When I heard the lineup on this, I assumed it would be a progressive rock release. There is some prog built into this, but overall this is just great hard rocking grooves. At Music Street Journal we often put things under the prog category based on the musicians involved, even when the music doesn’t quite fit, but in this case, I opted to go elsewhere. 

So, let’s talk about that lineup. First, we’ve got Richie Kotzen. He’s the non-prog guy of this trio. He’s played with Poison, Mr. Big and more. Next up is drummer Mike Portnoy. Portnoy has been part of prog acts like Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Transatlantic and more. Billy Sheehan rounds out the lineup and he’s been known for a number of progressive rock acts like Niacin, but also for his work with David Lee Roth’s band and alongside Kotzen in Mr. Big. Of course, for that reason, it should be no surprise that the quickest comparison here would be to say that this sounds like Mr. Big. It’s not a perfect fit, but that resemblance is natural and definite.

With those three guys you’d expect something great. Well, they deliver. This doesn’t break any molds or create anything really new. Instead it carries on the tradition of a lot of hard rocking acts from Led Zeppelin going forward. They do it incredibly well and this just an album you’ll find yourself spinning over and over. It’s that good.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014  Volume 2 at lulu.com/strangesound.

This beast fires off in a hard rocking jam that’s got some Lenny Kravitz vibe built into it. This thing is riff driven and powerful. The chorus is in more of a melodic, anthemic AOR approach. This makes me think of Van Halen in a lot of ways. Still, as one might expect there are progressive rock leanings in some of the little breaks between vocal sections. Billy Sheehan simply screams on the jam mid-track and that section combines progressive rock with heavy funk rock nicely.