With Don't Sell Your Soul, the Michael Schenker Group has today released the second part of a planned trilogy of albums tracing the musical development of German guitarist Michael Schenker. It follows on from last year's My Years With UFO and expands the retrospective on the long career of the exceptional German rock guitarist.

Unlike the UFO years, Schenker has opted for eleven new compositions this time around. He recorded them with his long-time companions Steve Mann on guitar and keyboards, bassist Barend Courbois and drummer Bodo Schopf. The vocals are largely provided by Swedish singer Erik Grönwall, with additional vocals by Robin McAuley, Dmitri ‘Lia’ Liapanski and Michael Voss.

Eleven new songs – that gives us hope for lots of new ideas and different sides to his music. Unfortunately, however, Schenker refrains from making any significant changes and instead presents variations on safe havens from his own musical history. The result is solid rock that largely charges ahead in a straightforward manner, sounds a little thicker than on earlier recordings and, all in all, still tastes a little dusty.

The recording quality adds to the impression that duty was valued more highly than creativity here. The soundscape predominantly serves bass and treble – perhaps so that the mid-range remains free for the guitars? The stage is so compact that the instruments feel crowded, especially when listening to the album on headphones. And a resolution of 48 kHz at 24 bits seems significantly underserved in view of the certainly higher clocked master.

This is a shame, because Deep Purple, for example, have proven that new recordings by old greats can also shed new light on their mastery, with their more recent recordings storming the ears with much more verve, both acoustically and musically, than the latest MSG tracks.

Let's see how the third part of the series turns out in 2026. It remains exciting... (Thomas Semmler, HighResMac)

Michael Schenker, guitar
Erik Grönwall, vocals
Steve Mann, guitar, keyboards
Bodo Schopf, drums
Barend Courbois, bass
Guests:
Robin McAuley, vocals
Dimitri "Lia" Liapakis, vocals
Michael Voss, vocals

Photo: ©Robin Looy (robinlooyphotography.com)