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Frontiers [Release date: 05.11.21]
Fans Of The Dark are a new Melodic Rock band formed by songwriter / drummer, Freddie Allen, the driving force behind AOR legends-in-the-making, Houston.
He’s brought in Alex Falk on vocals, with guitarist, Oscar Bromvall and bassist, Robert Majd rounding out the band.
Where Houston recycle the musical arrangements and production tones of the eighties, FOTD take an unusual approach, matching a conventional, beefed up melodic rock sound to lyrics inspired by Hollywood movies. Allen starts classy with The Ghost Of Canterville (based on an Oscar Wilde story) then goes a bit populist thereafter … ‘The Foreigner’, ‘Rear Window’, ‘Zombies’ (the cover art provides the clues).
As a producer, Allen is not in the business of creating sonic images to reflect the story being told in the narrative. The songs, robust and theatrical, brimful of sturdy tunes, are built on fairly simple musical foundations.
This works best on the sleek, clean lines of ‘Escape From Hell’ and ‘The Running Man’, both fast moving melodic rock songs. Falk sounds totally engaged here, his voice oscillating between a sweet tenor and a punchy falsetto, ably capturing the melodies and emotions in Allen’s often bizarre tales.
On the majority of tracks, Blomvall’s guitar and Falk’s theatrical vocals do all the heavy lifting, with the songs striking a balance between rock and show tunes. For Falk, it’s dramatics without the extravagant delivery of a DeYoung or a Meatloaf, for Blomvall it’s a big, forceful guitar sound shorn of the bombast that many OTT rock band axemen go for.
It works a treat on ‘Dial M For Murder’ and ‘Life Kills’, with Blomvall peeling off a series of biting, stinging axe solos, walking hand in hand with Falk’s powerfully melodic vocal crescendos. And even if the payoffs don’t quite fulfill our expectations, we can still enjoy the ride. ***
Review by Brian McGowan
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