{"id":16029,"date":"2013-11-01T00:00:03","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T00:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=16029"},"modified":"2014-01-02T21:29:25","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T21:29:25","slug":"album-review-seventh-key-i-will-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-seventh-key-i-will-survive\/","title":{"rendered":"SEVENTH KEY – I Will Survive (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEVENTH KEY
I Will Survive<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nFrontiers (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Seventh Key is the side project of longtime Kansas bassist Billy Greer and his former Streets bandmate and guitarist Mike Slamer (ex-City Boy and Steelhouse Lande). They released their debut album in 2001 and returned in 2004 to release a live album \/ DVD. For their second proper album, I Will Survive<\/em>, they are joined by drummer Chet Wynd as well as special guest appearances by Kansas violinist David Ragsdale and keyboardist David Manion.<\/p>\n

I Will Survive<\/em> takes on a significantly more progressive approach on top of its melodic, pristine production. It actually reminds me a great deal of Greer\u2019s early work with Kansas, specifically the Power<\/em> album (1986), as well as the Kansas side project Native Window (only significantly more rockin\u2019 in an overall sense). <\/p>\n

I Will Survive<\/em> is an excellent blend of big, anthemic AOR and melodic progressive rock. Both of these things are best summed up with \u2018The Only One\u2019. For me the song has the spirit of mid-to-late-era, Phil Collins-led, Genesis. Sure, it\u2019s a pop song and, yes, it definitely fits an AOR mold, but it\u2019s also not a song you just go home and pick up a guitar and start strumming. It\u2019s pristine but also complex and that is a true rarity today. \u2018I See You There\u2019 is a bit more anthemic than \u2018The Only One\u2019, but its progressive underpinnings make it one of the album\u2019s most fascinating moments. It has an almost The Police-like quality to it with its haunting vocals, yet it\u2019s much more of a guitar rocker than any song by The Police. <\/p>\n

The title track and \u2018I Want It All\u2019, representing each of the album\u2019s bookends respectively, are excellent examples of the album\u2019s progressive side. Both have a very melodic sense about them but they also have a groove that Toto and Asia fans will certainly appreciate\u2026 maybe even love. \u2018Down\u2019 is similar in many ways, but the band get a little dirtier with the guitars and a whole lot bluesier with the vocals. Meanwhile, \u2018I See You There\u2019 is, at its heart, a power ballad but it maintains enough musical integrity that it\u2019s easy to shy away from calling it such. It\u2019s big, full keyboards and vocal harmonies make the chorus a borderline rocker and the band throw in a rippin\u2019 guitar solo to ensure that you can\u2019t call it the ever one-dimensional \u201cballad\u201d.<\/p>\n

Overall, this album was a welcome surprise for me. I love Greer\u2019s work in Kansas and I wasn\u2019t expecting something so in line with that feel. Greer and Slamer nail it here though. I would say that Seventh Key\u2019s I Will Survive<\/em> is an excellent bridge between the Native Window self-titled album (2009) and Kansas\u2019 late 80s albums. While this album has the occasional misstep, this is really excellent if you are a fan of any of the bands mentioned in the review. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEVENTH KEY I Will Survive Frontiers (2013)Rating: 9\/10 Seventh Key is the side project of longtime Kansas bassist Billy Greer and his former Streets bandmate and guitarist Mike Slamer (ex-City Boy and Steelhouse Lande). They released their debut album in 2001 and returned in 2004 to release a live album \/ DVD. For their second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,862],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-seventh-key"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16029"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16032,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16029\/revisions\/16032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}