Frontiers [Release date : 13.10.23]
Alessandro Del Vecchio’s band, Edge Of Forever, have released some interesting albums over the last few years.
Native American culture has been a constant theme. It clearly inspired a quartet of tracks on last year’s album, Seminole. And indeed inspired several tracks on the band’s 2019 album, Native Soul… ‘Promised Land’, ‘Three Rivers’, ‘Dying Sun’, three elements of the tribe’s story.
This new album, Ritual, moves us forward. We are still focused on the Seminoles, not so much the tribe, but two individual members, one male, one female. Twins. Separated in their youth by the social mores of the day.
Ritual is the tale of their quest to find each other once again. A Melodic Rock Concept album, if you will.
It doesn’t work as well as it clearly thinks it should.
There are only a handful of songs here, if that, where those adrenalin fuelled verses and chest beating choruses we enjoyed from the last album grab us by the throat and won’t let go.
Openers, ‘Where Are You’ and ‘Water Be My Path’s richly melodic twists and ear-catching hooks pull us onto the edge of our seats, eager to hear more.
But nothing really matches up after that.
‘The Last One’ tries hard but doesn’t quite cut it, and Aldo Lonobile burns an entertainingly scorched path through ‘Freeing My Will’.
But the real problem is that across the album there’s a whole lot of surface but not a lot of depth, despite the subject matter.
Maybe something is lost in translation… the lyrics never truly take the subject matter beyond cliché… ‘Love Is The Only Answer’, ‘Ride The Wings Of Hope’ and ‘Baptised In Fire’ are cases in point.
As a consequence, Ritual never makes up in story what it lacks in Melodic Rock heft. **1/2
Review by Brian McGowan
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
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Power Plays w/c 29 April 2024
BRIGITTE PURDY Sugar Fried Candy (Dirtshack Records)
ATTIC THEORY The Legacy (indie)
THE HOWLERS I Need Your Love (indie)
VELVETEEN QUEEN Bad Reputation (indie)
WILLS AND THE WILLING Scuffed Knees (Smash & Grab Music Ltd)
READY THE PRINCE Still Believe (indie)
Featured Albums w/c 29 April 2024
09:00-12:00 PRAYING MANTIS Defiance (Frontiers)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023
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