Third Wish

Why had I only found out about Feinstein's work a few months ago? I have a been a long time fan of both Dio's work and Joey Demaio's work (I.E. Manowar, Dio, Rainbow, Sabbath, Elf, etc.). It came as a surprise to find out that Dio had a cousin who was also very much active in the metal community. It was even more of a surprise when I read that they had collaborated on releases in the past. I also had no idea that Feinstein had played with Joey Demaio. I must have been slacking on my metal history lessons. So it should be obvious that I was thinking Feinstein's "Third Wish" would be a combination of the epic, hard rocking songs of Dio and the pounding, fist-in-the-air anthems of Manowar. But what exactly does Feinstein deliver on this project?

First, let us go into the musicians Feinstein invited to perform on this album. Three unknowns fill in for the keys and rhythm section (at least unknown to me, since there are no other bands listed for these guys!). Bob Twining, Jeff Howell and Nate Horton all show an aptitude for their respective instruments, but stay away from being flashy because, well, to put it in layman's terms, this is Feinstein's show. John West, on the other hand, shold be well known to many. His work with Artension and Royal Hunt is mindblowing, in a good way. His range and delivery have never failed to amaze me (listen to Royal Hunt's "The Mission" if you don't know how good this guy can sing). I'll get to how each of the respective instruments and, more importantly, the vocals work on this album a little later in this review.

As I had guessed before listening to this album, the music definitely has the 80's Dio vibe, albeit a little bluesier (if that's a word). So Dio with a slight blues influence, in my opinion, points directly to Black Sabbath, and more to the point, the album "Heaven and Hell". The music is driving and pounding without being overbearing. It also has that bluesy groove to it, in parts. I think the Manowar influence would be a little more prevalent if John West wasn't singing, but, once again, I'll get to that.

The guitars are simply great on this album, tonewise. They have the perfect spot in the mix for this type of metal, right in the front, without washing out the rest of the instruments. Feinstein can definitely play well, and this album is a testament to his ability. His blues influence is definitely apparent, especially in the song structures and the solos. Now, I know what you're thinking, "I want metal, not blues!" But the blues influence isn't prevalent enough to distract from the true meaning of this album: metal! Feinstein rips out some really good solos on this album, nothing mindblowing, but solid nonetheless. I hear some people crying out that Feinstein ripped off Sabbath on a few riffs here and there, and I can definitely hear the influence, especially on "Far Beyond". Although it's not too overbearing and it's not completely blatant, it's definitely similar.

Perhaps, Feinstein could have tried a little harder to make the riffs stand apart from each other, as from the middle to end of the album it just seems like I've heard it all before. If this album is to be a show case of Feinstein's talent, well then it seems he is a more than competant guitar player, but if the focus of this album was to be Feinstein's playing, then I think he should have mixed it up more and added a little more flash.

The bass, well, there's no complaints here, it's loud enough to be heard, and it's not just follow-the-leader that too many bass players do. There's some interesting bass riffs, but once again, nothing mindblowing. As for the drums, well they are pounding, loud and fairly well played. The drummer is not flashy and doesn't distract from the main focus of this album, the guitar work. Some interesting fills and rolls are on here, but nothing distracting. The keys are well played, and fit well into the mix. Once again, not mindblowing and not overbearing. The keys don't seem to be an integral part of the music.

The vocals on the other hand, I feel like they kind of ruin the vibe of this album. John West is a great singer, and he puts on another stellar performance on this release, but I just don't think he is suited to the more traditional style of Feinstein's playing and songwriting. If you would take John West's performance and put it on a prog style album, then it would be great. I think his vocals lend more to the progressive, Dream Theater-esque stylings. Someone with a deeper, gruffer voice would have worked wonders for the overall quality of this album. Metal anthems need a singer suited to anthemic songs. Perhaps Feinstein should have enlisted his cousin on this album, because the music seems so fitted to Dio's work. As much as I hate to rip on John West, it just doesn't work on this album. The most important thing, is that he sang his frickin' heart out, gave a tremendous performance and came up short. I keep thinking about how people railed on Blaze after the two Iron Maiden albums. His vocals were just not suited to the style of music he was singing for.

