FALLING RED – Lost Souls (2018)
British rockers FALLING RED are not strangers to this blog. While an indie / underground band, we have featured one of their albums years ago, and recently the advanced single from this, their brand new CD “Lost Souls“.
The band have been going since 2006 and toured with the likes of Sebastian Bach, Ugly Kid Joe and Steel Panther, to name but three, but are keen to show there is more to them than their previous touring partners may suggest.
Yeah, this is pretty ‘sleazy’ (the American style) stuff in the vein of early Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row and alike but also Velvet Revolver, Slash solo, and more.
There are a few different strings to the band’s bow, meaning you get more than that same sound that so many current artists seem to be putting out again and again. At times there is a ‘light rock’, Melodic Rock feel, and a modern hard rock tinge to yet more tracks.
Vocalist / guitarist Andrew Roze has clearly been influenced by Slash in his playing style, as there are several hooks in the more melodic hard rock orientated tracks on the album that sound quite similar to his kind of sound, while his vocals are definitely towards the Sebastian Bach feel – a combination which works quite well.
There are solos throughout the songs which are pleasing to the ear and quite well written and performed. With strong bass lines providing a good bit of momentum to tracks without going into chug, chug, chug mode, and some able drumming and rhythm guitar, the band seem to gel well together to create their different sounds.
‘The Day I Lost My Soul’, as example, is an anthemic hard rocker mixing Hardcore Superstar with Skid Row, then ‘Alive’ is a moody melodic rocker in a midtempo pace typically ’80s.
One of my favourites on the album is the single ‘My town, My City’ an acoustic, ballad-style song with some GN’R ‘Lies’ era on it, then ‘War in the Sky’ brings back the sleazy LA era yet played by a British act.
‘Enemies’ is a really cool song which somehow I found similar to Poison – a tune that really deserves a huge amount of Classic Rock Radio airplay.
FALLING RED aren’t reinventing the wheel here, we find variation in styles for different moods which helps to set “Lost Souls” apart from a lot of others similar to it.
While there are a couple of negatives (the album cover doesn’t reflect the music inside), the differences in style of some of the tracks mean that hooks and riffs are not constantly reused, which adds to the re-playability of this CD.
Despite being a self-managed release, the band have clearly taken the time and effort to properly produce and execute this new album, which is of even more credit to them.
Quite Recommended
01 – The Darkest Day (Intro)
02 – The Day I Lost My Soul
03 – Digital Disguise
04 – Alive
05 – My Town My City
06 – Dead
07 – Hell in My Eyes
08 – War in the Sky
09 – Enemies
10 – Beautiful Lie
11 – Haunted
12 – In My Head
13 – A Song for the Haters
Rozey – Lead Vocals, Guitar
Shane Kirk – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Mikey Lawless – Bass, Backing Vocals
Dave Sanders – Drums, Backing Vocals
BUY IT !
www.falling-red.com/shop/
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