Wild Rose: Dangerous

My last dalliance with Greek melodic hard rock or AOR was with the star-studded, yet lacklustre effort from George Gakis, an artist often viewed as a leader of the Greek pack. So, truth be told I was less than excited at the prospect of Greek MHR/AOR outfit Wild Rose, a band whose only previous release, Half Past Midnight completely passed me by. However pleasant surprises do make albums just that little bit sweeter and so it proves with Dangerous – even if the album title doesn't exactly describe the safe, familiar AOR on display. That doesn't mean that the results aren't well worth forty minutes or so of your time. In fact if the lighter, but not too light, end of the rock spectrum is where you like to spend those few quiet moments you can squeeze out of a day, then actually what Wild Rose are all about, will be right up your boulevard of broken dreams. The fact that the usually reliable AORHeaven have also put their name and promotion behind this album should equally assure you that we are in the land of quality melodic hard rock.

Now at this stage it would also be wise to suggest that there's going to be very little that sets the Wild Rose sound apart from a plethora of bands past and present, with all the usual main-players in this genre being brought to mind at one stage or another. However the vital ingredients which makes Dangerous not just another set of also ran songs are the convincing vocals from new singer David Saylor and the manner in which the hooks of nearly all of the songs on this album live long in the memory, without becoming too tiresome. Just as with Wild Rose I haven't encountered Saylor before, but I'm guessing that with his classy accent free vocals, that he isn't a Greek national, instantly removing one of the obvious stumbling blocks that non English speaking bands can sometimes suffer from. When you combine his breathy expressive delivery to the keyboard led "Is This Love", or up-tempo opener "Alone", then the microphone-man becomes a real asset. However even with a lesser vocalist the likes of the mid-paced "Not A Day Goes By", Shadow King-esque "Hold On", or full blown Richard Marx ballad "Awake", would make a lasting mark. Factor in a classy production that offers up a real clarity without sterilising the end results and Dangerous, while never even hinting at danger, does certainly suggest a classy future for this band.

MHR and AOR are undoubtedly going through something of a resurgence right now and with bands like Wild Rose coming out of the woodwork, it is easy to see why.

Track Listing
1. Alone
2. Hold On
3. I Can't Stop Loving You
4. If You Still Love Me
5. Dream On
6. Awake
7. Tonight
8. I Won't Forget You
9. Is This Love
10. Not A Day Goes By

Added: March 2nd 2013
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Wild Rose Online
Hits: 1971
Language: english

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