By Jim Rowland
The route to album number one for Canadian heavy rockers Freeways has been quite a traditional and old school one. Forming in 2015 in Ontario, they first released a three tracks cassette, ‘Cold Front’, which was then released a while later on 7” vinyl. Last year they had an exclusive track on a compilation album, ‘Trapped Under Ice Vol. 1’, ramped up the touring both in their native Canada and then Germany, and now here they are in 2020 about to release their debut album.
Much like those traditional and old school steps up the rock ladder to making a full album, their music has a traditional and old school vibe to it too, fusing the sound of classic hard rock from the second half of the 70’s with the verve of early NWOBHM. The NWOBHM vibe is certainly evident on the storming opener ‘Eternal Light, Eternal Night’ with some great evil, infectious riffing and a vocal melody in the verse very reminiscent of Judas Priest’s ‘Desert Plains’. ‘Sorrow (Was Her Name)’ combines that metal vibe with some trademark Thin Lizzy twin guitar work, a feature of much of the album, whilst title track ‘True Bearings’ has the flavour of the melodic hard rock of prime UFO, with good use of vocal harmonies.
‘Dead Air’ shifts style slightly and is a real highlight for me, mixing very catchy twin guitar harmonies reminiscent of Wishbone Ash with a Quo-esque boogie shuffle and a darker chorus that reminds me a bit of Masters Of Reality, which is a pretty good combination in my book. The Thin Lizzy influence comes to the fore with ‘Battered, Bruised’, where once again the twin guitars shine and the music rocks hard in the vein of ‘Jailbreak’-era Lizzy – think ‘Warrior’ or ‘Massacre’. Clocking in at just under the seven minute mark, ‘Time Is No Excuse’ is the album’s ‘epic’ track and another highlight, twisting and turning from a slow blues rock foundation, through an intricate twin guitar work out and ending in a jazzy rock crescendo with a highly impressive guitar solo. ‘Survival’ ends this very impressive album in more straight forward melodic metal fashion with a hint of Scorpions to my ears.
‘True Bearings’ is one of those albums that grows on you with each listen, and whilst it’s fairly hard hitting, there’s a lot of subtlety in there too. Big on melody, strong on riffs and very well written, it’s an album that harks back with real authenticity to the classic days of hard rock and metal from the later 70’s and very early 80’s. If that sounds like your thing, Freeways come highly recommended.
- ‘True Bearings’ is released on Thursday (1 April). You can get your copy HERE.
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