Best Female Fronted album 2017 : DANTE FOX – Six String Revolver (2017)
End of the year / beginning of 2018, it’s time to recap about the best 2017 releases, by category.
DANTE FOX never fail to deliver top class melodic rock with Sue Willetts Manford’s velvet vocals at front.
DANTE FOX return with their 6th album “Six String Revolver” to be released tomorrow via AOR Heaven Records. A staple in the UK Melodic Rock / AOR scene since the mid-Nineties, after their stunning 2016 album Breathless DANTE FOX are back with this “Six String Revolver” which a re-recording of ten favorite tracks taken from the UK band’s first two releases (long time out of print).
“Six String Revolver” includes material from DANTE FOX’s first albums Under Suspicion (1996) and The Fire Within (1999) with five songs being taken from each.
These songs have been re-recorded from the ground up with love, respect, precision and an excellent state of the art modern production. Essentially, DANTE FOX has taken the spirit of their past accomplishments and simply freshened them up for their third decade.
And what a superb set of songs we have…
The band, as always, is driven by Sue Willetts-Manford’s utterly splendid vocals and Tim Manford’s elegant guitar work which complements the vocal harmonies so well.
Throughout the album, you can feel the maturity come through in Willetts-Manford’s voice. It seems to take less effort these days to get better results than on the originals.
There is less vibrato at lower volume than back in the 1990’s and to me, the songs are better for it. This makes me sound like I didn’t like her vocals back in the day but you couldn’t be more wrong, her singing has been nothing short of spectacular since it all began.
“Six String Revolver” is jam-packed with AOR delights from the ’90s DANTE FOX canon, such as the opener ‘Firing My Heart’ which sets up the album superbly with the spine-tingling combo of vocals and guitar I love so much.
For a bit of variety ‘Remember My Name’ (“Remember” as was) delivers. Willetts-Manford gives it her best Ann Wilson on what could well be a HEART track that explodes late on with power and passion.
One of the biggest makeovers comes on ‘I Can’t Sleep’ which now has a crunchy riff of an opening, more forceful vocals, and a generally upscaled rock feel. A definite improvement of an already quality track.
Other favorites include “Under The City Lights”, “Lost and Lonely Heart” and “A Matter of Time”.
“Six String Revolver” is a fine example of what the best AOR / Melodic Rock should be and although would be already familiar with the songs, DANTE FOX has certainly breathed new life into them.
This album is among the best that has been done in the genre this year, full of top class melodies, sing-a-long choruses, superb musicianship and top notch production.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
01. Firing My Heart
02. Lonely
03. Under The City Lights
04. A Matter Of Time
05. Still Remember Love
06. Lost And Lonely Heart
07. Remember My Name
08. All That I Need
09. I Can’t Sleep
10. How Do We Learn About Love
11. All That I Need (Acoustic Version)
Sue Willetts Manford – lead vocals
Tim Manford – lead guitar, backing vocals
Alan Mills – bass
Eric Ragno – keyboards
Pre Order:
www.amazon.de/Six-String-Revolver-Dante-Fox/dp/B07663MD4J
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