To those of you who enjoy a little bit of soul in your hard rock and heavy metal, brace yourselves as the James Brown of the above mentioned genre’s, Jeff Scott Soto (Talisman, Soul Sirkus, ex-Axel Rudi Pell, Journey, Yngwie Malmsteen and countless others), is back with a new band W.E.T. Jeff does not come alone joined by guitarists Robert Sall from Work of Art and Erik Martensson from Brazen Abbot and the great Eclipse (who had one of my favorite albums of 2008 with "Are You Ready To Rock?"). Martensson also handles bass, keyboard and backing vocal duties, talk about being global! Drums are handled by Robban Back (from Sweden’s Prey) with some additional lead guitars being played by Magnus Henriksson (also from Eclipse) on certain tracks. W.E.T. stands for Work of Art, Eclipse and Talisman.

This is one of the most enjoyable, easy to listen to yet effective albums that I have heard in a very long time and simply cannot get enough of. The melodies will sweep you off your feet, the guitars are rippin’ when they need to be and the amazing vocals of Jeff Scott Soto will send chills down your spine. This is more on the melodic hard rock side of the fence than the metal side although metallic Whitesnake moments do exist where you may think of the legendary 1987 album.

I always thought that Martensson’s sound was heavily influenced by John Sykes and although I hope Reb Beach and Doug Aldrich never leave Whitesnake, this guy would be the perfect replacement for either one of them. The opening to ‘Just Go’ will instantly bring ‘Give Me All Your Love’ to mind and speaking of this song, what a great message; "We can’t choose the way we die, but we can choose how we live," brilliant!

The album opens with ‘Invincible’, which starts off with a real easy sound on the ears until the 36 second mark when pounding drums appear out of nowhere much like they do in the Phil Collins classic ‘In the Air Tonight’ followed by the boys kicking it up a notch. This track sets the tone for the rest of the album leaving the listener primed and ready for more. ‘One Love’ begins with keyboards of uncertain feelings followed by some chunky guitars that give way to a great bass/drum combo during each verse bringing about a darker vibe.

‘Brothers in Arms’ displays a perfect AOR sound and could have easily been a Journey song. Jeff has mentioned in interviews that a lot of this material could have been used on the next Journey record (had they kept him in the band) and I bet those guys are eating their hearts out as this album rises above anything on “Revelations” with their new singer. Several more tunes could have been Journey songs including the excellent ‘My Everything’ and one of my personal favorites ‘If I Fall’ which at the 5:15 mark hits you with a quick familiar opening to the classic guitar heard in ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. ‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is’ causes the feet to tap and the head to bang a bit with an adrenaline rush opening seeing Soto nail an amazing scream that would give David Lee Roth in his prime a run for his money. This track takes on more of a political stance breaking away from the usual melodic rock topics of love relationships and broken hearts.

One thing that does not exist on this album is cheese as the songwriting is super strong with the lyrics being very mature and far from bubble gum. Any fans of melodic hard rock music should own this as some of the genre’s finest musicians have come together and raised the bar to a level only few will reach. Frontiers Records should be proud of these guys for releasing such a stellar album that has reached new frontiers claiming undeveloped land in the world of hard rock just beyond the already settled areas. I can tell you right now that going forward this record will not be further than an arms reach away from my CD player.

A great two disc version of this album is available which features videos for ‘Comes down like Rain’, ‘One Love’ and ‘Brothers in Arms’ as well as an interview with the band discussing how W.E.T. came to be. If you have the opportunity to pick this version up it is very worth it!