You likely have not heard of Eldorado, but if you like to rock, you need to check them out.
Hailing from Madrid, Eldorado formed at the beginning of 2007 and released their first album En Busca de Eldorado to strong reviews in May of 2008. The group consists of Jesus Trujillo on vocals, Nano Paramio on guitar, Cesar Sanchez on bass, and Javi Planelles on drums.
Their latest release, Golden, is produced by Richard Chychi, as was their first. Chychi has produced other such rock acts as Aerosmith, Mick Jagger, Rush, and Def Leppard. Clearly his resume speaks for itself, and it appears that Eldorado is growing under his tutelage.
This go round it seems Eldorado has recognized that there is a void in hard rock, and that they can take advantage of it. Their first release was primarily recorded in Spanish, so they decided to release Golden in English, and a Spanish version, entitled Dorado. These songs would rock in Pig Latin, but if it gets more people to check them out, seems like a great idea to me.
Eldorado rocks in a 70’s/80’s way. Most of the comparisons are to bands like Deep Purple, Whitesnake, and the more current Wolfmother. Personally, I think of Buckcherry as well, especially because Trujillo’s vocals remind me of Josh Todd at times. Instrumentally, it’s what you expect based on these comparisons and production; plenty of grand guitar solos and heavy head banging rhythms. Of course you get your “monster ballad” here and there and some more mellow rockers just to mix things up, but Golden rocks from the press of play starting with “The House of the 7 Smokestacks”. I prefer, “The Rocket Song” and “I Don’t Need No Doctor” for straight up rockin’ fun though.
What keeps this from being a five star review? Not too much. Lyrically it’s not amazing, but I wonder if some of it might suffer in translation. Also, some of the lyrics come off as a bit too serious, an unfair stigma associated with this style unfortunately. The ballads and slower jams aren’t amazing and I think could be better, but when you want to rock the way you did in the 70s and 80s, you can’t go wrong with Eldorado. You can’t ask for much more when it comes to that.
Kevin Kozel-MuzikReviews.com Staff
December 3, 2009
