{"id":42725,"date":"2014-07-16T07:11:19","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T12:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=42725"},"modified":"2014-08-16T15:20:57","modified_gmt":"2014-08-16T20:20:57","slug":"secret-the-end-of-the-road-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/secret-the-end-of-the-road-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret | The End Of The Road<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SecretDo you remember 91 Suite? They created quite a buzz among melodic rock fans with their self-titled debut back in 2002 and even topped it with its follow-up Times They Change three years later. And yes, the singer sounded as a cross of Jon Bon Jovi and Michael Bormann. Now the two guys from the apparently disbanded Spanish band return under the different moniker, Secret \u2013 Jesus Espin on vocals and Ivan Gonzalez on guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. And the fact of their first album \u2013 entitled The End Of The Road<\/em> \u2013 being just released encourages one to check out, if the longish period of musical inactivity was fruitful for the creative duo … or not.<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s opener \u201cGive Up The Fight\u201d is very promising. The track\u2019s powerful chorus against the background of tasteful licks and splendid solo makes one of the record\u2019s instant highlights out of it. \u201cHere With Me\u201d is another track in the similar vein, with its AOR-ish polished chorus, blistering guitar riffs and a dynamic melody with slight bluesy overtones. <\/p>\n

However, if you hoped for an even more feisty track as for number three \u2013 the further listening will result in a serious disappointment. \u201cSince I Fell For You\u201d, with its “boy-band-ish-a\u2019capella” intro, tinkling keyboards and radio-friendly pop rock hook is as saccharine as it could possibly get. It\u2019s not hard rock and perhaps more pop than rock genre-wise \u2026 but boy, the song is crafted well enough to make you wish contemporary radio friendly tunes were more like this anyway! The same goes for \u201cJust To Hear You Say.\u201d This poppy piece could have ended up on any of the recent Bon Jovi releases. It has to be admitted, however, that the lead guitar work is much better here, than it was on What About Now or its mediocre predecessors from the Jersey giants\u2019 catalog. That said, 1-0 to Secret! <\/p>\n

\u201cBring You Down\u201d could have been a great AOR-infused track, if it didn\u2019t lack a certain hook \u2013 but unfortunately, it does. Next are \u201cOut Of My Life\u201d (with a notable guitar solo) and a sweet power ballad \u201cWherever You Go,\u201d another clich\u00e9d tune that\u2019s enjoyable, but forgettable. The only asset to decent, but way too poppy \u201cTrust Someone\u201d are the guitar parts \u2013 a real showcase of Ivano Gonzalez\u2019s musical sensitivity as well as technical prowess. \u201cPeace Of Mind\u201d, on the other hand, sounds as if the duo reminded themselves it\u2019s AOR-ish tunes they really excel at \u2013 this keyboard-and-guitar laden, pomp rock thing\u2019s another highlight of the album. Its follow-up is \u201cWhen You Really Love Someone\u201d; the track as such not being bad, a kind of country-infused pop rock schmaltz usually reserved only for Bon Jovi\u2019s Lost Highway<\/em> album. It doesn\u2019t get much better with \u201cAngeline,\u201d as the track\u2019s excessive lusciousness is the last thing a rock fan could wish for on the overtly sugary album; there are some interesting Spanish guitar-infused instrumental parts within the song, though. The final one is \u201cI Believe In Love\u201d, which gravitates a bit more towards AOR \u2013 a move in the right direction to finish with, as the track itself brings to mind the likes of Casanova or \u2026 guess what, 91 Suite.<\/p>\n

The truth is that The End Of The Road<\/em> isn\u2019t a bad album. Technically it\u2019s absolutely fine, the 12 songs featured on it range from satisfactory to decent and to very good, and there\u2019s some stuff really worth attention here, too. And the guitar work throughout the album is absolutely splendid. However, there\u2019s one flaw to it \u2013 labeled melodic rock, at certain moments it gets way more pop rock than rock, too mellow and thus easily forgettable. The fact is that the potential for the band still exists and hopes are that The End Of The Road will actually be the beginning for the Spanish music duo \u2013 as we still have to wait for their milestone to come out and shake us to the ground music-wise. For now, modern-day Bon Jovi, Jaded Heart and \u2013 of course \u2013 91 Suite fans can enjoy this one, the rest of the listeners getting a few neat “pop-rock-meets-lite-AOR” tunes to intersperse their metal-dominated playlists with. This certainly doesn\u2019t hurt \u2026 does it?<\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Rock, lite AOR<\/p>\n

Band:
\nJesus Espin \u2013 lead vocals, backing vocals
\nIvan Gonzalez \u2013 guitars, bass, drums and keyboards<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1.\tGive Up The Fight
\n2.\tHere With Me
\n3.\tSince I Fell For You
\n4.\tJust To Hear You Say
\n5.\tBring You Down
\n6.\tOut Of My Life
\n7.\tWherever You Go
\n8.\tTrust Someone
\n9.\tPiece Of Mind
\n10.\tWhen You Really Love Someone
\n11.\tAngeline
\n12.\tI Believe In Love<\/p>\n

Label: MelodicRock Records<\/p>\n

Website: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SecretMelodicRockBand<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 6.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Columnist — Do you remember 91 Suite? They created quite a buzz among melodic rock fans with their self-titled debut back in 2002 and even topped it with its follow-up Times […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":42726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[8939,2317,2901,9460,9459,9600],"class_list":{"0":"post-42725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-aor","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-melodic-rock","11":"tag-melodic-rock-records","12":"tag-secret","13":"tag-the-end-of-the-road"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}