Used with permission from AOR Europe

The idea of a project led by Billy Greer, the bassist of Kansas, The Streets 
and The Sign, didn't sound that interesting on paper. I mean, sure, he 
might be a talented player, but as a songwriter or vocalist I didn't know 
what to expect from him. The first soundbyte from this album, "Missy" on 
the Union 3 sampler did sound promising, and the fact that Mike Slamer 
(Steelhouse Lane, Streets) joined forces with Greer raised the profile of 
this project quite a bit. 

Now that I have heard the results, I have to say that I'm positively 
surprised. Greer has come up with one of the best AOR releases you're 
likely to hear all year, with strong songs, tight production and explosive 
performances all around. Greer appears to be a good vocalist, and with a 
little help from his Kansas bandmates and Slamer, the instrumental side 
of things is taken care of very well indeed.

Musically this album is what you could expect: A bit of Kansas, a bit of 
Steelhouse Lane, maybe a touch of The Sign as well - yet sounding quite 
fresh and original. What I find extremely positive is the fact that all the 
songs have something going for them, there are aboslutely no fillers. 
Searching for highlights is a hard task here! However, a couple of tracks 
do stand out: "No Man's Land" is very probably on my Top Ten list this 
year, it's a magnificent piece of melodic rock with nice twists and turns, 
and "Forsaken" is another gem with a bombastic chorus. Neither of these 
tracks are written by Greer (they are written by members of Kansas), but 
don't let that fool you. Greer's own compositions are very good as well, 
just listen to "Only The Brave" or "When Love Is Dying", for instance. 
"Broken Home" is also from an outside writer, namely Mark Spiro, but 
Greer and Co. make it sound like their own. 

A brilliant album, with only one - very minor - fault: the midtempo tracks 
are dominating it. As good as they are, I feel that a couple of faster tracks 
might have pushed this album to "a perfect ten". Anyway, I hope that the 
"Seventh Key" project doesn't remain an one-off thing.