm, tempo and of course through some real metal riffs) that the German gave to them is just excellent. If you want to see that it's possible to do Metal with ALL the songs you just have to ask to Axel Rudi Pell to arrange and cover it and you'll see that nothing is impossible!

"Diamonds Unlocked" doesn't suffer of any big problem. The cover is cool, the production is perfect, and the musicians are great. It's not ass-licking trust me, I saw them live already and they're all real killers which plays music with a lot of ability and with a great musician skill (and by the way I would like to add that I really like the fact that Axel Rudi Pell never acts like a star, he is just a musician among the other members and that's classy). If you like cover songs and like Axel Rudi Pell previous albums this is a must.

Woaw, we cannot say that this release will give you a lot of surprises because after all you probably already know all the songs featured on this CD but damn, that's cool to listen to those Metal versions. It's fresh and extremely fun to listen to such covers and I really hope that, like me, you'll like a lot to listen to this album. "Diamonds Unlocked" is a really nice break in the musical discography of Axel Rudi Pell but and I will congratulate the maestro one more time to have the balls to cover such songs. With "Diamonds Unlocked" NO, you won't get fooled again?