SHADOWS FADE – Shadows Fade (2016 reissue)
Another album from the Frontiers Music reissue series of some of their early releases now deleted is SHADOWS FADE‘s self-titled debut, the really good Melodic Hard Rock / AOR project fronted by stupendous vocalist Kevin Chalfant (The Storm, Two Fires).
Shadows Fade was another ‘studio project release’ from Frontiers Records this time putting together Kevin Chalfant singing a collection of tracks selected with his voice in mind, and multi-instrumentalist Alex De Rosso, one-time Dokken guitarist and general session man .
Shadows Fade will be of instant appeal to Chalfant fans and lovers of smooth, midtempo-dominated AOR. Style wise it’s very much in line with Kevin’s Two Fires couple of albums, with a strong Journey influence.
Kevin’s vocals are clean & clear and fit this material beautifully. In describing the vocals though, I would have to say that they are fairly laid back and within Kevin’s vast abilities.
There are some powerful passages on “Shadows Fade”, such as the chorus lines of ‘Sooner Or Later’ and ‘Run To Me’ (co-written by Desmond Child), with the remaining tracks, as said above, being very smooth, flawless and pure AOR like ‘Twisted Again’, ‘My Ocean’, ‘Without You’, ‘Now That You’re Gone)’, with a selection of emotional ballads in ‘Run To Me’ (semi-ballad in fact) and ‘I Won’t Look Back, Speak’) and moody mid-tempo rockers (‘Sooner Or Later’, ‘First Love Song’, ‘Give It In’).
De Rosso occasionally sounds like a recent era Eddie Van Halen with his guitar riffs, and elsewhere has a touch of Def Leppard in his arrangement / production techniques. But generally speaking, he lets Kevin do the work and merely accompanies the song’s path.
These project releases have seen some pretty amazing results so far, as the quality has generally been excellent. They are a good idea and have seen some vocalists make records when they might not otherwise have done so.
Kevin Chalfant has been responsible for some of the AOR genre finest moments. While Shadows Fade doesn’t match the power and emotion of The Storm, it does provide fans with another taste of his much loved vocals and is a very easy listening collection of AOR / Melodic Rock tracks.
01. Twisted Again
02. Sooner Or Later
03. Run To Me
04. My Ocean
05. First Love Song
06. Without You
07. Give It In
08. Masquerade
09. I Won’t Look Back
10. Now That You’re Gone
11. Speak
Kevin Chalfant (vocals)
Alex De Rosso (guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, backing vocals)
Nick Savio (guitar)
Chiara Barro (keyboards)
Michael Gardner, Michael Higgins (backing vocals)
BUY IT !
www.amazon.de/Shadows-Fade/dp/B017EYZHH0
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