PENDULUM OF FORTUNE-Search For The God Inside

Inakustik

Pendulum Of Fortune is a new project from drummer Bodo Schopf who you might know from his activities with Eloy and the McAuley Schenker Group. The skin beater recruited Vladimir Sheyakov (guitar), bassist Franky R. and top vocalist David Readman (Almanac/Pink Cream 69). For Readman November 2017 must have been a peculiar month with fresh releases from Almanac, Pink Cream 69 and now Pendulum Of Fortune within weeks of each other. The songs have been written by Schopf with Readman responsible for most of the lyrics and vocal melodies while the drummer also took care of the production, mixing (together with Sven Geiger) and even designing part of the artwork. This is a CD that needs a little time to grow on you. The first time I heard it, it did not make a big impression on me. But the more I listen to ‘Searching For The God Inside’ the more it starts to grow on me. Obviously with David Readman on board the vocal department is well taken care of but Bodo Schopf as the main songwriter is a territory I had not encountered before. In several ways you can notice that it is the drummer producing the record. Listen to ,,Crazy Thoughts’’ and the effects Schopf has put on his playing including a short solo spot. Quite nice and a bit different from the rest. ‘Searching For The God Inside’ is a versatile record anyway. There is a lot of straight forward heavy rock there but also several songs that have a lot of depth, different instruments, mood swings and eastern influences and it just makes it more pleasant to hear. ,,Lonely Days, Lonely Nights’’, ,,Born Again’’ and ,,Goes Around Comes Around’’ are three prime examples of songs where Pendulum Of Fortune mixes things up in a different way. Guitarist Vladimir Sheyakov is not bad either. He is a guitarist with feeling and I do detect some influences from Michael Schenker/Vinnie Moore here and there. In general the record does have a certain MSG/UFO feel hanging around (listen to the solo in the track ,,Higher’’). So, as I proclaimed earlier, this is a record that needs a bit of time to digest but the more you hear it the more intriguing it becomes.