DAWN AFTER DARK – New Dawn Rising (2022)
Between 1986 and 1989, Birmingham-based band DAWN AFTER DARK toured all over the UK, playing many headline shows, as well as touring with Balaam And The Angel, Wolfsbane, Living Colour, etc. With 3 EP’s Dawn After Dark were recognized as one of the UK’s best live bands, but internal combustion saw the group implode in 1991.
Now they’re back in business, and finally releasing a full length album titled ”New Dawn Rising”, a classic rocker with a sound akin to ’80s The Cult, aided by a superb production from talented guitarist Andy Taylor, who knows a thing or two about harnessing the power of an Eighties rock guitar.
Some tracks were written back in the late ’80s however never recorded, some are re-workings, some others are new but all have that steamy, beer flavored riff-driven rock n’ roll feel from the glorious decade.
The album kicks off with a classic and updated cut of Maximum Overdrive which is a killer like it always had been. It screams and does so as a solid opener. Then we slide over to The Day That The Word And I Parted Company which grabs you and fires you in a different direction (enough hi-hat action to make it all feel surreal) which then amps it up to the punch of Dead On Time which brings this album up again in a glorious wave.
Now we are 3 tracks in and it’s ringing gloriously already… where to go from here? The album returns to familiar territory again with a fresh angle of their classic track The Groove. It rides that out without a misstep and then the slightly slower drive of When Will You Come Home To Me which gives itself another slower pace before erupting into a 40 second burst of full energy before sliding back down.
New song Nothing Can Fulfil Me (Without Your Love) jumps up and slaps you in the face with a BPM and drive that amps up the album again before swinging it lower to The Shifting Sands Of Time – and swing it does.
Then we move riding on that Crystal High and another great modern take on a classic Dawn After Dark track. It can only grind sweetly on a slightly more sombre vibe of (I’m Not) The Man I Used To Be and revisiting Her Sleep which takes you backwards a touch and to the forefront again.
Then to close the CD off we have Truth And Freedom which feels like an old school amalgamation of genre swinging noize and a cooler edge.
Dawn After Dark nailed it. The new material, the ’80s never recorded song and the re-recordings of classic tracks work in full flow and when I say flow, it flows greatly.
With most bands when they re-record tracks and give new material decades later you often wonder how it will play out. But here the Drums pound, Guitars ring in a tonal expulsion that drives compelling riffs and grooves. Collectively as a band and as a rock n’ roll album – it shines.
Highly Recommended
01 – Maximum Overdrive
02 – The Day The World And I Parted Company
03 – Dead On Time
04 – The Groove
05 – When Will You Come Home To Me ?
06 – Nothing Can Fulfill Me (Without Your Love)
07 – The Shifting Sands Of Time
08 – Crystal High
09 – (I’m Not) The Man I Used To Be
10 – Her Sleep
11 – Truth And Freedom
Howard ‘H’ Johnson – Vocals
Ollie – Lead guitar
Russ Frame – Rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Drew Gallon – Bass
Tony Henderson – Drums, backing vocals
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thedawners.com/
