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It's time to dust off and break your air guitar out of storage because Grooveyard Records is proud to present "Mountain Of Power Volume One". This Swedish guitar powerhouse project was formed by guitarist Janne Stark of Locomotive Breath & Joe Romagnola of Grooveyard Records. What you will find and experience here are some of Sweden's best rock musicians re-interpreting and, in some cases, re-defining the music that first inspired them to make music in the first place. Featuring the stellar talents of Thomas Larsson (Glenn Hughes), Emil Fredholm & Christian Neppenstrom (Plankton), Sven Cirnski and Tommy Denander to perform songs that have never, or at least rarely, been covered before. Volume One features 14 slabs of guitar powered fury guaranteed to shake your senses beyond belief! Highlights include a ballsy cover of the Budgie classic "In For The Kill", Mountain's "Dreams Of Milk & Honey", a killer take on Moxy's, "Out Of The Darkness", as well as excellent covers of "Fantasy" (Captain Beyond), "Crazy" (Stray Dog) and "Tomorrow Or Yesterday" (Samson). Like I said, songs rarely covered. I have to say the Mountain Of Power project did a bang up job covering these rock classics. They've added more power to them and sped up the groove a little. "Mountain Of Power Volume One" is definitely an album you can kick out the jams to from cover to cover. This is powerful, ass-kickin' hard guitar rock paying homage to the 70s Classic Rock gods and doing them proud! I'm on my second listen as I write this, and I know that it's going to be listened to at least once or twice a day for the next couple of weeks. To me, that's the sign of a great album and this one certainly is! If you're a big fan of the vinyl age of rock-n-roll, "Mountain Of Power Volume One" is a rock-n-roll experience of the third kind!
- Highly Recommended

Tony Sison - The Dedicated Rocker Society / All Access Magazine (June 2014)

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In this day and age of cover and tribute cd's we have all grown weary. Even in the hard rock and heavy metal genres you tend to hear the same ol' same ol' when it comes to bands and songs being covered. But beware, because a MOUNTAIN OF POWER is about to come down hard upon you! First, let's just say this is not your ordinary tribute cd. We've got some real, underground, forefathers of heavy, guitar rock who are receiving their well-deserved credit some 25-30 years later. Bands that made such an impact that their offerings have stayed etched in our memories forever. Some that tinged the realms of popularity like: Mountain, Derringer, and Montrose. Others that graced history under supreme cult status like: Budgie, Moxy, and Captain Beyond. And then the downright, molten obscure that only the true 70s hard rock pioneering fans related to like: Point Blank, Wireless, Stray Dog, Marcus and Goddo. Throw in some early NWOBHM with Samson and round things off with Swedish (where this was made) cult heroes Neon Rose and this is only set up for half the story!

The other half is muscularized energy that has pumped new life into these songs! So modernized that if you hadn't a clue these were songs from the 70's, you'd swear they are fresh from today! The guitar playing is some of the most rippin', shred-friendly, relentless attack on your senses it leaves you brain dead. There is no way to survive listening to this cd on 10! Though many guests do appear (and credited), the ace-guitar ringleader of the onslaught belongs to way-underrated Swedish champion, Janne Stark (Locomotive Breath, Overdrive). He has succeeded in taking the original riff and magnifying it with magnitudes of power that hit as a wall of supersonic sound fury. Along with the guitar riffage, many guest vocalists justifiably pay homage to the original while providing the uptempo pace to the modern day versions.

Mountain Of Power could not be achieved at its enormous guitar magnitude without Janne Stark. At the same time, the whole concept and vision would have never come to life without producer and promoter, Joe Romagnola (aka Groovedawg) at Grooveyard Records. (Not too shabby as an axeripper himself!) With the best ear in the business for true, heavy-guitar riffage, Joe put this together from his lifetime passion for the music as well as his acute vision to uplift true, heavy-guitar rock into the future and back on top of every Mountain Of Power!! A Volume 2 is promised for the future. Whether you are a fan of the original artists or wish to use this cd to discover where the true roots of heavy-guitar rock originated, this is a must die for tribute to the greats!!!

Count me on board as a new Mountain Of Power climber.

Geno Desi (Generations Underground / Axecaliber / Raised On Rock) (12.06)

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The latest offering of world-class guitar music from Grooveyard Records takes the art of guitar forward by looking back - literally. Mountain Of Power is the ultimate "super session," showcasing the devastating talent of this generation's finest players with a track list that reads like a classic 70s heavy guitar wet dream...tuneage by heavies like Budgie, Mountain, Montrose, Derringer and Captain Beyond, just to name a few. These classic cuts are totally retro with an emphasis on the RE - REdone, REinvented, REinvigorated, injected with a freshness and urgency that could be most accurately described as "radically vintage post-modernism." This is important stuff...stuff you just don't find in today's lemming-like Rolling Stone poster-child flavor-of-the-month pop culture cesspool masquerading as a music scene.

