Freedom's Reign - Freedom's Reign

There exists an ironic undercurrent whenever a musician associated with legendary records resurfaces from beneath the water. In one hand, often times musicians that have disappeared want to modernize and reinterpret their innate style. In the other hand, fans normally want that musician to not veer far from the roots which they know and love. This gambit is at play with Freedom's Reign. Victor Arduini, of Fate's Warning fame, reemerges after more than twenty years with an eponymous album under the moniker Freedom's Reign. While it's easy to find similarities to Soundgarden or Alice In Chains strewn throughout the album, the material also exhibits ghostly wisps of the rhythmic and melodic originality that made Night on Brocken and The Spectre Within such landmark albums. The modern production could be enough to deter stubborn 'heads looking for another eight "Orphan Gypsies" or "Kiss Of Deaths" from appreciating this but I found it a rather strong album nevertheless.

Arduini, aside from an unsurprisingly stellar guitar performance, also provides the vocal performance on the album which makes use of that modulated effect which adorned Ozzy's vocals on his albums after No More Tears. I'm not a fan but I doubt that this would drive away other listeners and it doesn't impact me so much as to skewer the album. It may subconsciously dredge up emotions that some would link to modern metal. Performances across the board are commendable; Tommy Vumback occupies the second guitarist slot, Mike Jone's bass playing is solid across the album, particularly in "Brother," which happens to be my personal favorite of the release - probably because I'm a sucker for verses that are driven by a bass and drums alone combo. Chris Judge on drums does a solid job backing up the rhythm.



Into the round-about of thoughts on the tracks, "Believe" is one of the heavier tracks on the album but is endorsed with a more laid back jamming penultimate bass section. "Up From Down" crams a memorable chorus hard into your ear drums. "To Be" stands out as the worst track on the album, and is an augmented chord away from being pop-punk or Green Day or Sum 41 or something. "No Excuses" steps back towards Metal but is probably the best evidence on the album of influence from the 90's alternative rock, grunge period. "Long Way" is an expertly paced and arranged track that would easily catch the ear of a wide range of listeners. Lyrically, all the tracks are reflective, pointedly concerned with a variety of emotional topics, and well written in a way sure to make the already sombre more melancholy. In this regard, the album is decisively mature.

Returning back to that irony which I spoke about earlier, Arduini and Freedom's Reign has nothing to do with the material which brought him into the attention of most of those which would be interested in his music and probably this project. The unfortunate result of that is that there's a good chance that the listeners that would come across Freedom's Reign would not recognize the strength of the album. The tracks are mostly solid good hard rock, which is what I think Freedom's Reign were going for with the project. While it's a solid release with only some slight missteps, I can't claim that it will garner much rotation in my listening.