Giant of course is one of those bands that never made it big back in the day and one whose albums are revered by fans. They had a great sound that should really have taken them further, but that of course is a familiar story. Both initial releases – ‘Last of teh Runaways’ and ‘Time To Burn’ though have more than stood the test of time. A third album ‘III’ came over a decade later in 2001 and after an almost as lengthy gap ‘Promise Land’ dropped in 2010 without Dan Huff on vocals, though he did contribute significantly to the writing. And here we are a dozen years more on the clock with only the rhythm-section still with us as well as a new vocalist and a slew of outside writers.
‘Shifting Time’ is a good album, original members Huff and Brignardello are still a formidable rhythm section and Kent Hilli (Perfect Plan) is a great vocalist and John Roth’s (Winger) guitars have a lovely edge but with a team of hired guns joining Kent in the song-writing (Alessandro Del Vecchio, Kristian Fyhr, Pete Alpenborg; with contributions from Jonas Eriksson and Mike Palace) what we end up with is a great Melodic Hard Rock album, but one in which I hear very little ‘Giant’ of old.
How does it stack up sonically to ‘Last of the Runaways’? Well if I’m being honest, it doesn’t – this is still a great listen though and a little harder edged in places than you might expect. There’s great hard rockers like ‘Never Die Young’ and Let Our Love Win’ and some great AOR in ‘Anna Lee’ and ‘I Walk Alone’ and all in all it’s thoroughly enjoyable stuff. Best of all might be the harder ‘Standing Tall’, ballad ‘It’s Not Over’ and the Blues-tinged ‘ Highway Of Love’.
A big a;bum but maybe not a ‘giant’ one.
8/10
Tracklist: Shifting Time | Let Our Love Win | Never Die Young | Don’t Say A Word | My Breath Away | Highway Of Love | It’s Not Over | The Price Of Love | Standing Tall | Anna Lee | Don’t Wanna Lose You | I Walk Alone
Line Up: Kent Hilli – Vocals | John Roth – Guitars | Mike Brignardello – Bass | David Huff – Drums