Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Soto, Jeff Scott
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2017
Running time: 51:07
Rating: 4/5
Yet another album that »slipped« through all of RockLine’s reviewer sieves last year. Jeff Scott Soto! The famous vocalist, who’s extremely well known on the world rock map thanks to countless gigs with prominent bands as well as high-profile projects, starting with Journey, then Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and most recently the prog metal super-heavyweights Sons Of Apollo, is back with a new studio album!
Jeff has been incredibly busy and active lately, especially in recent years. He’s got no shortage of energy, in fact he’s practically bursting with it. Not long ago he wrapped up two albums with his side band SO.T.O., he just put out a debut with Sons Of Paollo, and he’s recording again with W.E.T., who will release a new album this March. And on top of all that, he somehow piled up enough material for a new studio album too.
Retribution is an album on which Soto plants himself firmly in his trademark musical nomenclature, effectively catching up with his past studio work. Given everything he’s been through in his career over the last few years, the man has surely approached »Rertibution« with a fresh vision and a mature artistic progression in everything it has to offer. It’s actually an expected record, one that doesn’t bring any earth-shattering rock ‘n’ roll tremors, but diligently follows the legacy of melodic rock and the AOR revivalism we’ve been witnessing the whole time we’ve been talking about Jeff. The album is once again full of appealing musical content, dominated of course by the velvety performance of this superb singer, with emotional peaks in ultra-catchy anthemic hooks that instantly get under your skin.
Jeff is armed with a team of top-notch musicians, and for instance the transitions in the song Inside/Outside sound prog metal. Production-wise the guitars have also been cranked up a bit, while mostly being wrapped in a rocky Hammond organ sound. This gives the album an extremely organic, reconciliatory sound and a dynamic bond between all the building blocks of the sonic picture, where the vocals dominate, of course, and the warm Hammond organ sound meshes extremely well in such a setting with the strong, characterful guitar phrases. It’s a trait we’ve known since the days of Deep Purple, and one that always sparked things up nicely.
Soto is also far too seasoned to pull off any artistic deception. The man is wide open to all kinds of musical and artistic challenges, but he keeps his solo career firmly on the reconciliatory tracks of melodic rock expression, and this time around his musical recipe isn’t all that different either. »Retribution« feels livelier and less sterile thanks to the production, and so carries a more pronounced hard rock sentiment. The songs are once again varied enough, which means »Retribution« is an album that develops dynamically and doesn’t bore a true fan of this kind of music for a second. Fans will be thrilled once more by what this flinty vocalist offers on his new album.
Lineup
Jeff Scott Soto – vocals, keyboards
Howie Simon – guitar, bass (except on “Reign Again” and “Song For Joey”)
Edu Cominato – drums
August Zadra – guitar on “Reign Again”
Stephen Sturm – guitar on “Reign Again”
Carlos Costa – bass on “Reign Again”
Paul Mendonca – guitar, keyboards, bass on “Song For Joey”
Tracklist
01. Retribution
02. Inside/Outside
03. Rage Of The Year
04. Reign Again
05. Feels Like Forever
06. Last Time
07. Bullet For My Baby
08. Song For Joey
09. Breakout
10. Dedicate To You
11. Autumn