Lyrically is where Feinstein brings in the Manowarisms. Every song is about leather, metal and motorcycles. Well not exactly every song, but that gives you a good picture of what John West was recruited to sing about on this album.

Let's move on to the ridiculous artwork and photos that make up the rest of the packaging. The cover screams cheesy, synth laden power metal. The back cover is interesting; a hand with black fingernails giving the shocker (one in the stink, anyone?) sits underneath anthemic metal titles. The pictures of Feinstein always give me a good laugh. He looks like Dio with more of a receding hairline. And the complete black leather look? I think he took that biker look a little overboard and comes out looking more than a little silly.

Overall, this is not a terrible album. If you look at the music alone (without the vocals), this is a great album. If you look at the vocals alone, hell what a performance. But both parts do not equal a mindblowing release. Feinstein failed by having a well known, stellar vocalist try to sing along with music he is not suited to singing to. A little bit of Manowar plus a lot of Dio/Sabbath influence equals this bastard child release. Check it out only if you want to complete a Dio-related collection or if you are a die hard John West fan, but this is by no means a necessary release.

Quite possibly the best metal CD of 2004, it didn't leave my car CD player for weeks.

For lovers of the classic metal sound of Dio, Dio-era Sabbath, Rainbow, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Whitesnake and classic Scorpions, you will not only NOT be disappointed, you will be overjoyed as I was.

This album is packed with class. The music is powerful, heavy, intelligent and beautiful. David "Rock" Feinstein is a fine guitar player with a terrific knack at writing catchy, heavy tunes where melody is the key. His style is primarily an older style of hard rock guitar playing, much more akin to Richie Blackmore than Yngwie Malmsteen. He plays for the song, not over and above it. John West, who I had the pleasure of meeting many years ago in New York city, has a rich, thick, clear voice, perfect for the songs on offer here. His range is excellent and his performance is the icing on the cake. The drumming, bass work and keyboards are stellar as well.

Out of the 11 songs on the CD, which include the instrumental "Inferno", it is such a pleasure to have a terribly hard time picking my favorites, because the album is just so strong and complete, but here goes: "Regeneration" is the album opener and it is hard and fast and catchy with John West sounding at times like Klaus Meine, which is a total compliment. "Third Wish" is epic and Sabbath-esque, a totally complete song. "Masquerade" is brilliant, so catchy, so heavy with amazing vocals, and "Poison Ivy" is heavy and bluesy, a truly great song.

The rest of the album is terrific as well with one exception, that being "Ride to Live, Live to Ride", which to me sounded like a filler tune.

Feinstein has created a great album. True metal fans have been waiting for something like this for a long time. "Third Wish" is art. It is powerful and mighty music. I hope the band sticks around for many years creating more wonderful music like this. I wish I could give it six stars.

Last summer as I was rifling through all the marked down used CDs at my local metal store I came across this release. I remember previously having read a review by Craig and how this character David "Rock" Feinstein was none other than the cousin of Ronnie James Dio himself. He had played in Elf with Dio in the 70s. As I flipped through the booklet and gazed at the band photo, I was surprised by the uncanny resemblance to his cousin, the master of the rainbow. Based on this image alone and the metal anthemic song titles, I took a chance on this band.

Essentially, this is classic 80s metal with some very impressive guitar work. If you love the 80s as much as I do, then this is a no brainer. Besides, Mr. Feinstein played with Dio and even Carl Cannedy of the Rods, so you know he is the embodiment of black leather and metal. The vocalist is John West from Artension & Royal Hunt. He is just the right choice for this style of music. He easily emulates Joe Lynn Turner and Dio himself with that familiar Rainbow sound. The rest of the musicians Jeff Howell on bass, Bob Twining on keys, and Nate Horton on drums all present themselves as accomplished artists who echo their classic influences.

