Ryder - Lonely Road (2008) - Good vocals but the rest is too generic - 65% (07/12/11)

Ryder plays traditional hard rock and heavy metal influenced by the music of the late seventies and early eighties around bands such as W.A.S.P., Mötley Crüe or Ratt. While this first full length record is overall solid and contains some great hooks and enjoyable guitar solos, the band offers nothing but worship music that honours their idols. It's a good band for summer festivals and do a good job as opening acts but they are not unique enough to get a breakthrough.

Apart of some good average musicians it's especially the voice Bruno Girard that stands out. I have seen him life with several of his bands and he has done brilliant performances on difficult cover songs from legends such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. This man has a unique voice and has the skills to lead a more professional and ambitious band. On this present record, he sounds a little bit limited as if he had to sing under his abilities and there clearly is a waste of good talent here. Don't get me wrong, the record is okay and doesn't lack of passion but it lacks the certain special something that the singer could have added to this. Too many songs have a similar structure and sound quite alike. The songs are all around four minutes long and have the predictable verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure. Most of the songs are hold in a mid tempo pace. There are no speedy tracks and no real ballads to find on here.

The few times the band tries out something different, these tracks really stand out. "ZV13" is sung in French and has been done to promote a local film project. It's one of the more memorable tracks next to the solid opening title song "Lonely Road". The track "Most Wanted" contains some shy guest vocals that perform some growls but they are not energizing enough to fit the song or add a special note to it but it was worth a try.

In the end, this album is only recommended for people that want to support the young and rather unknown band and for those who want to have a little souvenir of one of the band's solid concerts. For anybody else, it's just another solid retro hard rock band out of many. They really need to vary more and focus on the potential of the good singer if they want to get a name and stand out. For a first effort, this release is still listenable and above average though.