Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Gotthard
Label: G Records
Release: 2017
Duration: 48:13
Rating: 4/5
It’s unbelievable how fast time flies. It feels like only yesterday that Gotthard, the long-lived and one of the most commercially successful Swiss hard rock exports, put out »Bang!«. And now here’s »Silver«, the band’s twelfth album overall and the third in a row with new singer Nic Maeder.
This time around, the hard rock icons from Lugano have served up a somewhat darker and more serious, yet atmospherically more predatory studio record compared to its largely »party-loving« predecessor »Bang!«. Gotthard are still Gotthard with the new album, especially if you’ve made peace with the fact that Steve Lee is no longer in the band. Musically, nothing has changed at all. Main songwriter, leader and founder, guitarist Leo Leoni, still writes killer guitar riffs and crafts excellent compositions, which is why »Silver« is another excellent studio outing from the band. On this album Gotthard stay in the safe waters of their tried-and-true recipe, which pays off again and never lets you down. The band is far too experienced, and it’s perfectly clear to them that any experimenting would cost them dearly.
The master, chief visionary and driving engine of the band, Leo Leoni, has once again delivered a heap of arrangement and riff variety along with a dose of sophistication, which guarantee the record’s high dynamic flow. It once more rides effectively on a shot of raw, at times downright rudimentary rock energy and punch, inherited from bands like Deep Purple in the »Perfect Strangers era«, Whitesnake (the verse of Stay With Me) or Europe. On the other hand, »Silver« can boast a wealth of sensual musical cohesion that truly follows a constant, infectious catchiness. As long as an inspired Leoni keeps chiseling out riffs like the ones on offer especially in the first six tracks of the new album, there’s no need to worry about the future of the European classic school of hard rock.
The band stays loud in its arrangements. The fat Gibson riffs are once again backed by the chunky sound of Hammond organs, the rhythm section remains compact, solid and potent with a galloping, piercing bass guitar, and on top of it all sits Maeder’s highly expressive vocal, which once again strides very effectively through the legacy of the late Steve Lee’s evidently irreplaceable charisma. At moments he gets right up close to him, and anyone who doesn’t know the Gotthard story of the past six years will think Steve Lee is singing.
Despite all the praise, the new album has the same old problem. There are too many songs, a whole thirteen. The first six hard rock earworms form an extremely dynamic thread through the album. Among them are Electrified, Beautiful (this one absolutely should have come out as a single) and Stay With Me (the album’s first single), all of which are real candidates for a spot in the band’s iron-clad setlist at future gigs. In the middle, the mood is calmed first by the acoustic ballad Not Fooling Anyone and then by the electric ballad Miss Me. Both are seriously decent compositions, especially considering Gotthard have always been famous as excellent ballad writers, but the move felt somehow expected and already tried. Tequilla Symphony No. 5 brings back a bit more interest later, especially with its neoclassically seductive mid-eight passage and added orchestral elements, which build up the dark image of the song itself. Now, since I mentioned there are too many songs, we can file Why and Only Love Is Real under surplus. The songs aren’t bad, but with their ballad leaning they slow down the second half of the album too much. Gotthard could have saved them for the next album without a second thought, since they’re otherwise very good. Luckily the album closes once again in the standard Gotthard hard rock gallop, first with a punch from My Oh My, followed by what is actually the only “cheekily naughty” song on the album with a true »party« vibe, called Blame On Me, where you can’t miss even a pinch of Status Quo »cosmetics« in the arrangement.
»Silver« is, in short, the album the band’s fans could only have wished for.
Gotthard – Stay With Me (official video):
Lineup
Nic Maeder – vocals
Leo Leoni – guitar
Freddy Scherer – guitar
Marc Lynn – bass guitar
Hena Habegger – drums, percussion
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Nicolo Fragile – keyboards
Production
Leo Leoni & Charlie Bauerfiend
Track list
1. Silver River (3:39)
2. Electrified (4:00)
3. Stay with Me (3:58)
4. Beautiful (3:52)
5. Everything Inside (3:49)
6. Reason for This (3:12)
7. Not Fooling Anyone (2:57)
8. Miss Me (3:50)
9. Tequila Symphony No. 5 (4:11)
10. Why (3:26)
11. Only Love is Real (3:26)
12. My Oh My (4:45)
13. Blame On Me (3:26)
