IAN PARRY has graced many bands / albums all over his career and now celebrates his four decades as a professional singer & songwriter with the re-release of his solo record ”Visions”, remastered 2022 and including a bonus track.
Originally released via Escape Music in 2006 ”Visions” features a multitude of musical friends – including members of Within Temptation, Queensryche, Kamelot, Elegy & many more – helping out Parry to craft a really catchy album combining elements from AOR, melodic hard rock and progressive into a strong and captivating creation.
Parry’s passionate vocals are excellent, the choruses are strong, and the tunes are precise – good from start to finish. All well written, excellently performed, and the multitude of guest musicians on instruments as well on vocals add just the right amount of variation for such a production.
Parry always has been open to co-write with other artists, such as guitarist Stephan Lill for the largely acoustic ballad “(For) Another Day” which features a melodic chorus; the straight-up rocker “Fallin'”, with a cool sing-along part; and the hard rock-styled “Smiley People” whose Journey-like arrangement is great. Lill also plays leads on several tunes, of which the Middle Eastern-flavored “Lovin’ A Stranger” stands out the most.
Joshua Dutrieux plays all keys and piano on the album, but he also switches to guitar on the hard rocking piece “Anything So Easy”. Other than that, the entirely piano-based ballad “No Mans Land” was composed by him with Parry adding the lyrics and vocal melodies.
Speaking of Parry, his instantly recognizable vibrato permeates all the tunes, particularly the opening track “Innocent Minds”, by far the best track on the album. Parry duets with a female singer (Judith Rijnveld) throughout the verses, but belts out his trademark plotn08 screams during the crunch-filled choruses.
The album’s oddball piece has to be “Slip Away”. A tune composed by Parry alone, it has a rather modern vibe to it, with odd electronic elements surrounding a great bass groove and acoustic guitars.
The bonus track titled “How Far Will You Go” is another classic Ian Parry tune with lots of arena rock guitars and swirls of keyboard work.
The production of ”Visions” was handled by the great sound master Markus Teske, mostly known for his work with Symphony X and Vanden Plas among others, and its benefited by this modern day remastering job where everything sounds crisp.
01 - Innocent Minds
02 - Anything so Easily
03 - Fools Don't Cry
04 - Angels
05 - (For) Another Day
06 - Fallin'
07 - Smiley People
08 - Slip Away
09 - Lovin' a Stranger
10 - No Mans Land
11 - Visions
12 - How Far Will You Go (Bonus Track)
Ian Parry – Visions (2022 Remaster+1 bonus), MP3+FLAC
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