MICHAEL STAERTOW
Reviewed by Christopher
J. Kelter
Staertow, formerly of the upstate-New York rockers Stag, is now cutting his musical teeth on his own material under his own
moniker as a solo artist. "Oxygen" features eleven tracks that feature mid-tempo rockers. The quality of the eleven tracks on
"Oxygen" are very consistent and feature enough diversity without being too divergent.
Staertow's guitar playing doesn't quite reach shredder heights, but it doesn't need to. "Oxygen" rocks hard enough to please most guitar fanatics as well as though that appreciate song-oriented rock that doesn't sound like 'flavor of the month' processed radio hits. While shredding isn't the raison d'etre on "Oxygen" Staertow does accentuate all of his songs with punchy, energetic solos that recall the better material from the '80s hard rock, pop-rock, and hair-metal efforts. Staertow sprinkles his songs with enough variety to keep the album interesting and displays his musical and technical skills for those willing to pay attention. As a singer Staertow is better than average as his vocals match up with each song's intensity level and emotional balance.
Fans of Ty Tabor/King's X, Nuno Bettencourt/Extreme, and Neal Schon/Journey along with the rock style of Galactic Cowboys, Firehouse, and Danger Danger will appreciate Michael Staertow's "Oxygen." Generally speaking I would bet a good sum of money that Michael Staertow would find success in European rock music markets. I am not one to make suggestions to labels, but Michael Staertow would sound right at home on the Frontiers Records label.
"Oxygen" was produced by Michael Staertow. It's obvious Staertow knows his way around a studio and a recording console as "Oxygen" is fairly crisp sounding.
Michael Staertow is joined by Michael Menza on drums, Rob Mount on drums, Eric Neu on bass, and Michael Amico on bass.
For more information visit http://www.michaelstaertow.com/.
Rating Guide:
A classic. This record will kick your ass.
Killer. Not a classic but it will rock your world.
So-so. You've heard better.
Pretty bad. Might make a nice coaster.
Self explanatory. Just the sight of the
cover makes you wanna hurl.
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Revised: 01 Dec 2019 12:47:22 -0500.
