Released by Frontiers Records – 2009
Review Added October 15, 2009
· Running Time: 56:00
· Release Date: November 06, 2009
· Musical Style: Hard Rock, Melodic Rock
· Links: http://www.myspace.com/wetrocks
Tracklist
1. Invincible**
2. One Love**
3. Brothers In Arms**
4. Comes Down Like Rain**
5. Running From The Heartache
6. I’ll Be There**
7. Damage Is Done
8. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is**
9. One Day At A Time**
10. Just Go
11. My Everything
12. If I Fall**
Hot Tracks**
*Jeff Scott Soto: All Lead Vocals
*Erik Martensson: Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Background Vocals
*Robert Säll: Lead Guitar on Running From the Heartache.
Guests
*Robban Back: Drums
*Magnus Henriksson: Lead Guitar on Brothers In Arms, One Day At A Time, I’ll Be There, Comes *Down Like Rain, Just Go, If I Fall.
The name of Jeff Scott Soto may be only linked unfortunately to his departure from Journey only to be replaced by Arnel Pineda, then the band when on to released the highly successful and comeback album “Revelations” and the rest of the story is history. In a way it never did any poetic justice to JSS because although Pineda’s voice fits Journey perfectly, it was a chance for Jeff Scott Soto to shine and be given proper recognition. This particular transaction left a bad taste in the mouth of Soto and we won’t get into the details as I rather focus on this very well done release. To the melodic hard rock world, he is simply one of the best vocalist to ever grace the genre, a vocal god, who always puts his heart and soul into his music. Go find any of his past efforts with such bands as (Panther, Axel Rudi Pell, Eyes, Talisman, Takara, Humanimal, Human Clay, Kryst The Conqueror, Redlist, The Boogie Knights and Soul Sirkus), and you’ll find terrific material that always seems to live up to the bill. So my interest picked a few meters when Frontiers annnounced the new supergroup W.E.T which included Robert Säll, guitarist of Work of Art, Erik Martensson of Eclipse and Jeff Scott Soto, had been working on new material and having been a big fan of Eclipse’s recent works, I was looking forward to listening to how this new experiment would turn out with JSS powerful vocals.
Having been a huge fan of Jeff since his early material with Yngwie Malmsteen, I fell in a vine with his spellbinding voice and has followed him closely particularly his solo works and his Talisman material, which is excellent and has never has been given the proper recognition it deserves. This album I truly believed tops anything Frontiers has released all year long and that says alot because it’s been a big year for the Melodic Rock universe and Frontiers Records has been in the center of it all. The heavy splinter opener “Invincible” contains some nice heavy crisp guitars and some splendid cadence of choruses soaring high like the sky courtesy of JSS, meanwhile managing to balance the heavy sound of Eclipse with Jeff’s traditional AOR style. Soto stated that this album would of been something that Journey could have made if he was still with the band, well with all due respect to Journey, this album is heavier then anything they have done the last 15 years. The talented tandem of Swedes have written quality material, which should come to no body’s surprise since the hard rock scene in Sweden is huge right now. “Brother in Arms” shows the more serious writing side of this super group, I can’t help but notice some of the material here and in the song “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” being more politically aimed and why not, is refreshing to hear an artist take it to the man and focus on some real issues going on in the world today. A dark keyboard vibe introduces “Comes Down Like Rain”, Jeff’s high escalating vocals take full flight here all the while giving way for Magnus Henriksson (Eclipse) who guests guitars here busting out a high powered solo to kick stream this powerful ballad. A fiery guitar intro blasts it’s way into the wonderful tune “If I Fall” keeping the lively atmosphere at full pledge. “I’ll Be There” and “Damage Is Done” balances out the pace and the rhythm of this wonderful record. I must point out the lyrics here are done quite well, not just the regular heartbroken love lyrics we come to expect from melodic rock records, the Swedish team of Säll and Martensson have managed to jog down some mature lyrics and the sound here captures Jeff Scott Soto the vocal talent in his every essence.
Any fan of hard rock and melodic rock needs this, is an essential piece of work that is both refreshing and innovated. I have always stated that JSS strong vocals fit a harder style of rock then some of his slower stuff, this record managed to sound refreshing but pikes out excess voltage of some of the elements that make the hard rock scene in Sweden so amazing, while Jeff’s weaves the music with his invigorating pipes. Simply put this is a must have, go and get it support the band and yet another skilled work of art from Soto and company as well as Frontiers.
Written by Denys
Ratings Denys 9/10
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