One of a number of excellent melodic hard rock bands who had the misfortune to release and promote their debut albums just as the tide was beginning to turn in favour of grunge, Beggars and Thieves re-emerged from obscurity with a performance which was one of the pleasant surprises of Firefest 2010, and building on that revival of interest, have now recorded their first album in well over a decade.

A health warning is in order, that this is not overtly commercial melodic rock, with effort put into less obvious soundscapes and textures.  While the crystal precision of Louie Merlino’s vocal tones invite comparisons with bands like Diving for Pearls or Tall Stories, I detected something Jimmy Page inspired in  guitarist Ronnie Mancuso’s sounds, whether with some 12 string guitar passages or an Eastern feel in places. Another influence from outside the melodic rock mainstream is U2, particularly with some choppy guitar sounds on Innocence and Midnight Blue, which are two of the more straight ahead rockers on offer.

Despite a stirring opener in We Come Undone, at times the first part of the album loses focus in places, but the second half has the stronger hooks, beginning with Seven Seconds, while on Stranded and the slow number Wash Away with its gospel-influenced chorus, Louie sounds a tad like modern day Jon Bon Jovi .

Unlike many albums in this genre which are pure instant fixes, this is a quality piece of work which you need to cultivate and tender, but will be worth the effort.   

Andy Nathan