Kooga - Across The Water (1986)

Blimey I've seen some misleading covers in my time, but this is up there with the Satanic Rites album for not living up to its imagery. Kooga, despite the cover are a rather pompous, keyboard drenched NWOBHM band from the '80s. This is very much hair metal in its sultry, beefy vocals, and lush structures, if anything the title cut is an almost pop-tinged and typical '80s offering. Track two 'Lifeline' drives slightly harder with its guitar and drum attack, but again the synths rush in and we're back to that lukewarm, middle of the road rock. Thank goodness for the cover though because I'm sure any teenager who purchased this record back in the day would have been spellbound by that sleeve. Of course, apart from the cover there's quite literally nothing here to get your grubby hands on - except, again, that cover - because it's just such a lightweight affair, brimming with a power ballad style format, every song drifting by on the breeze like it were some summery sway - 'She Walks In Beauty,' 'Fall From Grace,' et al, just sound like one rather tedious, keyboard-rich tapestry. Oh, but that cover guys...that cover... 5/10