Fair Warning
Brother's Keeper

THE REVIEW

To many, the name of this group is unknown, or you might think I've confused it with the more famous Fates Warning. But that's not the case: Fair Warning is, or rather was, a hard rock band quite popular in the nineties.

Fair Warning formed with former V2 singer Tommy Heart (the usual warm and husky voice), former Zeno bassist Ule Winsome-Ritgen, and guitarist Andy Malacek from S.A.D.O. Like many bands, this German combo reached astronomical success in Japan, only to disband after the turn of the millennium.
The genre they offer is the usual hard rock or rather well-crafted, powerful, and melodic AOR, with a high technical rate and excellent taste. Their merit is certainly having brought back in their reunion all the elements that characterized them from debut to disbandment. A merit that can become a double-edged sword: in fact, the sound proposal doesn't stray much, for those who know the group well, from what they have already composed.

Upon first listening, it might seem like a really great work, but if you delve into their past, the recipe is somewhat the same. The album was preceded by the single, as well as the first track of the album, "Don’t Keep me Waiting", which, unsurprisingly, was a big hit in Japan. What immediately stands out, during the listening, is that the 13 tracks are all potential hits: their structure, melodies, and solos have sure appeal and are very easy and smooth to listen to. It transitions from energetic songs like "Don’t Keep Me Waiting" to songs with a powerful and driving rhythm like "Generation Jedi", and then moves to the passionate "All of My Love". The recipe doesn’t change a bit with "Rainbow Eyes", "Push Me On", and "Wasted Time". The riffs are powerful but never entirely original, as well as vocal solutions that at times seem already heard, giving us a strange yet still pleasant sensation of Deja Vu. The noteworthy tracks from here until the end of the album will certainly be "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", with country-like touches, or powerful songs like "In the Dark" and the following "All I Wanna Do", a very joyful and truly pleasant song to listen to. For the rest, the album certainly flows well, leaving a sweet taste in our ears.

I believe we could define this new work from the band as a sweet return, without any striking revolutions or excessive changes of course. The formula is the same, pleasant but without excessive sparks of glory.