Come Taste The Band - Reignition (2019)

Come Taste the Band (CTTB) is a Norwegian classic hard rock band, founded in 1997 by guitarist Jo Henning Kaasin and singer Vidar Heldal. The early line-up included bass player Ståle Naas, Eldar Melkvik on keyboards and Frode Flatland on drums. In the early years, CTTB was a Deep Purple tribute band and released two CDs with Deep Purple songs: "A Tribute To Deep Purple" in 1999 and "Live" in 2006. From 1997 to 2007, CTTB played hundreds of concerts in Scandinavia. In 2007, CTTB was asked by the Norwegian Kartfestivalen to play a concert with former Deep Purple singer/bass player Glenn Hughes. This show resulted in a partnership that lasted until 2010, when Hughes founded Black Country Communion with Joe Bonamassa. Glenn Hughes & CTTB did four tours together, playing Deep Purple Mk III and IV classics. In 2011, Come Taste the Band teamed up with former Deep Purple/Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner. JLT & CTTB toured Scandinavia, doing both Rainbow and Deep Purple material. Together they hit the road between 2012 to 2014. During days off, Turner guitarist Jo Henning Kaasin and bass player Ståle Naas wrote and started recording two brand-new songs, "Tied Down" and "Don't Let Me Bleed". Both songs ended up on the new CTTB album, "Reignition". 2014 also saw CTTB doing two concerts with former Rainbow singers, Doogie White and Graham Bonnet plus Norwegian singer Jorn Lande. Come Taste The Band has changed the line-up several times during the years, with only leader and guitarist Jo Henning Kaasin, singer Vidar Heldal and bass player Ståle Naas staying constantly in the band. In 2017, celebrating 20 years, CTTB played two big sold out shows with former Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden and Doogie White (Rainbow, Michael Schenker). After those concerts Doogie White and Jo Henning Kaasin started to write new material.

CTTB landed a record deal with AOR Heaven in November 2017 and recorded seven songs with Doogie White as the singer. Those songs were recorded at Juke Joint Studio, Notodden and Stable Studio, Oslo in Norway. The band is now joined by Swedish musicans Birger Löfman on drums and Svenne Jansson on organ & keyboards. The album was produced by Halvor Halvorsen, Jo Henning Kaasin & CTTB, with Leif Johansen (Phenomena, 21 Guns, A-Ha) helping out with engineering. Njål Frode Lie mixed and mastered the album.

The album "Reignition" includes 9 classic hard rock tracks, played mostly live in the studio and with lots of improvisations. Doogie White is singing on 7 tracks and Joe Lynn Turner on 2.