_{“Empire of Sin” is the third studio album from Impera. I’d posted a recommendation for the previous album “Pieces of Eden” in September 2013 (http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/back-stage/music-reviews/1310-ni-rocks-recommends-qpieces-of-edenq-by-impera.html) and to be honest I could almost have copied and pasted my words from the previous post. This time however there are 11 excellent rock tracks on the album I have rather than 10. “Empire of Sin” is released through Escape Music on 23rd January and I highly recommend checking it out. There have already been a few tracks played on the Friday NI Rocks Show.}

_{The Impera line-up is unchanged and includes artists who have played with some of the great names in rock music. The most well-known would be guitarist Tommy Denander who has played alongside Alice Cooper, Paul Stanley and Michael Jackson. When the list of artists who worked with the latter include Eddie Van Halen, Slash and Orianthi that’s not bad company to be keeping!}

_{The other members of the band are JK Impera on drums, Matt Alfonzetti on vocals and Mats Vassfjord on bass. The press release still refers to Impera as a melodic rock band. I’m not a big fan of labels and I queried that definition in the previous recommendation. I’d say “Empire of Sin” is an even heavier album than “Pieces of Eden”, but regardless of whatever label you want to use, it’s a fairly spectacular album!}

_{As with the previous album I’ve trouble picking favourite tracks from “Empire of Sin”, but if I were to highlight specific tracks that  for me personally stand out above the others they’d be “The Beast Is Dead”, “Evil (Become A Believer)”, “Don’t Stop”, “Hole In The Sky”, “Thunder In Your Heart” and “Lost Boy”. John Leven from Europe co-wrote “Thunder In Your Heart” and plays guitar on that track.}

_{Check out http://www.impera.org/}

_{About “NI Rocks Recommends”}

_{The simple idea behind “NI Rocks Recommends” is to acknowledge and promote some of the great music being submitted to Rock Radio NI. To be honest I’m not really a big fan of traditional “Reviews” which essentially just represent one person’s opinion. With “NI Rocks Recommends”, I'll not be giving marks or ratings or analyzing the tracks in great detail; just telling you something about the artist and the album.}

_{My musical tastes cover most things rock; from the not too melodic to the not too heavy. The albums that I’ll be recommending are merely those that I would buy myself and which you’ll be hearing played on my shows on Rock Radio NI.}

_{Check out NI Rocks on Facebook – www.facebook.com/NIRocks or Twitter - www.twitter.com/NIrelandRocks}