W.E.T. is back with another melodic, hard rock album that consists of eleven tracks (plus one Japanese bonus) that really rock, and this is an album I highly anticipated since their previous release, the second one, “Rise Up” in 2013. Four Swedes (Erik Mårtensson, Robert Säll, Magnus Henriksson and Robban Bäck) and one American (Jeff Scott Soto) form the band, whose name comes from three different bands (Work of Art, Eclipse and Talisman) with diverse musical backgrounds and history but providing great music over the last almost thirty years. “Earthrage” is full of melodies, anthemic choruses and heavy guitar riffs, and the quality of all that is beyond what we could expect. Songs are really uplifting, but they have this distinctive sweet melancholy that we love, by ‘we’ I mean the ones who enjoy and love listening to those melodic hard rock songs. W.E.T. is not just another project band, just another ‘all-star’ band. It is another band coming from the north which has already mastered this specific genre of melodic hard rock and is another high quality Swedish band (among others like: Eclipse, H.E.A.T. and others) which can deliver great songs on all their records and you always have their songs’ refrains on your mind. You never forget the choruses no matter what. ‘Earthrage’ does not top the first W.E.T. album (self-titled), which is the epitome of this genre, by far. However, Jeff Scott Soto is on great form, delivering the songs on his own colorful and distinctive way, reminding us what a great singer he is and how great range his voice has. Magnus Henriksson, the lead guitarist, plays the guitar in an awesome way and his solos and leads perfectly match the character of all songs, following a sweet, melodic but also heavy tone, when you need that heaviness exploding at the peak of each song. Mårtensson, Säll and Bäck provide solid foundations on which the songs are build upon and they are not just participants on a band, but they also provide strong songwriting and rightly contribute to an excellent result at the end. An album that I love listening to it again and again, a record that flows so easy and soothes your ear and heart. An album of both ballads, mid-tempo songs but also heavy songs. A variety of songs, influences, backgrounds perfectly matched together. This is “Earthrage”. Let yourselves to it and you will enjoy it for sure.
♦ 8/10
Antonis Mantzavinos
