Hell Yeah! Warrant's back with a grooving heavy metal swagger that has been missing for far too long. The band's original set of musicians are present but the man behind the majority of the music is not, in his place is the uber kick ass frontman that is built from the legendary mold of the best prototypical hard rock singers Robert Mason. Mason is one of "the" greatest hard rock singer on this and any other planet. His voice has a timbre that exudes all things great about sleaze rock or greasy L.A.Sunset Strip heavy metal...this guy is the real deal.
The bands second album without Janie and even though the excellent Jamie St. James did a good job on the bands Born Again album in 2006 he didn't have the same effectivness that Mr. Janie Lane did. Here Mason has taken the band down a similar path musically of Born Again but because of his incredible vocal charisma he makes Warrant sound as good as they did on Cherry Pie. I prefer this bluesy version of the band with their sound more akin to South Gang or Tora Tora and picking up on the groove/spirit of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and their brilliant cover of "Train, Train". Turner and Allen have once again shown they can write and play good hard rock guitar. Dixon and Sweet sound great laying down a nice thick bouncy groove for the boys to riff and solo over.
When any fan listens to this record missing Lane won't happen much because when you listen to "Home" Robert Mason has enough in his delivery to remind you of him but still take the vocal to another level which Janie never could. One of my personal favorites on this disc is "The Show Must Go On" which is directed at their original singer who after yet another opportunity was fired. It's a shame that he can't put the bottle down but then again a blessing because of who's now in his place.
This album is far from perfection and has a couple of tossers like "Cocaine Freight Train" a juvenile song on all levels. Just misses the creativity bus being left behind considering how good some of the other songs are. "Found Forever" is a great tune that is already been added to my I-Pod for many loudly sung plays in the car. This is a power ballad worthy of being on any hard rock record. The albums closing number reminds me of Ratt in composition with a nod to Fastway hidden in their as well as a little "Power & Glory" from Saxon. A strong Warrant album made even better with a great singer. Easily this album gets 4 Eargasms out of 5
Warrant Sample 2011 by Splashadian
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