Formed in Ohio as LOVE AND WAR in 1991 and despite some minor successes, the newly reformed/reborn APOCALYPTIC LOVERS missed out on the brass ring of mega musical success the first time around. Now geographically spread out, the five members of the band (including two bass players), are raring to go with an ambitious release plan of 10 EPs of what is being called “newly updated vintage material”.
The first release, Redemption, Volume 1, was mixed by by industry legend Michael Wagener, who worked with many of the biggest names from the 1980’s and early ’90s metal movement.
If you love the sound of 80’s Rock then there’s something rather warming about this release from Apocalyptic Lovers who you’d probably tag with the Melodic Hard Rock label, but in truth there’s a little more depth and variety in here than with most.
Opening with ‘BETTER DAYS’ the wailing 80’s guitar in overdrive is front and centre and an infectious verse into a soaring chorus is always going to work, it may well be a case of ‘best foot forward’, and there are tinges of Mr Big about the song. It’s ‘KILLING FOR A LIVING’ though that just shades it for me – probably the strongest, most melodic, and most nicely put together song in the collection it’s well worth checking out. I can see ‘CHANGE OF FREQUENCY’ being a big draw too – the toll of a bell and spoken word give way to a gentle guitar intro, its all very Lillian Axe and moody before the chugging 80’s Dokken-esque melodies take hold.
Elsewhere the album blows hotter than it does cold – DYING DAY – is nice energetic melodic rock; LEFT IN THE COLD – a cool mid tempo rocker with probably the best backing vocals here (they are quite variable in quality elsewhere) but sadly let down by what is certainly not the strongest chorus here.
The slower THESE TEARS is another particularly well executed song – great vocals, great solo, and nice and melodic – it has it all and when you add to that a rather cool and Bluesy THE GROOVE you have an album that’s got lots of the boxes ticked. DYING DAY the closer just underlines that. If this is Vol. 1 we know that we’re going to enjoy the wait till Vol. 2.
