Built around the vocals and songs of John Vehadija, and accompanied by a wealth of ace musicians, here is the as yet unknown to me, Light Freedom Revival. And of course you want to hear names, so what about Oliver Wakeman on keyboards, Eric Gillette on guitars or Billy Sherwood on bass and drums? Rounding out the band are Jamie Glaser on acoustic guitars and Marisa Frantz on harmony vocals.
The result however, is not your typical run of the mill big name project. It seems Vehadija had a certain vision and this was carried out to the tee. The result is an album that sees all songs clock at least 5+ minutes, has an epic of 16 minutes, and still sounds not as you would expect.
The reason I feel, are that there are a lot of words in every song, so there is no escaping the (fairly high pitched) vocals. Vehadija is also almost always accompanied by Frantz. Also Gillette’s guitars are rarely heavy.
The outcome? An almost lightweight sounding album, with tons of melodies.
Is it a bad thing? Think that depends on taste. I would have loved if this had been packing more punch, but I cannot deny that it listens away pretty easy and is overall still a good listen. So melody before riffs and solos here. Listen to it yourself to make up your mind.