Despite having released a debut album at the tail-end of the ’80s that has since become a bit of a cult favourite amongst more than a few aficionados of melodically tinged hard rock, for MARCHELLO – the band of guitarist & vocalist Gene Marchello – things turned out with their 2nd disc.
Marchello’s debut gained a reasonable amount of interest in the States thanks to encouraging levels of airplay on MTV for their first video and a fair bit of touring.
But their label, as happened with many bands of the genre when the musical climate began to change, dropped Marchello’s contract.
Then, the follow up album Gene and his band mates (bassist Nick DiMichino, drummer John Miceli and keyboard player Gary Bivona) recorded, remained unreleased for over twenty years.
Now it’s being officially released, entitled “The Magic Comes Alive”.
Gene Marchello recalls that the label opted to bring in a couple of producers to the recording (whose names he cannot remember) in order to complete a project that resulted in more than enough material for an album planned to feature no less than fourteen songs.
The finished record certainly provided evidence that Gene had learnt a great deal from the experience of recording & touring, and thus features vocal performances full in confidence and akin to a cross between the styles of erstwhile Journey vocalist Steve Perry and Danger Danger frontman Ted Poley.
His guitar skills shows a clear development as well, redefining his style influenced by the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Vito Bratta (White Lion) and Yngwie Malmsteen.
The 14 songs in “The Magic Comes Alive” deliver some killer rockin’ tunes ranging from elaborated Melodic Hard Rock to straight American Hair Metal.
We have Van Halen-like rockers as “Boys Night Out”, Hair Metal anthems in “The Power Of Money” and “Rock Me” or awesome AOR rockers such as the Journey influenced “Every Man’s Lover” and “Wall Of Paper”.
Furthermore the album contains a cool cover version of “I Feel Good” from the King Of Soul James Brown arranged in a hard rockin’ way.
So in this lost album you get everything ‘people like us’ liked to hear back at the end of the ’80s / earlier ’90s, with very good production and sound.
Following hot on the heels of the recently released Roq Royale album, the AOR Heaven Classix series get continued with the never released second Marchello album, entitled “The Magic Comes Alive”.
The recording has been digitally remastered by Chris Lyne (Soul Doctor), contains extensive liner notes & photos, and it’s strictly limited to 1000 copies.
Another previously unreleased gem at the AOR Heaven Classix series.
Highly Recommended.
01 – The Magic Comes Alive
02 – Boys Night Out
03 – Every Man’s Lover
04 – Wall Of Paper
05 – The Power Of Money
06 – Rock Me
07 – All God’s Angels
08 – Good Good Girls
09 – Sleazy Street
10 – Euphoria
11 – Dancers
12 – Riot
13 – I Feel Good
14 – Spitting Image
Gene Marchello – guitars, lead and backing vocals
Nick DiMichino – bass, backing vocals
Gary Bivona – keyboards, backing vocals
John Miceli – drums, percussion