A few days ago we featured the self-titled debut album from Germans MYDRA remastered / reissued by Yesterrock, a very fine slice of European melodic hard rock / AOR with some pomp-rock on it. But MYDRA recorded a second album in 1990, which due some internal band troubles never got released.
Fast forward 2002 and the then new record label AOR Heaven finally put out “Mydra II” (one of AOR Heaven first releases, in fact their second) remastered from the master tapes. “Mydra II” is a finished product, perfectly recorded & mixed with a crisp production sound.
After their first album Mydra was looking for a more straight hard rockin’ sound, and the songwriting tightened in favor to sharper riffs and groove in the late ’80s German style, similar to Mennen, the harder side of Bonfire, Karo, but also 1987 Whitesnake (listen ‘Dirty Love), Hurricane, etc.
For the new material Mydra enlisted English lead vocalist Keith Ellis (ex Leader, Lone Age), a singer with a traditional hard rock / metal voice, providing the songs the necessary energy.
“Mydra II” is a punchy melodic rocking album with that early ’90s production style, groovy, crunchy at times, always melodic and still with keyboard stabs on some AORish tunes.
The melodic hard rock feel of the band’s early era is still present – check out the awesome AORish midtempo “Jealous Eyes” with some Le Mans on it. That lovely keyboards also appear on the catchy ‘Cry No More’.
‘Took A Long Time’ rocks hard, then ‘Money Honey’ should be one of the more ‘Americanized’ melodic rockers on the album, followed with the punchy trach hard rocker ‘Madhouse’. There’s a solid power ballad on ‘Blind Love’ (reminds me of Phenomena).
‘Motorcycle Maniac’ makes justice to its title with its frantic rhythms, and the band ends the album in similar fashion with the energetic ‘Dangerous Attraction’, but this time adding a classic Purple feel including Hammond organ.
Many of you never heard “Mydra II”, and you’ll be surprised by its quality. These songs rock hard, balanced by midpaced melodic hard / AORish numbers, plenty of vitality.
Highly Recommended
01. Fire
02. Dirty Love
03. Jealous Eyes
04. Cry No More
05. Took A long Time
06. Money Honey
07. Madhouse
08. Blind Love
09. Wild Show
10. Action
11. Motorcycle Maniac
12. Dangerous Attraction
Bernie Fintzen - keyboards, vocals
Keith Ellis - vocals
Alec Stephen - guitar
Jan-S. Eckert - bass, vocals
Andreas Feldhahn - drums
Mydra – II (1989), MP3+FLAC [AOR Heaven release]
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