Stephen It's ironic and extremely sad to see a great guitarist created an awesome album that can match his peak in the 80s and just passed away in the same year. Heart go to Steve Harris and his family for this catastrophic loss but on a positive note, SHY brought a fruitful record with newly-joined singer, Lee Small, to replace the iconic screamer, Tony Mills, who went to their competitor, TNT.

'Land of A Thousand Lies' is an incredible start. After a long intro, the track blasted into a monstrous melodic hard rock tune, the chorus is utterly mindblowing. SHY combined the classic style with heavy metal, and you can check those tracks like 'So Many Tears' or 'Pray', the merge is obvious there, and both are fantastic tunes, especially 'Pray'. Lee Small caught me by surprise with a superb singing technique, and at some point, I slightly prefer him over Mills because there's a point that you grow tired with the glass-breaking shrilling shout of Mills.

But they also crawl back to their AOR roots, 'Only For The Night' and 'Over You', for instance, are flawless 10/10 quality type of songs. The uptempo 'Live For Me' reminds me to JOURNEY's classic, 'Separate Ways' while 'Ran Out of Time' and 'Save Me' aren't as good as those three, but still a winner in my book.

However, there's a volatility in songwriting and I spot some weakness in at least four tracks. 'Breathe' is a predictable ballad, if not generic. 'Blood On The Line' isn't really interesting, 'Sanctuary' is actually pretty good but too long, and 'Union of Souls' is the weakest link. And the production isn't great, you've heard lots of other albums that beat this sound.

SHY, despite of some acceptable minus, has accomplished a difficult mission to offer an outstanding album for this great year of 2011. I rated it 85% and placed it at #12 in my final list. A solid record and a legacy of Harris to be remembered!

Time Signature Blood on the line...

Genre: melodic metal

The latest effort by British hard rock veterans Shy - simply entitled "Shy" - is one massive effort and an instant melodic metal classic.

With emphasis on melody and AOR sensibility, the album is incredibly catchy and will definitely have mass appeal within and outside of the metal community because of its combination of melodic rock and heavy metal. In addition to the super catchy choruses and vocal lines in general, most tunes are built on chucking metal riffs, and the guitar sound is quite heavy in general.

Speaking of guitars, guitarist Steve Harris (nope, it's another Steve Harris) does an amazing job in terms of both rhythm and lead guitar. The rhythm guitars are rock solid and precise, while the blazing guitar solos are both characterized by feel and technical proficiency.

As the first track, 'Land of A thousand Lines' with its massive sound and Eastern influences indicates, this album takes hard rock to a new level in terms of big an epic sounds (as the keyboards do have a central role on the album), but still the hard rock identity remains central. The opening track is probably my favorite, but it is closely followed by tracks like "Pray", "Sanctuary", and "Union of Souls". Even an über-cheesy ballad like "Breathe" is actually very enjoyable to my ears.

This release is a brilliant, epic hard rock release, which combined metal heaviness and AOR mass appeal. Recommended to fans of melodic metal and hard rocking AOR!