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ROBIN MCAULEY
Soulbound
Frontiers Music Srl
http://www.robinmcauley.com

With a visually striking album cover, singer ROBIN MCAULEY's third Frontiers solo album (fourth overall) Soulbound makes an impression before you really even hear a single note of the material itself.

Given that I think Mcauley has quite the distinctive voice, I've always found myself pretty happy whenever I heard of any new release that he was part of.

Which is why when Soulbound was announced, I was looking forward to hearing the song "'Til I Die". It was put out to coincide with the album announcement to whet the appetite for music fans.

So you can imagine my surprise when I found that I wasn't all that moved by it on that initial listen. I couldn't put my finger on why but I just didn't get into the song. And that had me a bit worried considering it is the lead track on the album. You know, the track that is supposed to get listeners fired up for everything to come.

So when I got the chance to listen to the album in full, I knew that I was going to have to really take in what I was hearing on that first song to see if my first impression was correct or I was suffering from a momentary lapse of sanity. The Soulbound album is billed as a more straight guitar hard rock album than its two immediate predecessors, what would be my take on the release? Let's find out, shall we?

Like I said, "'Til I Die" leads off the album. I think what gave me pause initially was the kind of fits and starts intro to the song. It almost felt like the song was trying to make up its mind on how to begin. Once the music kicked in full, it was a full bore rocker. The music certainly fills up a lot of "space", giving you an audio feast.

That full sonic experience can almost certainly be traced to Mcauley's new producer Aldo Lonobile. He played bass and "additional guitar" on the album as well.

So I definitely have a different opinion about "'Til I Die" now as opposed to the first time I listened to the song. While the opening could've been more interesting to grab you from the start, once you get past that hiccup the song really does shake you out of whatever doldrums you might've been in previously.

The album's title cut was up next. There's a strong rocking undercurrent running throughout the song but I thought there was a bit of restraint during the main vocal passages when the song sounded more mid-tempo. Mcauley's voice comes through loud and clear as he sings about every time he goes "dancing with demons". I like the raspy touch that he hits during the more vocally intense part of his performance.

The drumming from Alfonso Mocerino gets the spotlight in the opening of "The Best of Me". It kicks off an energetic romp of a song with the band fully exploding from the speakers. It's a very aggressive performance which keys into that advance billing about how it is more of a guitar driven record than what ROBIN MCAULEY had on his two other Frontiers solo albums. I'm not sure who plays what on the individual tracks but guitarists Andrea Seveso and Alessandro Mammola are definitely shredding on this song. For me, this is one of the singular tracks on the album. Even Mcauley's vocals are more intensely gripping here.

The song "Crazy" starts off like it might be a ballad track but after the somewhat laid back intro, the song kicks the tempo up a bit. That dispels any notion of the music being a ballad, even if the lyrics might lend themselves to that thought a bit. That uptick in tempo I mentioned goes up even more for the song's chorus as the music really shifts gears and becomes another full on rocker. After the 2nd chorus and the guitar solo, the song pretty much stays in that highest gear until the song's fade out when it slides back into the slightly less focused delivery.

There's hardly a moment to catch your breath between the end of "Crazy" and the song "Let It Go". Man, that song explodes on the "scene" with a burst of guitar fretwork that instantly raises your heart rate. ROBIN MCAULEY's vocal take here matches the intensity level of the music making for a double shot of adrenaline. This is a ripping performance from all involved!

While there is a definite space between "Let It Go" and "Wonders of The World", the rocking pace doesn't suffer any kind of break at all. I love the lyrics comparing the actual Seven Wonders of the World to referring to an individual as a wonder to behold. Fast rocking and filled with plenty of guitar fireworks, I can see why this song was chosen as one of the tracks to get the "single" treatment.

The song "One Good Reason" has quite a sonic kick to the music. It's not as fast moving as some of the other songs but the rocking pace is fully on display. I thought the opening really had a strong hard rock thump to it and I noticed that the drumming from Mocerino had plenty of room to shine in the mix again.

Living up to its title, the song "Bloody Bruised and Beautiful" comes out punching. The rat-a-tat-tat drums in that opening definitely contribute to that feel. Like lightning, the song's pacing feels like you are dodging musical punches throughout as Mcauley's vocals soar over the musical tapestry. The mid-section of the song finds the music pushed a bit to the background to let ROBIN MCAULEY stand mostly on his own before a quick guitar solo leads into the musical roar coming back full force.

I loved the guitar work on "Paradise" a lot. There's a straight forward riff that fuels the song as a whole. You find yourself sailing along with the music and wrapping yourself up in the vocal track at the same time. Not bad considering the overarching speedy tempo you get throughout.

The song "Born To Die" is a hard rocking gem. Besides the rocking tempo which grabs you pretty quickly, I like the way the vocal performance allowed for the demonstration of various aspects of ROBIN MCAULEY's vocal abilities. You get the fiery uptempo side of his voice, but there's slower parts of his delivery and even parts where his voice gets shaded to the point of huskiness which gives an added depth to the overall feel of what he's doing within the song (and across the whole album honestly). The song's guitar solo is pretty cool too!

The track "There Was A Man" closes out the Soulbound album and as a whole the group isn't resting on their laurels or settling for a safe slow fade out of a song at all. The music comes out firing from the start and keeps shaking, rattling and rolling throughout. Shredding guitars and killer Mcauley vocals bring the album to a rollicking close and made me want to start listening to it all over again.

Before I'd really listened to the album in full, I'd talked to friend and fellow KNAC.COM scribe George Dionne about the fact I didn't like "'Til I Die" the first time I heard it and that I was worried it might color my overall reaction to the album. His response was to listen to the whole album and man, he was so right! Because while the opening of that lead track does not do justice to the song, it is pretty much the only complaint I had about the whole album.

I have loved ROBIN MCAULEY's work for decades now and while I may have had an initial test of faith with this album, I can definitely say that Soulbound is a monstrously fantastic album with plenty of great hard rock to thrill you over and over again. I hate to play favorites so early in the year but Soulbound is an early album of the year candidate for me...that's how much I loved it!

4.8 Out Of 5.0