Album Review — House of Lords

House of Lords — New World — New Eyes

House of Lords are back with their tenth studio album. The band’s roots go all the way back to 70s band Angel. Greg Giuffria left Angel and eventually started Giuffria in 1984. Giuffria released two albums and before the third release they fired their lead singer, brought in James Christian and changed their name to House of Lords. House of Lords released three records and then broke up for ten years.

The band reformed with the original House of Lords lineup in 2004 for one album. In 2005, Christian continued with the band name and all new members which has stayed relatively constant while the band has basically released a record every other year.

For their new record, “New World — New Eyes”, the band brought in some big name songwriters including Mark Spiro and Tommy Denander. So what’s the result…

The album opens with the title track. It’s mostly acoustic to start but after the first verse it’s all big sounding arena rock. House of Lords always had that Whitesnake/Deep Purple kind of sound to them and the opening track is no different.

“One More” is one of my favorite tracks on the record. It features a huge chorus and reminds me of those late 80s/early 90s radio rock hits.

“The Both Of Us” has a similar vibe to “One More” with its catchy chorus and smooth production. You can definitely hear the Spiro songwriting influence on a few of these tracks.

“Chemical Rush” is a little more edge to it. The band still features keyboards as it did with Giuffria in the band, but this album is certainly more guitar centered than I remember their older records.

“We’re All That We Got” is another hook laden track with some excellent guitar work by Jimi Bell.

“Better off Broken” continues the string of melodic treasures. It’s smooth with layered keyboards in the chorus. I don’t recall the last few HOL records being so well constructed and produced.

I’m quite impressed with this record. The songs are well crafted but aren’t cookie cutter. Christian sounds good and does a fine job of staying within the songs. If you like the more melodic, hook laden rock from the late 80s, “New World — New Eyes” will take you back to those times.

90 out of 100

Track Listing

1 New World New Eyes *
2 Change (What’s It Gonna Take)
3 One More *
4 Perfectly (You And I)
5 The Both Of Us *
6 Chemical Rush *
7 We’re All That We Got *
8 Better Off Broken *
9 $5 Buck Of Gasoline
10 The Chase
11 The Summit

*Best Songs