During the past year Frontiers Records have thrown a lot of excellent albums on the market and the debut album of W.E.T. is surely one of them. W.E.T. is an acronym, made from the bands the three musicians that founded the project are currently part of. The three men in question are Robert Säll from Work Of Art, Erik Martensson from Eclipse and Jeff Scott Soto from Talisman. All three have in common that they know how to put a melodic rock album together and that shows …
A good album starts with good songs and we have to congratulate Erik Martensson for coming up with a bunch of unbelievably good tunes. He had a hand in all twelve songs, but got enormous help from a certain Miqael Persson (on no less than 11 tracks) and Robert Säll (on 7 tracks) plus some assistance from guitarist Magnus Henriksson (on two tracks) and Vivien Searcy (on 1 track). Indeed, there was no songwriting input from Jeff Scott Soto, but that doesn’t bother at all because his performances on each of the songs delivered by the above-mentioned people are nothing short of brilliant. What we get here is a sequence of incredible melodic hard rock songs like we remember them from all those great bands from the glorious 80s. I played the album over and over again and still can’t get enough of tracks like “One Love”, “Brothers In Arms”, “Comes Down Like Rain” (one of the best songs I’ve had the pleasure of listening to this year), “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is”, “One Day At A Time” and “My Everything”. The CD comes with a DVD that includes an interesting EPK (electronic press kit), in which we learn how the project came together, and video clips for the songs “One Love”, “Brothers In Arms” and “Comes Down Like Rain”. I already know which album will end at the top of my album list of this year … (CL)
 

