Abandon all hope (of stopping listening to this album) all ye who enter here!
Artiste: Dante Fox
Nationality: British (English)
Album: Lost man's ground
Year: 2012
Label: Self-released?
Genre: AOR
Tracks:
Who stole the innocence
Go where your heart is
Secrets
I can't sleep
Lost man's ground
This world
Goodbye to yesterday
Chronological position: Third album
Familiarity: None
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Brilliant AOR record
Best track(s): This world, I can't sleep, Goodbye to yesterday
Worst track(s): Not a one.
Comments: Sometimes the old sayings are true, and in this case it certainly is correct that good things often come in small packages. The only thing I find annoying about this album is that it's so short, only seven tracks in total (eight if you count the radio edit of the title track, which I don't) but every single one is gold. With a very eighties-style acapella vocal start,
Who stole the innocence opens proceedings and it's pure AOR Heaven, like the best of Heart and Pat Benatar, even though the verse melody is closely modelled (whether intentionally or not I don't know) on Dio's
Rainbow in the dark. It really gets you in the mood and vocalist Sue Willets has a strong and pure voice, perfect for AOR edging into heavier rock at times.
Dante Fox certainly give some older, more established AOR bands a run for their money with this mini-album, as songs like
Go where your heart is, with its hooky keyboard melody and tough guitar, and the soft ballad
Secrets show, and seem to only hint at the potential of this band who were unknown, at least to me, up until now, despite apparently having two albums prior to this. One of the best tracks on the album, I'm reliably informed, originally appears on their debut album, and if so I need to check it out, post-haste, as
I can't sleep encompasses everything great about Dante Fox: great melodies, powerful guitar, punchy singing, rolling keyboards and a hook that won't let you go no matter how hard you wriggle. The sort of song you'd expect to come from the pen of Desmond Child or Diane Warren. Perfect.
The title track comes across more as a progressive rock piece, with some pretty heavy guitar from Tim Manford almost pushing it into metal or at least hard rock territory, but retaining the AOR sensibilites that have so far characterised the album. There's a great anthemic feeling to it too, a real fist-in-the-air song, while the total standout for me comes in
This world, which deserves to be a huge international hit, but of course won't. It's got the kind of catchiness some bands can only dream of achieving in a song, with another somewhat dreamy, progressive intro and a certain sense of darkness about it, juxtaposed perfectly with an upbeat, hooky chorus.
Essentially then the album ends on
Goodbye to yesterday. another ballad, and a very fitting closer with some lovely acoustic guitar and some fine vocal harmonies. There's also the radio edit version of the title track, but as you all know by now I generally tend not to include extended, edited, remixed or other versions of tracks already on the album, or bonus or additional tracks.
Overall impression: Completely blown away by how great this album is, considering I knew nothing about the band beforehand. Superb.
Intention: I'm already searching now for their first two albums!