Search - Santers :: Cold Fusion: Best of Santers

Great Melodic Metal With Some Killer Guitar...

"The Woj" | Downers Grove, IL | 07/20/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I had read about Santers from the long out of print, bible of metal, Martin Popoff's "Collector's Guider To Heavy Metal". The band's individual cd albums are almost impossible to find, so I picked up "Cold Fusion" here on Amazon's zShops. Wow, what a great compilation album! The music here rocks in a "melodic" heavy metal vain similar to bands like Y&T, Vandenberg and even a touch of Sammy Hagar era Van Halen. Santers' melodies & song structures also brought to mind songs like Journey's "Wheel In The Sky" (I know, I know....but "Wheel In The Sky" is/was arguably one of the heaviest songs ie closest thing to hard rock/metal Journey ever produced). Last but not least is the lead guitar playing of Rick Santers. While the songs would technically be considered "melodic heavy metal", the guitar work is just flat-out metal with a bit of a NWOBHM edge. Rick Santers' guitar playing is very similar to Dave Meniketti's playing with Y&T (albums like "Mean Streak" & "Black Tiger") with a little bit of the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent, thrown in on the more rocking tracks. I also hear a tinge of fellow Canucks Pat Traver, Randy Bachman & Kim Mitchell too. Extra-tasty guitar licks indeed and not just a boring shredfest.

I purchased this album with a deaf ear to any of Santers music, I know find myself searching out those hard to find individual releases. If you're a fan of any of the bands mentioned above, or just a fan of metal, period...I strongly recommend checking this cd out."