Album Review: Sweet & Lynch - Only To Rise

If you like any sort of melodic rock or metal, you probably know Frontiers Records as the leading force keeping that style of music alive, as well as the home of the majority of the bands and singers you've been listening to over the last two decades. They have been instrumental in stoking the fires of the careers of any number of bands, with a dedication to old-school music that refuses to believe the last ten years of metal evolution ever happened. That is, in many ways, a most welcome position to hold. There needs to be a place for good ol' melodic rock, and not just to placate the old guard who refused to move on. Melodic rock is the foundation of why guitar music was once so popular, and it is the only way it will ever regain that standing.

Frontiers' latest project is one of those mash-ups that fans would have talked about for years, but never would have thought could come to fruition. Take the vocal talents of Stryper's Michael Sweet (who has been on a creative roll with new Stryper music, as well as a solo album last year), combine them with the guitar pyrotechnics of George Lynch, and throw in the veteran talents of James Lomenzo and Brian Tichy, and you have a group of players that would have been a Damn Yankees' rivaling super-group at a certain point in time.

But we are in 2015, and this record feels more like a curiosity than a world-changing event. What would it sound like?

“The Wish” opens the record with pounding drums, and that classic late 80's saturated guitar tone. The verses are quickly dispatched with, to get to the chorus, where Sweet opens his voice up for the hook. He still sounds great, and the melody feels like a song ripped straight from classic rock radio. That hook, and Lynch's guitar solo that follows, make me wonder how this kind of music ever disappeared from the mainstream. It has that little bit of everything that a fan of rock music could ask for.

Things get even better with “Dying Rose”, another classic rock song that features one of the best hooks I've ever heard from Sweet. It has that anthematic quality to it, but descends in a way that is darker than the average Stryper song. It works exceptionally well. In fact, I would say that about the majority of the record. The songs on “Only To Rise” are among the best material I've heard from any of the members, and goes a long way towards establishing this as more than just one of those studio projects where a group of veterans are thrown together to make a record. Those rarely work well, while Sweet & Lynch excels. Much of that is due to Michael Sweet's deft songwriting, but he does a fantastic job of balancing the album so everyone has their part, and the focus isn't put on any one person.

One of the reasons that musicians like doing side projects is that getting out of your comfort zone can produce interesting results, or at least prompt new ways of doing things. That seems to be the case here, because the pairing has taken advantage of each other to make a record that once again proves their vitality. That's not to say Lynch Mob and Stryper haven't been making good music, but “Only To Rise” is a better record than their main bands have been putting out, precisely because it doesn't feel like anyone is going through the motions.

“Only To Rise” is a unique take on the classic Sweet and Lynch sounds, and that makes all the difference. Getting out of their routines was the shakeup everyone involved needed, jarring loose their creative fires, and making a record that stands on its own as a fine piece of melodic rock. These types of bands might often turn out to be nothing more than vanity projects, but Sweet & Lynch proves why they're worth having; every so often you hit on a gem.