Four years after their last release,
Wild Frontier are back with a brand new album
'Bite The Bullet'. Unfortunately this new release comes largely unencumbered by fresh melodies and in great part unfettered by new song ideas. Or at least that is your initial impression.
The band's sound isn't a million miles away from other quality bands plying their trade in the same genre - particularly Dark Sky,
Gotthard and perhaps most of all, Shakra.
Wild Frontier aim to differentiate themselves from the pack by liberally peppering their arrangements with keyboard orchestrations. On many tracks here, slick fills and sweet frills swirl around the busy, bone dry guitar riffery these other bands are known for.
And yes, Bob Jensen's production is clean and crisp. Each and every instrument can be clearly heard. Sometimes you would rather the production had been richer, fuller, and that can be a distraction. But a lot of the time the songs are strong enough to take us past that. The real problem here is this :
Wild Frontier's music is frequently so derivative that a clear identity never real swims into focus. Not a showstopper perhaps, but a concern nevertheless.
On the upside, opener '
Anything You Want' sets out the band's stall with a swagger and a flourish. A good start.
But the balladic '
Good Things' comes early on and underlines the band's fallibility. Despite an extremely neat and infectious piano motif, it's one of the album's weaker tracks.
The catchy
'Don't Walk Away' takes on something of
Krokus while '
Heart Will Turn To Stone' prostrates itself at the shrine of Thin Lizzy's trademark celtic guitar sound.
Side 1 closes with the rather anaemic '
Everytime I Look Around'.
Surprise, surprise, side 2 opens like a new band has arrived, armed to the teeth with attitude, melodies and original ideas.
'
One Heart-One Soul' and '
Surrounded' are distinctly
AOR in nature, with a harder edge and an attractive pop undertone. Okay, not entirely original, but credit to WF and producer Jensen, together they bring a freshness and a feelgood factor to what was previously a fast tiring melodic rock agenda.
On a real winning streak now, the band give us the unashamedly sentimental and eminently tuneful '
Restless', the velvet lined funk of '
Save Yourself' and a stirring version of Russ Ballard's
'I Know There's Something Going On'.
More of this next time please.
Written by
Brian Thursday, April 26, 2007
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