Lana Lane United States

"Lana Lane (and her husband and producer Erik Norlander) has the ability to create sophisticated music that takes its starting point in hard rock, but adds a progressive and artistic touch. Some of her releases are symphonic while others are more progressive.

This is a smooth blend of melodic metal, hard rock and AOR wrapped in a velvety cloth of progressive metal. While not technically complex or quirky, or even challenging to listen to - like a lot of progressive metal is - the album still avoids the straight jacket of conventional popular rock music, which is reflected in the the considerably long song length (only 'Hotels' is shorter than four minutes, while the majority of tracks on the album are between five and six minutes of length with 'A Dream Full of Fire' and 'In Exile' clocking in at 8 minutes and eleven minutes respectively. Moreover, the album is permeated by both the sophistication and sounds of 80s progressive pop/rock plus several there is an overall sense lushness that characterizes this album, achieved through guitar harmonies, synths, choirs, acoustic guitars, the use of floor bass as well as mellow, often exotic sounding, passages and breakdowns.

In essence a hybrid of 80s progressive rock and melodic metal and hard rock "El Dorado Hotel" contains plenty of heavy and hard rocking parts, but there is also a ubiquitous feel of 80s pop and AOR, so it might not appeal to all metal heads. Generally, I think this is a very interesting and enjoyable listen which is easy to the ears. One thing that annoys me endlessly is the use of vocoder effect in "Believe"and "Moongod" (and it annoys me because it is associated with present day tasteless pop music) - but apart from that, they not bad track tracks.

Fans of 80s art rock and 80s prog rock as well as fans of more accessible progressive metal and hard rock should check this sophisticated release out.

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"