{"id":19076,"date":"2014-06-06T00:00:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T00:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=19076"},"modified":"2014-06-13T10:02:10","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T10:02:10","slug":"album-review-night-ranger-high-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-night-ranger-high-road\/","title":{"rendered":"NIGHT RANGER – High Road (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

NIGHT RANGER
High Road<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nFrontiers (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Considering just how prolific San Francisco hard rockers Night Ranger have been over the years, in my opinion they\u2019ve always remained an underrated band.<\/p>\n

Since their formation in the late 70s, the band has released 11 studio albums (including High Road<\/em>), seven live albums and five greatest hits packages. Couple this with numerous hit single releases and even more promotional videos, and we have a band who wouldn\u2019t mind being called season veterans.<\/p>\n

Night Ranger\u2019s latest offering features the same line-up that recorded the band\u2019s last studio outing \u2013 2011\u2019s Somewhere In California<\/em> \u2013 namely the ever present Brad Gillis (guitar; ex-Ozzy Osbourne) and Kelly Keagy (vocals \/ drums), co-founder Jack Blades (vocals \/ bass; Damn Yankees), Joel Hoekstra (guitar; Trans-Siberian Orchestra) and Eric Levy (keyboards).<\/p>\n

That last particular opus boasted a number of upbeat, positive rockers which have been the staple diet for Night Ranger fans over the years, and thankfully it\u2019s no different this time round as the band treat us to 11 summery tunes (12 if you pick-up the deluxe edition) that are instantly infectious.<\/p>\n

The title track opens the record and we\u2019re already rolling through the countryside with the roof down. It\u2019s the sort of breezy track that would have been mocked in the mid-90s as grunge killed such \u201chair metal\u201d episodes, but now, like all great music, Night Ranger are back to their sprightful best.<\/p>\n

Driving guitars, lush arrangements and a poppy chorus are the perfect ingredients for a Night Ranger song. The lyrics are opulent; still aimed at that teen market from yesteryear and yet forever meaningful to the older fans among us. \u201cI\u2019m on the high road, after midnight and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever go home\u201d<\/em>, Jack Blades warns. It evokes images of school years and summer skies, and Blades confirms this as he joyously states, \u201cSee the sun come up, it\u2019s a beautiful day to be dreaming. But you don\u2019t need us, what you need is a mind of your own\u201d<\/em>. But it sure does help to have Night Ranger blasting through the speakers as another humid night draws in.<\/p>\n

\u2018Knock, Knock, Never Stop\u2019 features a killer guitar lick as it strides in with confidence. It\u2019s a sturdy number featuring pomp and fire at once, and the lyrics are sugary sweet, \u201cSo you think you\u2019re gonna be a big pop star; everybody\u2019s gonna know who you are\u201d<\/em> delivered with the same effortless strut as, say, Enuff Z\u2019Nuff mixed with that flamboyant and playful swagger of Aerosmith. And boy do the potential chart toppers keep on coming. \u2018Rollin\u2019 On\u2019, \u2018X Generation\u2019, \u2018Hang On\u2019 and the bass-lead \u2018St Bartholomew\u2019 all offer hard edged kick-ass rock, while the cool twang of \u2018Brothers\u2019 is just as moving as the wistful \u2018Only For You Only\u2019, which features some truly evocative lyrics.<\/p>\n

Production-wise the band has done a fantastic job, but hey, what else did we expect? This is Night Ranger back rockin\u2019 hard and keeping the melodic rock flag burning. And by the time the instrumental track \u2018L.A. No Name\u2019 trickles to a close I\u2019m guessing that the genuine rock fans among you will be heralding High Road<\/em> as one of the year\u2019s best albums, and rightly so because this smokes to high heaven.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NIGHT RANGERHigh Road Frontiers (2014)Rating: 8.5\/10 Considering just how prolific San Francisco hard rockers Night Ranger have been over the years, in my opinion they\u2019ve always remained an underrated band. Since their formation in the late 70s, the band has released 11 studio albums (including High Road), seven live albums and five greatest hits packages. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-night-ranger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19076"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19084,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19076\/revisions\/19084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}