Frontiers [Release date : 18.02.22]
Guitarist/songwriter/vocalist, August Zadra’s main claim to fame is his lengthy tenure as Dennis DeYoung’s sideman, touring and recording with him since 2010.
Guiding Star is his first “solo” album. A considerable weight of talent and experience was added to the songwriting and the recording effort, including DeYoung, Jeff Scott Soto, Pete Alpenborg, Jan Akesson and the famous Jimmy Leahy.
An epic, majestic intro leads us into opening track, ‘Come Together’. Full of choral harmony bgvs and a spare orchestral arrangement, ignited by spiralling axework. It makes us sit up and take notice. Entirely the point.
The trick, of course, is to make the musical styles of the past, specifically the eighties, sound relevant today. His “bandmate”, DeYoung does that in his solo act with skill and acumen, by marrying a vaudevillian take on rock’n'roll to dramatic, stadium sized balladry.
Zadra wears those influences well, integrating them into an intense and forceful musical style, with a welcome emphasis on melody. . . the spiritual yearning of ‘Nothing To Say’ builds quickly, crafting a liquid wall of backing voices onto a muscular tune, and ‘Escape The Rain’, one of the album’s standout tracks, is good old fashioned melodic rock with a sharp edge and a sturdy, clean shaven chorus, like something Tommy Shaw might have written for Damn Yankees.
The rest of the album follows this example. Nothing truly breaks the mould, or wants to. The direct, torqued up guitars of ‘Ship Of Fools’ hasten Zadra’s gritty vocals into a climactic, hard hitting chorus, and the smooth, shuffling nitetime AOR of ‘Come back To me’ provides some nicely set up romanticism.
Only the balladic ‘Take My Hand’ really dares to be different. It’s an insightful, personal appraisal of life and living that suddenly switches gears, exploding into amped up guitar action halfway through, then blazes its way to the finishing like in a welter of Styx like harmonies. ***1/2
Review by Brian McGowan
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
Next session: Sunday 1 December
Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio
David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 20 October 2024.
UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 22 October 2024.
How to Listen Live?
Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)
Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”
Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.
More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com
Power Plays w/c 28 October 2024
THE RASMUS Rest In Pieces (Better Noise Music)
THE PLAGUE What Else Can I Do (FiXT)
STAR CIRCUS Turn The Tide (indie)
DEFENCES Breathe It In (Long Branch Records)
Featured Albums w/c 28 October 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)
PDF - you can delete unwanted sections
