Artist: Surveillance
Label: Escape Music
Release: 2006
Rating: 3/5
Surveillance are representatives of melodic hard rock from the UK, and what sets them apart is Lee Small’s vocal approach. He makes no secret of flirting with the style of the legendary Glenn Hughes. Lee has a mastery of the soul-drenched twisting and bending of vocal lines, which fit perfectly with the ultra-melodic sound these traditional islanders in Surveillance serve up. It’s a polished, melodic, clean and energetic approach. In short, “Anglestation” scores its first plus right here!
In the production, Surveillance want to sound current, and what’s interesting is that the guitar riffing isn’t polished and ironed flat, as is usually the case with traditional melodic hard rock. Instead, the guys let a bit of “grime” onto the album, and the distortion has a smeared, rasping tone that stamps the record with a modern “groove”! The production of the rhythm section lags behind a little here, where the drums could have used more “metallic” depth and the bass lines could have been cranked up a notch.
Either way, this is a very decent debut from the band, graced by a freshness of expressive melodies and tasteful touches of acoustic guitar over the otherwise distortion-based foundation. It also surprises with a nice dose of originality hiding in the choice of main guitar motifs and the transitional guitar passages themselves. Add to that an enviable level of drama, and the varied songs hit a high quality level on these counts, so the album as a whole is compactly convincing on that front. There’s no point wasting too many words on how great the guitar soloing is. Don’t worry. It’s there, and it has the required dose of wit that grabs the listener’s attention.
It’s a convincing set of songs that shows how Surveillance differ from the usual hard rock standards. The album does have a few flaws in the production itself, but Surveillance, representatives of the British school, are by no means slouches as composers. Lee Small, or rather the band’s vocals, is the first attraction of “Angelstation”. Definitely a band that will grow even more on future albums. A debut worth your attention!
Line-up
Lee Small – vocals
Connor Emms – guitar
Paul Hodson – keyboards
Sue McCloskey – backing vocals
Jon Hayward – bass
Daz Wooytton – drums
Production
Mark Stuart
Track List
1. In Motion
2. Burning
3. Reflections
4. Middleman
5. The Primitive Soul
6. Messiah
7. Mary (Awaken part one)
8. The Holy
9. The Ghost In You
10. Awaken (Part two)
11. Truth
Running time: 45:31
