Band:	Tim "Ripper" Owens
Album:	Play My Game
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	May 15, 2009
A review by:	Jeff

01. Starting Over
02. Believe
03. The Cover Up
04. Pick Yourself Up
05. It Is Me
06. No Good Goodbyes
07. To Live Again
08. The World Is Blind
09. The Light
10. Play My Game
11. Death Race
12. The Shadows Are Alive
13. A Challenge [Exclusive iTunes bonus]

Take a well known (and good) singer, add a legion of famous guests, mix it all, shake it all and you get the first solo album of Mr Tim Owens, "Play My Game". No need to introduce the music featured on this release, this is Heavy Metal as you can guess but even if I like Owens in general, I don't know why, his first album didn't convince me? it's lack of variety and energy maybe? weird?

The more I listen to "Play My Game", the more I don't understand what's happening here. Maybe that Tim Owens was not really well inspired this time, I don't know. If his performance is good one more time, the songs features on the album clearly lack of something. They're melodic, heavy etc but even if the melodies can be ok, they're just too slow and not really entertaining. It's good Heavy (with some Hard Rock influences), the guitars soli, as you can imagine, are impressive but it's not catchy and really redundant in the end. Surprisingly "Play My Game" cannot be categorized as a bad album but this is not something that I will listen to again and again in reason of its big lack of hits!

Of course Tim Owens is a great singer and his performance on the album proves it one more time. No need to talk about the other guys (Jeff Loomis, Doug Aldrich, David Ellefson or Vinny Appice among many others) who are all solid as steel. The melodic and rhythmic parts of the album are perfect; we don't really have any problems with the musicians but with the songs which are just tedious and boring in the end. And no need to talk about the cover artwork which is one of the worst that I ever seen. This is not something which should convince the potential buyers when they will have to take the final decision? you see what I mean? Just have a look at it and you'll understand?

"Play My Game" is the living proof that the fact to put the best musicians together on an album will never means "perfection" if the songs are not good! Oki, "Play My Game" is not terrible but the writings are not amazing and unfortunately, 80% of the album is boring in the end. Too bad, I was expecting a lot more from Tim Owens, but on the other hand, a great artist like him should find a way to react positively in the future. Let's hope that it was just a mistake then...