The big turmoil that is going on between bands as Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and Rainbow features a lot of names. One of them is Joe Lynn Turner who even made a record with full time Ritchie Blackmore impersonator Yngwie Malmsteen (`Odyssey` which is YM`s best ever). Turner also recorded with the likes of Billy Joel, John Waite and Cher, to name a few, but also kept releasing solo albums and this one, `Slam` is a beautiful piece of work. It`s no surprise that this is in the Deep Purple/ Rainbow style but he very well knows what he`s doing and shows good songwriting skills. The Blackmore part on this album is Japan`s Akira Kajiyama and he definately makes a good impression on me, he plays with a lot of inspiration and feeling.

With the Hammond organ roaring, the powerful vocals soaring this `Slam` simply is a high quality old fashioned Rock album. Of course Turner knows his way with ballads as well, and it is in these songs that I`m reminded of the Deep Purple album `Slaves And Masters`, which is one of the very best since the reanimation. The prospect of Glenn Hughes recording an album with Joe Lynn Turner sounds very promising, next year will see the release of this project. While Blackmore is out (permanently?) of the Rock picture, his former proteges are rocking on, better than ever. I would like to see these guys on a stage over here to see if they also can impress me the same way.