Band:	Ken Hensley
Album:	Blood On The Highway: The Ken Hensley Story
Style:	Adult Oriented rock, Progressive rock
Release date:	2007
A review by:	Jeff

01. (This Is) Just The Beginning
02. We're On Our Way
03. Blood On The Highway
04. You've Got It (the American Dream)
05. Doom (Scene 1)
06. It Won't Last
07. Think Twice
08. Doom (Scene 2)
09. There Comes A Time
10. Okay (This House Is Down)
11. What You Gonna Do
12. Postscript
13. I Did It All
14. The Last Dance

I'm sure that everybody here knows Mr Ken Hensley. If not, then you'll have to know that Ken is just the legendary keyboardist of the legendary Uriah Heep. But Ken Hensley likes to release solo album and "Blood On The Highway" is his new release. With a ton of incredible guests, "Blood On The Highway" is on a side a sweet album of AOR Rock music but I think that it will be too sweet for some of you too maybe?

Jorn Lande, Glen Hugues, John Lawton? Well, yeah when Ken Hensley wants to have the best singers of the best singers on one of his albums, it's probably not so hard for him to get them! "Blood On The Highway" is composed of a lot of super guests (just have a look on the line up and you'll understand what I mean) and the album is a bit like an Ayreon, with its alternation of singers and of course "characters". It's some good old Rock music with a nice story but on the other hand, don't except anything Metal here, it's just soft rock and well, sometime I think that the release just lacks a bit of energy.

That's the problem of "Blood On The Highway", this album sounds a bit like a Pop album (not a pop rock album). I mean that some of the songs aren't so different than the ones that you can hear every day on the really big and commercial radios. The performances of the musicians are great, especially Jorn Lande but even if it's pleasant to listen to it damn sometime it can become quickly boring and too soft for me. Despite a great production, "Blood On The Highway" clearly lacks of intensity and that's a bit sad.

"Blood On The Highway" is not a bad album but if you're looking for something really "rock n roll", you'll have to go away. The songs aren't bad but I was expecting something a bit more heavy. Don't misunderstand me, I wouldn't listen to Heavy Metal or something powerful, I wanted Hard Rock and unfortunately "Blood On The Highway" is a bit too weak for me. If you're a pure fan of Ken Hensley and like soft music, you must check this release but if you're looking for good old hard rock maybe that you'll be disappointed. It will really depend of your musical tastes this time?