Starbreaker - Love's Dying Wish

TNT were arguably one of the greatest melodic rock bands of all time, WESTWORLD was a breath of fresh air at the end of a difficult musical climate and STARBREAKER is unfortunately just above average. I have listened keenly to Starbreaker’s second album, ‘Love’s Dying Wish’ for the last couple of weeks because:

a. I wanted to review it.
b. Their 2005 debut was pretty good.
c. I would put Tony Harnell in my top 5 vocalists of all time.
d. I hoped that at some point, the album would grab me by the balls and become a modern day melodic rock classic. Unfortunately it is not.

That said, Harnell’s vocals are amazingly still getting richer with age, the musical performances and production are both extremely solid and I for one, would still listen to this competent rock, than most of the sludge available out there.

Overview!

'Love's Dying Wish' opens promisingly with ‘End Of Alone’, which has an epic and powerful aura. The title track is pretty damn heavy but essentially it reeks of Evanescence hidden behind Starbreaker’s hard melodic rock safety net. ‘Building A Wall’ follows suit but is excellent apart from the chorus. ‘Unknown Superstar’ hits hard but sounds a bit too contrived. ‘Beautiful Disaster’ starts off like a poor man’s ‘Live Today’ from TNT’s ‘New Religion’. When you play the two tracks back to back, the latter really does sound like melodic rock heaven (with the help of Ronni Le Tekro). ‘Live Your Life’ is heavy and a definite grower, as is ‘Changes Me’. ‘The Day Belongs To Us’ again features Amy Lee on piano (only joking but her ‘Bring Me To Life’ seems to resonate – I am not being callous, it is how it sounds).

Conclusion

The truth is that even with a frontman of such high melodic rock pedigree, Starbreaker will struggle to capture the imagination of today’s rock market. ‘Classic rock’ bands (indeed any sort of band) need to deliver an exceptional product, to bring back their old followers and perhaps pick up a few new ones on the way.