Mountain Of Power features a "Who's Who" of the premier guitarists on the planet...all of who just happen to come from Sweden. Sweden, you say? How can that be? Don't all the great guitarists come from America? Think again. The unfortunate reality is that most American rock guitar players are trapped in a post-90s fuzzed-out grunge-like feedback loop comprised of equal parts of perpetual drop D tuning, monotonous, plodding progressions and an over-abundance of angst and bad attitude. You can forget about lead guitar chops...for the most part, there aren't any. Mountain Of Power should be mandatory listening for every one of these guitarists who think they can really play...it'll send most of these wannabees back home to mommy to lick their wounds and seriously reevaluate their career path.

The great Janne "Sacred Alien" Stark lays the bedrock of this musical Gibraltar with attitude, authority and attention to detail, souping up the arrangements while remaining true to the core vibe of the original versions. Enter the supporting cast to lay their sacred offerings at the Altar of the Groove - Thomas Larsson, Emil Fredholm, Christian Neppenstrom, Sven Cirnski, Jonas Hansson, Tommy Denander, Micke "Nord" Andersson, Lori Linstruth, Jocke Sandberg and Joe Romagnola - names you may not have heard of, but names you'll never forget after you hear them. Each solo contribution by each participant is memorable; nothing is thrown in as an afterthought or done haphazardly. These cats mean it when they play it.

Every solo is a master class in what a lead guitar solo SHOULD be: dangerous chops, feel up the ass, screaming, supercharged attack and blistering tones...heavy, hard-rocking and bluesy...all delivered through adrenaline-fueled soul and sweat. You can't help but feel it. Everything fits. Everything works. This collaborative labor of love is a testimony to the spirit of artistic cooperation where all the participants share the same musical vision: to pay reverent homage to their influences, using these great songs as their shared medium.

So strap yourself into this musical time machine..the past is now the future...and the future is now...on Mountain Of Power.

Jimmy Ryan (Truth Squad / Flyin' Ryan Bros Riffmaster) (01.07)

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Grooveyard Records is a label that claims to be "a label dedicated to outstanding TOTAL GUITAR music from around the world" and this disc shoves that theory right down your throat. Swedish guitar wiz Janne Stark of Locomotive Breath and Grooveyard proprietor Joe Romagnola have assembled a set of obscure 70's guitar rock anthems that scream with an intensity unmatched in today's music world. The track listing alone is impressive and demands a respectful tip of the cap. With songs from underground legends such as Budgie, Point Blank, Captain Beyond and Samson, Stark and Romagnola prove that they are students of the game. These tunes were dug from the precious soil of 70s hard rock, and they weren't found lying on the surface either; these guys dug deep to find great songs that were worthy of modern representation. Seeing songs from Rick Derringer and Moxy on the track listing was something that had me respecting them instantly, but actually hearing their amazing renditions of these songs was something astonishing. Most of the material here is animalistic; primal and vicious. Like a rabid dog these tracks come running at you full force. The impressive thing with this disc is how it still remains structured and precise while it rips your head apart. It never gets out of control and wanders. As wild and untamed as these songs are, Stark plays his guitar with a sense of melody and an attention to song detail that never falters. With songs like Samson's "Tomorrow Or Yesterday" demanding a steady rhythm, nothing is lost when Stark starts to explode with guitar fireworks. The poise and class of this band is really quite phenomenal. Whether it is the dual harmony leads of Stray Dog's "Crazy" or the Rainbow-tinged spirit of Montrose's "Black Train," Mountain Of Power captures the heart and soul of each piece and delivers a blast of guitar fury that will please even the pickiest guitar rock fan. I can't even remember the last time I heard anyone tear into guitar solos like this; come to think of it, it was probably in the 70s. Every song houses a big fat guitar part, and each of them is bone crushing. One of the most impressive selections here is a song called "One Of A Kind." It was originally done by a band called Wireless, who had their record produced by Rush frontman Geddy Lee. Yes, MOP does a wonderful job in its rendition of the song, but that's not why I find this exceedingly impressive. They know who Wireless is!! Wireless is a band that got past even the most seasoned rock fan when they were buried by bubblegum pop in the early 80s. I find it terribly exciting to have them back in this setting. It was the same feeling when I heard their smokin' version of Captain Beyond's "Fantasy" mid-way through the disc. Captain Beyond stands as one of the great "unknowns" of our time, and it's great to see a band like MOP recognize that. The super riff that leads Neon Rose's "Love Rock".. the bashing of Mountain's "Dreams Of Milk & Honey".. the caressing rhythms and blistering solos within their original instrumental self-titled song.. No matter what track you find yourself being assaulted by, you're in for a real treat. Guitarist Janne Stark is one of the best in the entire world, and he has surrounded himself with some of the finest musicians available. If you are a fan of guitar heavy hard rock, this just might be the best thing you've ever heard.

