Last year’s Human Stain was an excellent album and if you remember my playlist for Gryphon Metal for 2002 I placed it at number one.That year we had many great albums but Cornerstone’s masterpiece was unbeatable. This year they release a new album called ‘Once Upon Our Yesterdays’ and I had high hopes for this one.I never actualy believed it will be better than Human Stain but this band has lots of talent and can create great music.Once again on vocals it’s Doogie White who has played in Rainbow and is curently the singer for Yngwie Malmsteen and on bass and keyboards is Steen Mogensen who has recenlty left Royal Hunt after many years.It looks like Cornerstone will become something more than a project now that Steen has more time.Guitars for the album were played by Kasper Damgaard and drums by Allan Sorensen.

            So,is the new album better than Human Stain? Obviously not.Human Stain can’t be equalled but the new effort of the band is still good enough to win a place in my cd player.Let’s have a closer look at each track :

 

1.Welcome To Forever -A great opener for the cd,one of the best tracks of the album.If this band manages to get on the road this song MUST open their live sets.Great chorus as well.Classic cornerstone tune.

 

2.When The Hammer Falls -In this song they try to be more heavy,it’s the most ‘metal’ song they have written so far.The main riff is huge and has nice melodies.Another great track.

 

3.Passion To Warfare -I find this song a bit strange,the chorus is something different from what we’ve been used to.Cool song but I place it among the average songs of the album.

 

4.Hour Of Doom -Another song that will sound great live.Good work from the guitar and a catchy chorus.Another favourite from this cd.

 

5.Man Without A Reason -This one is a ballad and cornerstone never ever fail to write an excellent ballad.Every time they write a melodic song like this it ends up a masterpiece.This one is a bluesy song with great lyrics and tunes,I just love their ballads!

 

6.21^st Century Man -Another great rocker.I really like this song,it’s so cool and lyrics deal with religions and stuff like that.Classic rock song,one of my fave tunes of the cd.

 

7.Once Upon Our Yesterdays -The title track of the album is among the best moments of this band.It’s a slow and quiet song with great vocal harmonies.

 

8.End Of The World -It starts with a medieval melody played on strings and then guitars kick in.Many people liked this song but I find it less interesting than the other songs of the album.Didn’t like ti so much….next please.

 

9.Some Have Dreams -Hm…what have we got here?Another ballad….great!This one is better tha Man Without A Reason!They surely know how to write ballads.Catchy chorus and great singing by Doogie.

 

10.Scream - This song has a nice riff but apart from that I find it a little boring.It has a long intro of guitar distortion and I always fast forward the song after minute one.Chorus just says ‘scream scream’,didn’t find this song as good as the others.I am sure this band can’t write much better.

 

            I find this CD really good with just 2-3 songs being out of the good spirit of the album.If you want to get into Cornerstone’s music you should first get last year’s excellent Human Stain and then check this one.Their first album ‘Arrival’ is a bit more emotional and slow,it’s different from their last 2 albums.But Arrival for it’s music style is excellent.Once Upon Our Yesterdays is musicaly Human Stain part two.All songs are almost in the same vein and I really enjoyed listening to it and never regreted the money I gave for it. Cornerstone are here to stay and they can offer us many more great tunes in the future.Just keep an eye at this band and at the moment enjoy Once Upon Our Yesterdays,the album rocks!