NITRATE-Real World

Melodic Rock Records

Nitrate has been a project in the making. After taking some absence from making music and playing in bands Nottingham, England based guitarist/keyboardist Nick Hogg regained the desire to do something again and hooked up with multi-instrumentalist Rob Wylde (ex-Tygertailz) who had returned to the UK after a spell in America. The pair started writing songs together in the vein of the late eighties/early nineties style that was displayed by bands like Bon Jovi, Danger Danger, Paul Laine and also the Dutch band Zinatra (with singer Joss Mennen and keyboardist Robby Valentine participating). During the writing and demo process Rob Wylde was about to launch his new band Midnite City which he did (their first CD ‘Midnite City’ was released by AOR Heaven in October 2017) and that band also featured drummer Pete Newdeck who also got involved with Nitrate (Pete mixed the CD while Harem Scarem’s Harry Hess took care of the mastering). Although Rob had sung on the demo tapes that got Nitrate a deal with Melodic Rock Records it was not his intention to be the lead singer of the band. So Nick Hogg started looking for a vocalist and decided to give former Mennen and Zinatra vocalist Joss Mennen a call asking him if he was interested singing the songs that Nick and Rob had written. Contributing to the fact that Joss Mennen got asked was the fact that Nick Hogg was a fan of Zinatra. To cut a long story short, Joss agreed and recorded his parts in his own studio in The Netherlands. On ‘Real World’ you can hear straight away that Hogg and Wylde (who produced the CD) are true fans of that eighties melodic rock style. The album has a bunch of songs that were so common for those times. Sometimes up tempo and upbeat with an aggressive touch, sometimes more laid back but always with organised choirs and vocal arrangements and sounding quite ‘big’ in general. ‘Real World’ might at times not sound very original perhaps as there are a few songs present where the influences are a bit too obvious and the built up a bit predictable but people who are fans of the above mentioned bands and that musical style will find that ‘Real World’ with its eleven tracks has enough ‘body’ to entertain as the involved musicians are all seasoned in their work and the overall performances and sounds are up to scratch. Good to hear that my old pal Joss Mennen has still got it what it takes as it has been a while since his Mennen and Zinatra days. Not sure what the plans of Nitrate are. Is this a one off project or are the lads planning of taking things a notch further? Time will tell…