Interesting release this one, a project set up by Canadian bassist Stewart Sutherland and with a press release suggesting the album might be for “fans of Journey, Boston, Aerosmith, Motley Crüe and Skid Row”. In truth I don’t hear any of the name-checked bands in the mix here but what I do hear are some nice solid 80’s styed bluesy rock but far more akin to Whitesnake, or on the Southern Rock tinged ‘3 men 3 horses’ even the strains of latter day Skynyrd or Molly Hatchet.
The deeper you get here in fact the more you’ll be impressed by the consistent quality of the material. It may only be 8 tracks but it’s 8 damned good tracks featuring guest appearances by the likes of John Rabbit Bundrick on Hammond, and Kenny Aronoff on Drums, and the wonderful vocals of Eric Langlois throughout.
Aside from the wonderful blues-tinged openers ‘Rock and Roll Resurrection’ and ‘Bad News travels Fast’ there’s plenty of variations on that winning theme. ‘Radio’ is more mainstream radio hard rock but has a sound so familiar you’ll swear you heard it in your youth, it’s the most melodic offering here. The rest however is equally delicious: ‘Kick’ has a great groove; ‘Not on Me’ is a wonderful riff driven hard rocker; and ‘Bring the Flight’ another blues-tinged tour-de-force that is almost Soundgarden-lite (in the best possible way).
What strikes you most about Rock Alliance is the quality of the material and what captures your attention most is the fact that they’ve managed to create an album with no filler. Closer ‘Everything She Wants’ may even be up there with the best here, a stuttering bluesy rocker that will have fans of soulful blues tinged hard rock feeling satiated. The only thing that confuses me is the bands name checked in the press.
TRACKLIST: 1- Rock and Roll Resurrection | 2- Bad News Travels Fast | 3- 3 Men 3 Horses | 4- Radio | 5- Kick | 6- Not on me | 7- Bring the Fight | 8- Everything She Wants