Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Sweet, Michael
Label: Rat Pak Records
Release: 2016
Running time: 46:40
Rating: 5/5
Michael Sweet is a guy who doesn’t know the meaning of the word rest. Alongside his duties with his main band Stryper, who dropped another excellent studio album, »Fallen« (2015), toward the end of last year, he also put out, that same year, an equally superb »combo« album with his buddy George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob), titled »Only to Rise« (2015). And now, two years that have flown by at crazy speed since the release of »I’m Not Your Suicide« (2014), a new Sweet solo studio effort hits the scene – his seventh in total – and it goes by the name »One Sided War«.
Sweet wasn’t lying when he promised that the heaviest-sounding release of his solo career to date was coming out of his studio. Considering that the production on the last two Stryper albums sounds positively metal-possessed compared to everything the band has put out over its career, it’s hardly surprising that Sweet enjoys carrying that kind of sound over to his solo studio work too.
Plain and simple: plenty of tracks on this album could easily have found their way onto either of the last two Stryper studio albums. Sweet’s initial idea was to make this solo album all about his guitar playing, or rather to put much more of it front and center. Alongside the vocal duties, of course. Beyond the fact that Sweet is not only an excellent vocalist but a very good guitarist too, he ran into two guitar names who radically changed how the material that ended up on this album took shape. The first is Joel Hoekstra (Whitesnake, Trans Siberian Orchestra, ex-Night Ranger), the second Ethan Brosh, an unbelievable guitar wizard who, besides his own solo albums, has worked in the past with the likes of Gergeom Lynchem, Mike Mangini (Dream Theater), Greg Howe, Yngwie J. Malmsteen and Jack E. Lee (Red Dragon Cartel, ex-Ozzy Osbourne), Carmine Appice (Vanila Fudge, Cactus), Vinnie Appice (Black Sabbath).
In short, there’s no messing around on »One Sided War. The first half of the album sounds especially sharp, with Sweet and the crew staying in classic metal waters (especially the tracks Bizarre, Can’t Take This Life, One Sided War, Golden Age, I Am, and Comfort Zone in the second half of the album), while Radio, One Way Up, Only You and You Make Me Wanna are the kind of tunes you could file under the textbook elements of hard rock. Above it all towers Sweet’s finely honed knack for ultra-melodic hooks. Thanks to the hard-hitting production and a combo of punch with unbelievable singability and infectious melody (especially those top-notch choruses), the parallels with Stryper’s latest work are completely justified this time around.
Hoekstra and Brosh create an outstanding contrast between songs with their guitar solos. They don’t hold back and deliver all the greatness they’re prized for, and that makes them two of the most sought-after artists in the rock’n’roll world. Hoekstra and Sweet go back to the days when Night Ranger were the opening act for AOR cult heroes Boston across North America. And the man handling lead vocals for Boston back then was none other than Michael Sweet. Fate clearly wanted the talents and musical visions of these two musicians to finally meet and join forces on a shared studio effort!
Michael Sweet remains the master of his own moves. In everything. The album »One SIded War« is an excellent piece of work, and given how polished it is in both songwriting and production, it just proves that Sweet has been riding a giant wave of high creative inspiration for years now, and it isn’t dying down one bit. For all his workaholic ways, Sweet clearly isn’t running out of ideas or energy; he comes out of every project even stronger and even more convincing in his artistry. Maturity, knowledge, experience. Wisdom. This refinement in songwriting, which Sweet scatters around so generously, is underlined especially by the gorgeous new ballad Who Am I, which just adds the cherry on top to the album’s wide palette of many collages of captured moods. That Michael Sweet shines vocally at full strength on this album too, and that he hasn’t lost a speck of the vocal power he had on Stryper’s eighties output, hardly needs saying.
So »One Sided War« is an outstanding album, with a highly musical payoff, riding the golden mean between classic-school heavy metal and hard rock. This unbelievably solid, polished focus of Sweet’s musical vision is downright thrilling, and let’s hope the man shows up (again) on the stages of the old European continent as soon as possible, either with his backing band or on a new Stryper tour. The album »One Sided War« is tailor-made for all fans of Sweet’s solo career and all fans of Stryper’s work. Another outstanding studio effort, then!
Michael Sweet – Bizzare (official video):
Michael Sweet – Radio (official video):
Lineup
Michael Sweet – vocals, guitar, backing vocals
Joel Hoekstra – guitar
Ethan Brosh – guitar
John O’Boyle – bass
Will Hunt – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Moriah Formica – vocals on track no. 12
Production
Michael Sweet
Track list
- Bizarre
- One Sided War
- Can’t Take This Life
- Radio
- Golden Age
- Only You
- I Am
- Who Am I
- You Make Me Wanna
- Comfort Zone
- One Way Up
- Can’t Take This Life (bonus track)
