Mad Hatter

Bonham: Daniel MacMaster (vocals); Ian Hatton (guitar); John Smithson (violin, keyboards, bass, background vocals); Jason Bonham (drums).

Producers: Tony Platt, Bonham, Ron Saint Germain, Duane Baron.
Engineers: Ron Saint Germain, David Thoener.
Recorded at Advision Studios, Brighton, Sussex.
It would be near impossible to listen to this album without at least a passing knowledge of Led Zeppelin, the band that Jason Bonham's father played drums for throughout the '70s. Now that Bonham has his own band, he tries to capitalize on the sound that his father's perfected. This works both for and against him. In certain cases, such as the epic "Change of a Season," he proves that he has learned a lot about song structure and strong hooks from his pedigree. Bonham can sustain a long, atmospheric rock with a sense of dynamics, but on other tracks, like the hard rocking "Backdoor," he proves that he has not mastered the art of making a memorable barn burner. Still, it is hard to deny that tracks like "Ride on a Dream," "Hold On," and "The Good With the Bad" are fairly successful attempts at recapturing Zeppelin's glory. It is too bad that they are surrounded by some very average filler tracks that are more Poison-influenced than they would probably care to admit. Fans of good hard rock who do not expect something vastly original will be happy; others, especially fans of Zeppelin, may not want to spend their money on this. ~ Bradley Torreano