Scott "Dr. Music" Itter (2.07)

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I've always been a little lukewarm on so-called covers albums, to be honest. I mean, let's face it: How many versions of "Black Dog," "Whole Lotta Rosie" or "War Pigs" do we need (well, maybe Bucket's, for the love of God!)? Still, I gotta tell you something. When Janne Stark (formerly of Overdrive & now of the mighty Locomotive Breath) told me about the MOUNTAIN OF POWER thing he was doing, the fact that it was, yes, a "covers" album was the least thing from my mind. And, when ol' buddy Joe Romagnola of the Grooveyard told me he was putting a copy in the mail to my attention, I was standing by the mailbox all night & all day. See, the thing is, MOUNTAIN OF POWER's debut disc is not a covers record like any I've ever heard. And, that may be a good thing, because if discs like this came out every day, I'd be too busy having shards of about 1,000 ass-mashing, soul scorching lead guitar solos surgically removed from my eardrums to ever be able to write another review again. See, I'm the kinda guy who's a total obscure '70's hard rock hound. In the old days, I used to take any afternoon I had off, jump in my Impala 454 and prowl every used record shop in the Balto/Wash area in search of the next killer, obscure RAWK find. Apparently a fella named Janne Stark was doing the same thing in Sweden (well, maybe in a Saab rather than a Chevy) but the point is this. The songs he's chosen to cover on this monstrous mountain of a CD read like a who's-who from my most sacred of obscure vaults. Sheeee-it! You've got Budgie's "In For The Kill." I remember grabbing that one at E.J. Korvettes in Towson MD. The lumbering, jackhammer riff is done mega-justice here by Stark, who puts enough '00's spit-&-polish on it to give it an even extra boost & solos by Janne & Christian Neppenstrom decorate it like searing garland on a proto-metal tree. How 'bout "Dreams Of Milk & Honey" by Mountain? Dang, JS could've chosen a "typical Fatsby" track like "Mississippi Queen," but instead he goes and picks my absolute favourite Leslie West corker. Truly, in Mountain's original, the rhythm track under the solo is one of the count-on-one-hand heaviest things I've ever heard & I held my breath to see how Janne would lay down the business here. No worries, he nails it. Solos out the ass again, and everyone right on. I could go through every single track here, but the results would be the same each & every time. Every band/song chosen is a royal chestnut & each one has so much personal meaning to me that I get choked up just thinking about it. Point Blank's grueling "Uncle Ned," Stray Dog's sleaze-ridden "Crazy," Moxy's melodiously heavy "Out Of The Darkness." Just pure class & on each one, Janne dishes out savage & stylish rhythms, Peter Svensson hammers the skins home & a bevy of killer lead vocalists & guitarists testify to the Lord God of heavy. Still, my pentultimate favourite has gotta be the massive version of Marcus' "Black Magic" present here. If you've never heard the original of this gargantuan slice of bluesy Purple/Sabs-y mastery, track down the "Marcus" album (United Artists, 1976). At the same time, however, I'd be hard pressed to say I've ever heard anything quite as as when Janne Stark & Thomas Larsson open up the lead guitar jets on the multiple solos they inoculate this baby with. MOUNTAIN OF POWER is as appropriate a name for this CD as any I've ever heard.

Ray Dorsey (Chaos Realm - 2/07)

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Mountain of Power or MOP, if you prefer, is a heavy rock outfit that loves to crank it up. What we have in their debut release on Grooveyard Records is their fantasy set list covering all their favorite bands from the '70s. Among the well-loved classics like "Black Train" (Montrose), "Crazy" (Stray Dog) and "Love Rock" (Neon Rose) are a number of lesser, more obscure songs such as "Black Magic" (Marcus), "One of A Kind" (Wireless) and "Let That Lizard Loose" (Goddo). Conceived by Janne Stark, guitarist for Locomotive Breath, and Joe Romagnola of Grooveyard Records, the project is meant to celebrate the almighty riff. A host of special guests lend their talents including members of Plankton and several well known Swede guitarists and vocalists. Budgie's "In for the Kill" gets things started with a wind-up, ripping guitar that's twice as heavy as the original. Drummer Peter Svensson makes a mighty noise right from the get go - probably why they keep him around for most the record. He wreaks serious damage on "Dreams of Milk and Honey" (Mountain) and sets up a very AC/DC-styled "Uncle Ned" (Point Blank). Yet, in the end, it's the guitar work that really sets this piece as a classic tribute. To borrow from the Who title - it's "meaty beaty, big and bouncy." The band do a right fine job on the Captain Beyond track "Fantasy" with giant solos, guitars wailing and guest vocalist Pelle Saether easily hitting the upper register. Another true masterpiece is "Tomorrow or Yesterday" originally by Samson. The balladry essence of the song oozes as the guitar gently makes its way across the first half of the piece before galloping into a frenzied triumph. Favorites are actually the more unknown numbers. "Black Magic" is stunning as the stuttering intro gets underway into a chunky swagger. "Out of the Darkness" gives the bow to Moxy then takes the song to a much broader spectrum coming close to a hard rocking INXS. Derringer's "Sitting by the Pool," always a funny little tale, takes on a full band workout with lots of muscle on the low end and thick, powerful guitar grinding out its LA sleaze. The project is full-scale, mammoth guitar for the masses - and masses they will be as the band have been invited to play the Sweden Rock Festival this summer.

Todd K. Smith / The Cutting Edge (5.07)

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