Brother Against Brother – Brother Against Brother

Share this on Facebook | Share this on Twitter

Following the success of the ALLEN/ LANDE project, Frontiers Music continues in this vein with a new duets combination featuring Brazilian singers RENAN ZONTA (ELECTRIC MOB) and NANDO FERNANDES (SINISTRA). This is another situation conceived by Frontiers head, SERAFINO PERUGINO, and it features in-house producer ALESSANDRO DEL VECHIO on bass and keyboards. This is the Frontiers foundation for a large catalog that includes HARDLINE, LABYRINTH, REVOLUTION SAINTS, and many, many more. There is definitely a vibe of trying to create a “Motown” of hard rock and metal here with centralized writing and production duties spread across multiple projects. If big, 80’s hard rock and metal are your thing then BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER is definitely for you.

Everything about this album is BIG. The production is high-end polish and gloss, the guitar and drum sounds are huge, and the vocals are full of power and theatricality. The songwriting is Epic and anthemic, strongly rooted in the 80’s style of blues-influenced metal like BADLANDS and KING COBRA with more relatively modern touches of ARK and SAVATAGE. The album opens with the solid, “Two Brothers” a song that immediately puts the two vocalists and their styles in contrast as they trade lines in the verses and harmonize in the chorus. Producer and multi-instrumentalist Alessandro Del Vecchio once again puts his inimitable stamp on this project with deceptively simple string lines that add a crucial melodic element to the music.

Guitarist JONAS HORNQVIST channels JOHN PETRUCCI, JOHN SYKES, and ZAKK WYLDE with ease, pulling off a fluid style full of technique, smooth tone, and attitude. There is more than sheer technique at work here, the phrasing and melodies are beautiful. There is no filler on this album so it’s hard to pick out any stand-out tracks, they are all outstanding. My favorites are, “Deadly Sins” with its slight nod to SAVATAGE and “Whispers In Darkness” with its dark and spooky keyboards adding a nice cinematic feel. Every song feels like a radio hit that would be at home with DOKKEN, WHITESNAKE, or EUROPE.

Frontiers continue to deliver with some real high-quality hard rock with prog and power elements. BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER is another project in a long list that pays tribute to 80’s hard rock styles while bringing them up to modern standards.

Songwriting: 8
Musicianship: 8
Memorability: 8
Production: 9