There are bands and artists that you’re almost desperate to give a high grade. You feel like doing this because they have made music that you enjoyed immensely, perhaps even changed your life.

Take Chris Caffery. He served his long and at times troublesome duty in one of the best heavy metal bands in the world, namely Savatage.

Apart from Doctor Butcher and various other projects, Mr. Caffery has also found the time to create solo albums, and this one is the third since 2004. I don’t know if it was just a feeling or a couple of less positive reviews that held me back, but I never listened to the first two solo albums.

So this is, if you like, me first experience with Caffery solo, and I am now reminded what the less positive reviews had pointed out: Caffery is not a great singer.

It’s a shame, really, because the 13 heavy metal/hardrock tunes on ‘House of Insanity’ aren’t at all bad. Rock ballads like Madonna and Back’s To The Wall would have been spot-on with the right singer. As a guitarist he’s got the crunch and drive that can create a proper heavy metal song and that is proved with most of the tracks on here – Solitaire being a good example.

You can definitely hear where Caffery is coming from when it comes to writing song lines, but it takes more character and power to pull it through. A hired gun would be in its place for the next album.