Brave Rival – Fight or Flight Review

From out of nowhere I stumbled on the Portsmouth, UK based band BRAVE RIVAL, and as soon as I put on their 2nd studio album Fight Or Flight, it was clear that we are dealing here with a rather sensational band. The first 2 songs Bad Choices and Seventeen are bluesy melodic hard/heavy rockers at the highest possible level you can get nowadays. There are quite a few female fronted similar bands currently out there doing the same thing, but somehow BRAVE RIVAL has the perfect lead singers (yeah, there’s two of them!) to sing the material, and their new album has a massive sound as well as a lot of really catchy songs that even recall the good old days of bands like ROMEO’S DAUGHTER and PRIVATE LIFE, yet with a modern take, so perhaps it’s better to mention BLUES PILLS, ELLES BAILEY and ERJA LYYTINEN as comparisons.

 

On the other hand, BRAVE RIVAL sounds stronger, rockier, catchier and therefore actually better than all of the aforementioned acts, which is thanks to presence of 2 fantastic lead singers whom are called Chloe Josephine and Lindsey Bonnick. In addition, the band also has a superb lead guitarist in the shape of ED CLARKE, just listen to the amazing midtempo melodic rocker Insane to hear some of his lovely shredding work (a la JOE BONAMASSA), while the song itself would make a band like HEART jealous I think! The band is completed by drummer Donna Peters and bassist Billy Dedman, who are doing a great job to keep the rhythm section sound as tight as possible.

 

BRAVE RIVAL has been together since 2019, and their initial debut album Life’s Machine would have been recorded and released somewhere in the year 2020, but due to the covid pandemic it was postponed to 2022, and now we are welcomed by this wonderful 2nd studio album entitled Fight Or Flight. Other highlights on this new CD are the heavy AOR rocker Fairytale (another terrific song, reminding me of the classic female fronted AOR/Melodic Rockbands MEGHAN, VIXEN, WITNESS, LAOS, HEAT…), the soulful bluuesy AORish ballads Heavy and All I Can Think About (a bit like ALANNAH MYLES meets BLUES PILLS meets BETH HART), Five Years On (hard-hitting bluesy hardrock with once again lovely guitarwork), the uptempo melodic rocker Unravelling (VIXEN meets PHANTOM BLUE) and the excellent proggy melodic rocker Sink Or Swim (loving those harmonyvocals between the 2 lead singers).

 

Concluded, this BRAVE RIVAL caught me by surprise due to the fact that everything sounds crystal clear and picture perfect on their new album. They have got 2 excellent female lead singers and a superb sound that will appeal to fans of the current bluesy hardrocksound, but also people who long back to the classic 80s female fronted AOR/Melodic Hardrocking days of the aforementioned acts need to check out this sensational band.

 

Written by: Gabor Kleinbloesem

Ratings: Gabor   9/10