DARE – Road To Eden (2022)

UK melodic rock / AOR band DARE are set to return with their highly anticipated 10th studio album ”Road To Eden”, their first in six years, released by Legend Records on Friday 1st April 2022. Produced by lead singer / songwriter Darren Wharton (ex-Thin Lizzy) at his studio the majestic mountains of North Wales, the new album has a harder rock edge than previous albums, whilst still retaining the atmospheric sound and anthemic melodies that has become the band’s signature trademark.
With ”Road To Eden” Dare have produced a quite stunning new CD that stands out a in a catalogue of very good albums as their best for many years. It is chock full of beautifully anthemic AOR melodies but with a rockier edge than a lot of their more recent material.

The return of original guitarist Vinny Burns for 2016’s Sacred Ground saw Dare gradually moving back to the kind of AOR that they demonstrated on their debut and this sound is the kind of ball-park we are in with 2022’s new release, ”Road To Eden”.
There is certainly a fair bit of bite to the guitars on this new album, something that will please those fans who found albums such as ‘Calm Before The Storm’ and ‘Beneath The Shining Water’, etc, a little too soft and moody.

So what is the material like on Road To Eden? Well, “quite stunning” is the simple answer and I’d argue that this might well be Dare’s finest work since their mighty debut. The first thing that you notice is that Vinny Burns’ guitar sound is full, powerful and highly effective. His guitar is prominent in most of the tracks, further developing the more powerful sound he brought to the band in 2016.
The second thing that you notice is that Darren Wharton’s vocals still retain that beautiful warm honey tone that they’ve always had. They suit the moody storytelling AOR tracks that fill this album perfectly. Wharton’s keyboard contributions are excellent too.

In common with all of Dare’s 21st century product, the tracks do require a few listens to really sink in. This is not a bad thing as there is some real potential for longevity here as the gorgeous melodies take some time to embed into the consciousness, yet are immediate enough to hold and keep one’s attention throughout. Lyrically, there is a real sense of the storyteller about Wharton’s writing.
This may well be an influence from the late, great Phil Lynott, with whom Wharton played towards the end of Lynott’s time with Thin Lizzy in the early 1980s. T

One slight criticism levelled at Dare in the past has been that too many tracks on their recent product have had similar tempos and melodies so it’s not so easy to separate the tracks. However, in common with 2016’s Sacred Ground, Road To Eden does not fall so far into that trap.
There is a very good mix of nicely uptempo melodic rockers and slower mid-paced ballad style tracks on here. It is true that Wharton has a certain writing style and some of his melodies do sometimes sound a little similar on first listen, but by the third or fourth listen, the melodies are well and truly under your skin and the individual identities of the tracks shine out proud and strong.

Standout tracks are hard to identify such is the strength of all of the material but if pushed I’d start with opening pair ‘Born In The Storm’ and ‘Fire Never Fades’, both of which really see the boys flexing the rockier side of their sound on huge guitar based anthems.
Second track ‘Cradle to the Grave’ has a beautiful guitar introduction reminiscent of the sort of thing Steve Rothery was doing on Marillion’s Holidays in Eden era, before the power chords kick in on another massively anthemic track.
Title track ‘Road to Eden’ has a lovely Celtic-style melody while ‘Lovers and Friends’ is a quite beautiful piano-led ballad with a gorgeous chorus and keyboards to die for.

‘I Always Will’ is stunning AOR with a great melody and a massive chorus, while ‘The Devil Rides Tonight’ has a highly atmospheric opening which leads into a colossal uptempo rocker. Vinny Burns is on top form on this one with a solo reminiscent of his best work with Ten.

”Road To Eden” sound is very much in the classic early Dare mold – you’ll not find heavily downtuned guitars or the sorts of keyboard sounds that permeate such a lot of the more modern sounding AOR stuff on this album.
This warm, familiar and classic rocking AOR sound suits them perfectly and I’d wager that any of these songs that make it into the live set for the tour of the UK and Europe later this year will absolutely kick ass on the stage.
Very, very highly recommended for longstanding Dare fans and for all fans of high quality classic sounding AOR / Melodic Rock everywhere.

01 – Born in the Storm
02 – Cradle to the Grave
03 – Fire Never Fades
04 – Road to Eden
05 – Lovers and Friends
06 – Only the Good Die Young
07 – Grace
08 – I Always Will
09 – The Devil Rides Tonight
10 – Thy Kingdom Come

Darren Wharton-Vocals, Keyboards
Vinny Burns-Guitars
Nigel Clutterbuck-Bass Guitar
Kev Whitehead-Drums
Marc Roberts-Keyboards

Pre Order:
cargorecordsdirect.co.uk/products/dare-road-to-eden