The Rockford Heroes
Ghostlights - A Matter of Belief

2013 was a highlight musical year with several excellent album releases, the latest seven pointer before the one earlier this year, and it was two of them (W.E.T. and Ayreon) and we saw some other highlights as well. One of the biggest of those highlights was Edge of the Silverthorn by these guys and I have been waiting for a new album since then, every now and then wondering what was in the works. I don’t actively follow any band so it is always a pleasant surprise when the mailbox receives something by one of those special bands. And about a week ago this little gem showed up and I immediately had to take on the album and it has been spinning almost uninterrupted in my music player since I received it, which is wreaking havoc on my review schedule so I figured I’d better write about it soon and remove it from the music player so that I could once again focus on the other stuff in there.

So what do we get then? Anticipated albums always have the greatest potential to disappoint and more often than not they are not as good as you are hoping, so what about these guys? They sound familiar yet fresh and exciting, this time they have gone down the conceptual route. One could imagine that they would have selected some theme from The Rockford Files but this story is about a man trapped by his own fears and demons and his adventures to overcome them. I would say that it is a story that goes forward in a good pace through the entire album and that it makes me think of some classic conceptual stories like Paradise Theatre, Streets and Operation Mindcrime – no bad names there and that is probably because this album is not a bad album, it is actually a rather brilliant one.

Good organic production that is less over-polished and digital compared with much we hear in the melodic rock/hardrock genres these days. Great vocals and great performances throughout, and excellent songs, I would describe it as pomp rock of the classic style meets modern thoughts and ideas in a way that is both fresh and familiar at the same time, a very well balanced album in my opinion. It is 43 minutes long on fourteen tracks, tracks with great variation and depth – great story in a captivating album that grabs hold over the listener and then keeps him or her occupied listening through the entire playing time. I would claim that it is a great album that comes highly recommended.

And it is clearly worth the cost, as the band offers it for free. It is actually an act of monumental idiocy not to listen to and get this album, and you don’t want to be an idiot, do you? With all that written I can simply conclude that The Rockford Heroes once again surprise us with a brilliant album that is well worth every second and every penny you spend on it. I just hope that they make a vinyl version of it so that I have something to put in the record shelf. I tip my hat to Rockford and his great heroes, and I hope that I will not have to wait as long for the next album.

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