SPREAD EAGLE "Subway To The Stars"

SPREAD EAGLE

“Subway To The Stars’

Remember SPREAD EAGLE? They were darlings of the late 80’s hard rock scene...not quite glam, not totally metal, but hard-hitting and accessible. Many thought they should have broken through to the big time.

Here they are in 2019, now signed to...where else?...Frontiers Records. “Subway to the Stars” is a listenable enough chunk of hard rock, but I think it owes as much to Seattle as the Sunset Strip. “More Wolf Than Lamb” and “Little Serpentina” have a sizable amount of grunge in their presentation. “Gutter Rhymes for Valentines” has a kind of faux-60’s psychedelic sound to it that many 90’s bands aspired to. Singer Ray West has a very smooth vocal approach, nothing abrasive at all about it here. I seem to remember him being grittier back in the day.

One band that SPREAD EAGLE is reminiscent of is TESLA. They both have a no-frills approach to what they are doing, especially on fast and dirty hard rockers like the title track and “29th of February”. The album ends with a bluesy acoustic number called “Solitaire” that is right out of the TESLA playbook. But if I was to name a favorite song, I’d go for the raucous and rough “Antisocial Butterfly”, which is pretty heavy and worthy of the metal tag.

Not a bad record at all, especially if you like good hard rock, but this has modern as well as nostalgic elements to it, so be ready for that!

FRONTIERS RECORDS

SPREAD EAGLE