Landfall – Wide Open Sky
Brazilian Melodic/Hard Rock band, Landfall, return with their third album, Wide Open Sky, set for release on January 17th 2025. The band themselves describe their music as “Melodic Rock/AOR, best described as falling somewhere between classic melodic rock, a là Journey, and slightly heavier influences, such as classic era Dokken, White Lion, and Extreme,” and this about sums things up nicely but there’s more to it than that.
From the opening bars of the opening track, Tree Of Life, we immediately get a taste of what’s in store. Great guitar tones, fabulous vocals and well-crafted uplifting, driving melodic rock; think Journey meets Bon Jovi and you’ll be somewhere near. The next track, SOS, is a darker more serious and heavy affair with subtle keyboard work and a rocking riff, and then we’re back to uplifting melodic rock on the next one, When The Curtain Falls. This one’s a stand out track for me that could easily fit over any clichéd 80s training montage from a Rocky movie; rocking, catchy, fist-pumping melodic rock. This theme continues until we reach the mid-point of the album, A Letter To You, the ubiquitous rock ballad which misses the mark a touch for me. It’s quite somber and this seems to somehow take the wind out of the sails of an album that was to this point really driving along nicely; the song does however have some really great background vocal work reminiscent of classic Queen.
After the ballad, we pick up the pace again but there’s a distinct change in flavour. Coming Home, could be an Extreme track with a great, funky, grooving breakdown and this is followed by another driving rock track with more excellent vocal work and then two songs that are quite progressive in their arrangement and production. Clocking in at 6:44, Hourglass, is a little on the long side and seems to meander to the finish, however the progressive elements in the next track, Higher Than The Moon, work well with interesting time signature variations and rhythmic movement. Although not the most memorable song here, Wide Open Sky, closes out the album nicely, with the music in the final few bars echoing the opening bars of the album, albeit more melancholy and thoughtful than the opening, epic uplifting synth tones.
Musicianship and songwriting on the album are very good however the production does let it down somewhat. The arrangements are at times very dense and this does lead to a thickness and muddiness in places and the lead vocal is also at times too far back in the mix and needs a touch more clarity and “air” to really make it shine; a real shame as the singer, Gui Oliver, is a real talent. My only major criticism is that the songs are too long. Only 3 of the 11 tracks clocks in at less than 5 minutes, with the song Hourglass, coming in at almost 7 minutes. That would be fine on a predominantly progressive rock/metal album but for this sort of catchy, melodic, radio-friendly rock it doesn’t really work for me and unfortunately holds back what could have been a truly great album.
It’s got great riffs, catchy hooks and excellent musicianship. With careful editing of the arrangements and in the hands of a great mix engineer this album could have been really stellar.
Rating: 6/10 – Good
Label: Frontiers Records
Wayne McAloon | Now Spinning Magazine
