Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: February 12, 2021
Production: Joel Hoekstra
Album length: 52.53 min
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
Joel Hoekstra is back with his “thirteen” project and a new album, “Running Games”. We’re talking over 50 minutes of music, with the man bringing eleven new tracks to life in a relatively short time, and they were surely written at different points. Either way, his duties with Whitesnake ground to a halt thanks to the “forced pause of human activity” on the planet, which includes touring. Joel is making the most of this kind of “celibacy” for humankind to record his own music. And he’s putting it to damn good use.
For the new album he’s put together a top-notch crew, and this time really in the mold of a proper hard rock band. Hoekstra has handed the vocal duties to just one singer this time. The choice could hardly be better, though it’s not a new one. His name is Russell Allen. That Russell Allen from the days before he went for the markedly raspy vocal approach that’s been logged on the post-“Five: The New Mythology Suite” (2000) albums by his home band Symphony X. So, clean vocals, through which the singer’s vocal strengths shine with full intensity, along with his eternal inspiration from the figure and work of Ronnie James Dio, and at times from Joel’s current employer David Coverdale too. On the previous album, “Dying To Live”, released a good five years ago, two singers handled the lead vocals: Allen and Jeff Scott Soto (solo, W.E.T., Talisman, Axel Rudi Pell,…).
But besides Joel Hoekstra himself, Allen isn’t the only star of this album. Joel surrounded himself with a top-notch crew, so you also get Black Country Communion keyboardist Derek Sherinian, the in-demand bassist with the magic touch Tony Franklin, and legendary Black Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice. Jeff Scott Soto added color to the album’s lead vocals with his backing. What we have here is a “cannon-blast” of a hard rock album, lavishly decked out with razor-sharp musicality and top-tier execution. The only debatable thing is, of course, the album’s running time. But then, it’s hard to predict when an album will actually turn out to be your last. Hoekstra decided not to be stingy with the material, and he’s used the chance he was handed to put out a new album to the fullest.
In terms of ideas, it’s more than satisfactorily varied. We’re operating inside the predictable mold of hard rock songwriting, mind you, but the compositions are brilliantly detailed. The lead-ins to the choruses, the transitions back into the verses, the polished intros and outros. A flashing arsenal of punchy, characterful, signature phrases has earned its citizenship on this album. All of it crowned by Russell Allen’s explosive, passionate vocals, shining with the full intensity of a singer in top form. An album like this would have been tailor-made for a vocalist like Joe Lynn Turner or the aforementioned Jeff Scott Soto. On an album like “Running Games,” time actually stops, or rather blasts you off into a parallel temptation of the carefree eighties.
Hoekstra bets everything on pomp, theatrics and top-level musicality. The peaks of every track are the grabby chorus melodies, while the brilliant swings in mood are chased down above all by mid-eight passages in which Hoekstra answers why he’s the guitarist in Whitesnake today – Coverdale has always “recruited” the best. That internalized feel for building a compact, ignition-ready composition was nurtured and rewarded above all through his years of seasoning in Night Ranger, and he’s skillfully perfecting it today with Whitesnake. There are quite a few hyper-musical moments that shoot the listener straight to the vibe of Night Ranger’s post-millennium output (they’re recording a new album too), and Foreigner and Journey aren’t far off either. But watch out: “Running Games” knows no AOR sweetener. These are just a few possible hints at where the songs could “drive” in a different musical setting. Then again, there are moments with no shortage of associations that fire you off toward Deep Purple and Whitesnake. Hoekstra made excellent use of Sherinian, and the solo acrobatics on keys, teamed up with the guitar rally, serve up a brilliant spice on a few tracks.
“Running Games”, which feels like a band’s album and not an individual’s, is a brilliant blend of seventies and eighties hard rock influences, with the aesthetic of some seriously muscular jolts of modern production tricks woven in. With this kind of talent, experience and mileage, and in the company of out-of-this-world musicians, it’s hard to go wrong. Joel Hoekstra proves just how battle-hardened he is. This time around the guy has to be treated first and foremost as a composer, and only then as a top-class guitar virtuoso. The performance of the chosen crew is granite-solid and thrilling at every step. “Running Games” is an extremely convincing piece of work as a whole, and already at the start of this year, a quiet contender for one of the best hard rock albums.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Finish Line
2. I’m Gonna Lose It
3. Hard To Say Goodbye
4. How Do You
5. Heart Attack
6. Fantasy
7. Lonely Days
8. Reach The Sky
9. Cried Enough For You
10. Take What’s Mine
11. Running Games
12. Lay Down Your Love*
* … bonus track (digital release only)
Lineup:
Joel Hoekstra (Whitesnake/Trans-Siberian Orchestra) – guitar
Russell Allen (Symphony X, Adrenaline Mob) – vocals, backing vocals
Vinny Appice (ex-Black Sabbath, DIO) – drums
Tony Franklin (ex-The Firm, Blue Murder) – bass guitar
Derek Sherinian (Sons Of Apollo, Dream Theater, Black Country Communion) – keyboards
Jeff Scott Soto (Sons Of Appollo, Trans-Siberian Orchestra) – backing vocals
Guest musicians:
Lenny Castro (TOTO) – percussion
Chloe Lowery (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) – backing vocals
Dave Eggar (Evanescence, Coldplay) – cello
Katie Kresek (Adele, Five For Fighting) – violin, viola
