SOLEDRIVER – Return Me to Light

The premise and idea of having Michael Sweet (Stryper, Sweet and Lynch, Sunbomb) and Alessandro Del Vecchio team up was an interesting one, and I was looking forward to Return Me to Light, but sadly, it turned out to be somewhat disappointing and lackluster. There is no denying the musical pedigree of the combo nor the fact that they know how to write a juicy and engaging tune with depth and longevity to it as they have proved time and again in the past, but this particular venture into melodic rock and AOR is simply lacking in great and noteworthy material. None of the tracks take off or reach the higher spheres, and with only the title song and the Foreigner-esque ‘Out of the Dark’ leaving their mark and giving us a few thrills, this album is annoyingly unremarkable and forgettable in the overall perspective. The production is pretty good, but that matters little when it sounds like the band is on autopilot and hardly a single phrase lingers in your memory after having listened to it a handful of times. You can skip this one, folks.