By Stephen Kasenda
SHY “Unfinished Business” (2002)
The similarity of Tony Mills' melodic screech with TNT legend, Tony Harnell - and with him joining TNT to replace the mighty Harnell - sparked my curiosity on Shy's back catalogue. Honestly, I didn't expect this 2002 release to be one of their best, but in fact it is! Jumping back to 1990 after “Misspent Youth” - a disappointing album according to the band - Shy still kept a lot of rough diamonds in the vault and when the opportunity arose in 2000 to do a new recording under Z Records, Mills and Harris decided it's time to finish the unfinished business.
"Skydiving" is an explosive melodic blast…you just can't believe there's a song like this in the year 2002. The soaring vocal, the thrilling guitar, it's basically like TNT in their golden years. "Change of Direction" didn't change anything, still grand and gorgeous. "Breakaway" is as strong as "Skydiving", another champion of the record and a huge contender to be the song of the year. "Mary-Anne" is another wow - power ballads have never been this good - it has that unimaginable beauty.
"Heaven Tonight", "Can't Stop Lovin' You", and "No Other Way" aren't slowing down and still racing to the top. Check out also the superb solos in "Whole Lotta Feelings", the song itself might not be as good as the others, but that solo guitar is killing everything. "Storyline" is another brilliant ballad in shape of classic Journey. I've told you before but now I need to tell you again, Shy didn’t spend two years recording this album for nothing: they managed to put out a ten-out-of-ten album in my book. Like my French friend said, "fantastique!"
Read more of Stephen’s features at MetalMusicArchives.
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