  
Frontiers/BAM
X-Drive is part of the Frontiers drive for new constellations of household names and talents that deserves recognition. In this care thay´ve paired guitarist Jeremy Brunner and drummer Fred Fischer (MIDLINE) with Keith St John of MONTROSE and BURNING RAIN fame plus James Lomenzo who has MEGADETH and WHITE LION on his CV. I guess those backgrounds says at least a bit of wat can be expected.
Keith has one sure-fire bluesy voice that can keep most blues-based tracks in the air. Something he also proves here as the 80´s archetype of hair metal with firm blues roots, albeit there are a few other more modern sounds thrown in for good measure. I detect a few other big bands from 30 years back too; The title track is slightly NIGHT RANGER-ish, “Change of Heart” is in the MR. BIG vein, the absurdly catchy “Love Breaks the Fool” has echoes of prime era Y&T and “Turn the Noize Down” is QUIET RIOT right down to the spelling. But you can do much worse in 2014. The downside is that there are a few songs too many that just don´t linger. But back in the day I bet that the title track, “Lay Me Down”, “Baby Bye Bye” and “Steppin´ on the Rock” would have taken them places. In today’s single song purchase era I think that it is only absolutely top-notch pieces “Love Breaks the Fool”, opener “Love´s a Bitch” and the slightly different “Just Can´t Stay” that will earn them a crust. It´s getting harder out there...
Track List
Love´s a Bitch
Get Your Rock ON
Steppin´ On the Rock
Baby Bye Bye
California
Lay Me Down
Turn the Noize Down
Fly Beyond the Angels
Rattlesnake Eyes
Just Can´t Stay
Change of Heart
Love Breaks the Fool
www.frontiers.it www.x-drivemusic.com
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