Steelheart: Good 2B Alive

Steelhearts newest release Good 2B Alive is with the first listen... a little disappointing. Especially if you are hoping for hit after hit like with their first 2 releases “Steelheart” from 1990 and “Tangled in Reins” from 1992.


Should I compare Good 2B Alive to an earlier Steelheart release, it would be “Wait” from 1996. Already then, there was a drastic change of the music. This time even more so, and it's a shame that Mike “Miljenko” Matijevic didn't stick to his old style. If you take a look at the band line-up... you'll notice instruments that you'd never think would be featured on a Steelheart album. Some might like this drastic change of style, but unfortunately I think a lot of fans will be disappointed. This time around there's just the singer left from the original Steelheart, which is most likely a big factor in the change of style.


I'm not going to go through the album song by song, but particularly in the acoustic version of the song Good 2B Alive there's a taste of both the “old” and the "new" Steelheart. The song starts off as a slow ballad, then a couple of minutes into it there's a feel of the the 90's, and it's clear that his voice is still in shape. But the way it ends with a gospel choir doesn't belong on a Steelheart cd in my opinion. Several of the other songs like “Underground” and “Buried Unkind” borders to jazz...with trumpets, flutes and violin leads. Some might call this modern rock, since the rock sound and guitar solos are still there. The closest you'll get to the “old” Steelheart here is “Twisted Future” and “Show me how to love”.


Good 2B Alive scores a 6 after countless times of hearing it again and again. Mike “Miljenko” Matijevic's voice pulls the score up, and makes sure that it never gets really bad. But it's some what disappointing that he doesn't take full advantage of his unigue voice, as it's clear that it's still there. He rarely explores the high notes and lets out his almost once trademark long screams. This cd takes more than a few listens before it gets really good, but it's still a reach from being a “real” Steelheart cd. It seems a bit like the Steelheart name is being used more to sell some extra cd's, as it's quite clearly a solo project from Matejevic who wrote all the songs himself.

6/10

Listen to some tracks from Good 2B Alive at the bottom of this site.

STEELHEART


 
 
 
 

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