---

Members' opinions

post your opinion

666films (on 22/01/10) Excellent album. First four songs are exceptional and are the probably the best songs i listened to last year. From then on the album is very good but dosent quite live up to the excellent standard set at the begining.. but still in the top 3 for the year   Diamond Dave (on 25/12/09) To Stefan Tyketto about Jeff You are a veryu funny man ! ahahahahahahahahah You are the first one to pretent do the same than jeff. Thanks for make me smile by this funny christmas. Thanks again my frien   aorsongmachine (on 22/12/09) My number one of the year. As simple as that !   Stefantyketto (on 8/12/09) Good album. Nothing more nothing less. Congrats to these guys for keeping arena rock alive during the dark times we are living. JSS does a good job, but even I'd do the same, if I had half a dozen of backing vocals supporting me… I listen to a lot of albums in daily basis making use of my Windows Media Player and its stars rating system, so as to remember which songs are to remember! Therefore, full score is 5. Invincible - 4 One Love - 4 Brothers In Arms - 5 Come Down Like Rain - 4 Running From The Heartache - 4 I'll Be There - 2 Damage Is Done - 2 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is - 2 One Day At A Time - 3 Just Go - 3 My Everything - 4 If I Fall – 5   gerasczman (on 24/11/09) PHENOMENAL release and one of the best AOR albums of the decade! Up there with the first Pride Of Lions, Asia's 'Phoenix' and Brother Firetribe's 'Heart Full Of Fire' ! Yes, it's almost that good. It features some outstanding AOR songs like 'Invincible', 'One Love', 'Brothers In Arms', 'Running From The Heartache' , the awesome ballad 'One Day At A Time' and the anthemic, Journey-esque closing track 'If I Fall'. It is a powerful, passionate, emotional, rockin', almost perfect album with Jeff Scott Soto doing some extraordinary vocals and the whole band sounding so mature and powerful. The choruses are huge and there are some big hooks that will please every AOR/Melodic Rock fan. A pleasant surprise and a classic for the years to come. AMEN !   AORKarl (on 22/11/09) Brilliant album and for me it deserves the full rating ! Pure melodic bliss! One of the best AOR cds of the last few years.   AOR Ive (on 22/11/09) Defenitely the cd of the year untill now and probably one of the best of the last 5 years . I just watched the dvd of Journey - Live in Manilla and I just have to say one thing , they should have kept Jeff Scott Soto on board , cause his voice on the Wet cd is AOR perfect .   banaan (on 21/11/09) This is my album of the year!!!   maverick (on 19/11/09) this is simply the best album of the year . no doubt about it !!! jeff has the best voice for this genre of music.   guitarman (on 19/11/09) Fantastic album, great melodic rock record.Great sing-a-long choruses, songwriting, amazing guitar stuff..... A top release!!!!!!   Mikkelsen77 (on 16/11/09) One of the best melodic rock albums of the year. If not the decade. It's right up there with the new Gotthard and Danger Danger albums, IMO. :-)   HIBA (on 16/11/09) Certainly one of the best releases this year, I guess. But I've expected much more from this cooperation. Sounds like a JSS solo album or Talisman, no surprises.   Herzel (on 15/11/09) Definitely, the album of the year, and I would say, one of the best of the 21st century. Marvelous!!! I can't stop listening it. Thanks JSS, Sall, Martensson, and Frontiers Records for this masterpiece.   Sven (on 15/11/09) Fabulous record, can't stop listening to it. JSS at his best! Frontiers is giving AOR the chance of making it again, have a look out for a new album coming out in the following month: TERRA NOVA. This one is also great!   Modulator (on 13/11/09) It's not THAT great but...   magenta (on 11/11/09) Wonderful return to form from Mr Soto after the difficult (for AOR fans) JSS release from the beginning of the year. Possibly not as exciting as Talisman at their best - the music here is straight ahead melodic rock rather than their powerful groove.   Gordy (on 11/11/09) A very good melodic rock album for 2009, certainly in the top 5 IMO. Some truly memorable song melodies on this disk.   Metalrob4662 (on 10/11/09) One of the best of the year..Great melodies and vocals, production is superb..I've had it in my CD player for the last 3 weeks and listen to it everyday ( Next to Winger's "Karma" ) Great nods to Journey and Melodic Rock bands from the old days.   Carl1 (on 10/11/09) I like this but I don't see it as a classic and whilst the overall sound is very good there is a poor mix on the high hats and cymbals which loses 1/2 a star for me.   astonbob (on 9/11/09) AOR at the best   bratchet (on 9/11/09) Great! Top 5 this year no doubt.   Grepol (on 9/11/09) No doubt this is one of the better releases lately. It’s a mix of Eclipse going full A.O.R/melodic rock with some Talisman twist here and there and a very good crystal clear production and mix. The first 5 songs really smoke. Opener “Invincible” is terrific and the chorus sticks in your mind like glue. Actually this album kicks off in such a high that after the first five songs the rest of the album feels like a bit of a let down. “One Love” is catchy as hell and the high quality continues with the excellent “Brother In Arms”, the ballad “Comes Down Like Rain” (with nice tempo changes) and “Running From The Heartache” (Soto sounds like Eddie Money on this one). There’s time to catch your breathe with “I’ll Be There” (hello Red Dawn). I’m not sure this song fits Soto’s voice very well. He sounds a bit stretched. The level of quality drops with the rather plain “Damage Is Done” and you can reach for the skip button for the awful “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” (Bon Jovi). Thankfully these two blips are quickly forgotten with the very good ballad “One Day at a Time” (Street Talk) which is followed by “Just Go” (Talisman) one of the heaviest track. Next up is the solid but nothing special “My Everything”. The album ends with an incredible good version of Journey’s “Be Good to Yourself” called “If I Fall”. This is a great song to end this very enjoyable album.   WOLF 359 (on 9/11/09) W.E.T. = Wonderful.Exciting.Tremendous   YNGWIEVIKING (on 9/11/09) Agree with Jez/CL/ThrUmpire It's a very very good album and if you could be suspicious because ,it seems AT FIRST like a pre-manufactured project set up by Frontiers rec. : Just let me say one thing ,it's a damn good Album with GREAT tracks !!! The songwriting level is VERY high and unreachable by a large part of the "real" melodic rock band out there both old and new ! Also ,the musicianship displayed mostly by E.MARTENSSON is impressive ,i think he is the real mastermind behind this release after his AMAZING work with ECLIPSE last year , this guy is a futur GREAT in the melodic METAL/HARD ROCK scene ! A new exciting Chapter in SWEDISH Melodic METAL or HEAVY AOR music ,it's 'bout to be written...... *****1/2   TheUmpire (on 9/11/09) Absolutely sensational! I've been playing this all weekend it's that good. Every song has a great melody and the choruses are without expection splendid. It's not a wimp out and leans more to the Talisman side, although the Journey-isms just goes to prove what that band have given up in dropping JSS, who by the way is on top form. Melodic Rock album of the year? Almost certainly, having overtaken the nearly as splendid Danger Danger.   Jez (on 9/11/09) Very consistent, well written and performed songs with filler kept to an absolute minimum and surprisingly rnot the AOR wimp out I was expecting when this lineup was announced way back. The production is really great, which is nice to hear after so many average sounding MRdiscs recently. Of course JSS is on top form (as usual) and generally,this really is a first class melodic rock disc that actually rocks. Of it's type, definitely the best this year but certainly no 100 points from me (me thinks the JSS fan club has gotten a little over excited again in certain places) , but a very healthy 90'ish for sur

 

---

Post your opinion

You have to be registered and logged in to post your opinion. Log in.