Lyrically, the songs resound all things metal. There are no lame tracks on this CD, but the running length of just under an hour may be a bit too much for one to digest. This allows for a few fillers which don't stand out as being too memorable. Some songs sound too similar to Dio's work with Sabbath. "Far beyond" actually borrows the riffs from "Heaven & hell". Too many bands do this, and this just annoys me! Where is the originality? If I want to listen to Sabbath, I listen to Sabbath! The title track is an excellent song, but at 9 minutes, again it becomes slightly dull. Bands of this caliber need to focus on more laconic anthems and infectious songs which echo in our head and remain in our hearts. It's always a blast to recall a Dio song from the 80s, just as it is to sing along with the chorus for any Priest or Accept classic; however, some of the mid-80s Rainbow music borders on being to progressive for my taste. So many bands have blatantly stolen from Rainbow and Ritchie Blackmore slightly altering the lyrics or a few guitar parts, and claiming it as their own. Feinstein only borrow the atmospheric and mystical elements of the progressive 70s bands while remaining true metal. At times they remind me of the earlier works by Axel Rudi Pell and of course Artension. The keyboards are not too prominent and the guitars kick ass, so Feinstein are essentially classic 80s metal.

This being said, should one seek out this release? If you are a die-hard fan of Dio, Sabbath, & Rainbow, then I recommend this. If you are a collector of all things Dio, then by all means add this to your collection. However, if you are trying to watch your spending, anxiously awaiting some of the promising new releases this year, save your money and hope to find this used like I did, thankfully.

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With its rather dodgy name and an album cover that sets metal art work back about 20 years, the prospect of reviewing this disc didn’t have me overly enthused. Most metal folk are rather adept at judging a book (or in this case, a CD) by its cover – it is an extremely important selling point for any metal act. If Feinstein was looking to attract anyone else other than died-in-the-wool Power Metal fans then I don’t think they did themselves any favors. The cover art of ‘Third Wish’ reeks of Euro trad/power metal – if you’re not a fan, there is absolutely nothing here for you. Do not read on any further.

As for this bands name, well I’m sure there have been a few bands that have used their founding members surname as their ‘moniker’- Ronnie James ‘Dio’ is the most obvious. But generally it doesn’t work it and furthermore it smacks of arrogance and conceit. That’s why we have Kreator instead of ‘Petrozza’, Clutch instead of ‘Fallon’. Joacim Cans of Hammerfall recently used the ‘Cans’ surname for his little side-project. David ‘Rock’ Feinstein though it would be a good idea to use his. Like Cans, it was not a good choice. Feinstein as a name for a metal band is about as lame as it gets.

Fortunately for Feinstein, Artwork and band moniker aside, the bands music is just a tad better (and that’s not saying much). However, I warn you again – you must be a massive, can’t get enough trad/power metal fan to fully appreciate Feinstein’s efforts. Quite frankly, this is middle tier power metal at its best – it’s enjoyable and solid enough – but really, only those metal folk who spend 95% of their listening time in the 80’s will revel in ‘Third Wish’.

David Feinstein is obviously the brainchild of this outfit - and as a guitarist, the man can play. Formerly of ‘The Rods’ and before that ‘Elf’ (where he played lead guitar for his cousin - none other than ‘Ronnie James Dio’…aahh, it’s all becoming clearer now), Feinstein has laid down some fairly tasty metal riffs on ‘Third Wish’. Loads of solid hard driving melodic riffs, searing lead work, mid tempo double bass drumming and classic power chords is the order of the day for this album. With a more than generous production (overseen by Manowar’s Joey DeMaio), there is a real 80’s metal vibe that will have you recalling early Priest/Maiden and Dio. Adding to the whole ‘classic metal’ feel is the excellent vocals of ‘John West’ (Artension/Royal Hunt) – his voice is pure 80’s metal that encompasses such influences like Dickinson, Dokken and Savatage’s Jon Oliva.

‘Third Wish’ is an enjoyable metal ride, nostalgic as it may be (and yes, there is nothing wrong with that as long as the music is good). There is no doubt that fans of riff heavy mid paced metal anthems will appreciate this album. However, as it is devoid of anything remotely post-1985, at 59 minutes it definitely overstays its welcome. The first half of this disc is certainly the better half, and not necessarily because it has the better ‘songs’, if you know what I mean. All up, a nice little nostalgic journey back to the 80’s when metal was pure. I actually broke out my copy of ‘Sad Wings of Destiny’ after listening to this. At the very least, ‘Third Wish’ has that kind of effect.