Frontiers Records has been releasing some great melodic AOR hard rock this year…Phantom 5, Sunstorm (featuring Joe Lyn Turner), The Defiants (featuring Bruno Ravel from, and Paul Laine ex-Danger Danger)…and speaking of a Ted Poley solo album, Eclipse, and now First Signal featuring Harry Hess from Harem Scarem and producer Dennis Ward. What do you get with this project…well more melodic hard rock that is primarily based around the 80s sounding keyboards (see opening track ‘Love Run Free’, ‘Love Gets Through’), with hard rock guitars carrying and complimenting the melody. Hess’ voice has the perfect amount of grit and clarity for this genre and projects this balance on all the tracks, even more so in the ballad ‘Still pretending’ or ‘Broken’.

Now while the keyboard is at the forefront for this sound, guitars are still always present for this lighter style of rock. It does lack the metal edge and attitude of hair and glam metal, but still does get edgier in tracks like ‘Minute Of Your Time’ and ‘She Is Getting Away’. Think Survivor meets House Of Lords, Joe Lyn Turner era Rainbow. So, it is hard to deny the catchiness and melodies to the eleven songs, even if you like your rock harder. Closing four tracks include ‘December Rain’, the title track, ‘Pedestal’, are as strong as the album’s opening.

Don’t fight it…every hard rocker and headbanger likes melody in their music, its part of the foundation, which is what made the godfathers and big boys who they are and such strong songwriters; from Maiden, Priest, and Dio, to Crue, Whitesnake, and Ratt, to Metallica and Megadeth and everyone in between.