Khymera is yet another in a long line of Frontiers  project type albums bringing together a name vocalist  with mainly outside written songs and pre-recorded backing tracks. Whilst many of these albums are produced under the watchful eye of Fabbrizio Grossi,  Khymera however is most definitely a Daniele Liverani baby. In actual fact 'A New Promise'  is the second album to carry the Khymera monicker,  with the 2003 debut featuring the vocal talents of Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh. This time around though the vocalist has changed and 'A New Promise' marks the vocal debut of Dennis Ward, better known of course as the bassist in Pink Cream 69. (You can check out an interview with Dennis via this link). For the record the bulk of the songs on 'A New Promise' come from the pen of brothers Tom & Jim Martin, formerly of Sugartown and now Kryah, with contributions also arriving courtesy of Jeff Scott Soto, Don Barnes and the late Judith Randall along with her daughter Robin.

The album opens with a short instrumental that is 'A New Promise' itself, all big drums and guitars and then segues into the first of the Sugartown tracks, 'Alone'. This is a song that I heard  years ago and the Khymera version stays pretty close to the original, being a great up-tempo AOR song. Next up is 'Let It Burn', once again from the brothers Martin and one that lovers of AOR will have  wet dreams about with its stabbing keyboards and great guitar work.

'Looking For You' was written By Don Barnes of 38 Special fame and to be honest sounds very similar to the material that band is famed for and then we get 'All That I Have', a  ballad very much in the 80’s style.

'The Damage Is Done' is an old Unruly Child/12 Poundsledge song that was released by Marcie Free on her solo album 'Tormented' and whilst Dennis Ward proves to has a good voice, its not strong enough to carry this track but then again not many vocalists have the range and power of Free.  The second Don Barnes track on show is 'After The Way', the best one can say about it being it is simply OK, but luckily this is followed by  'You Can't Take Me (Away From You)' which was penned by Jeff Scott Soto, and boy does it show.  Ward even manages to sound like JSS on this track and indeed has traces of him through out the album. The song itself could easily have been lifted straight off Soto's Prism opus.

'Tomorrow Never Comes' provides a nice change of pace to the proceedings as it is a bit of ballad and once again Ward comes over all JSS like in his delivery, whereas 'Fields Of Fire' is the other Sugartown track that many readers may be familiar with from magazine samplers, again a great up-tempo rocker and one that Khymera changed very little of in re-recording.

'If You Dare To Dream' is written by the late Judith Randall with her daughter Robin Randall, writers responsible for the Mark Free album 'Long Long Way From Love' and for one of the most covered AOR songs ever in 'Someday I’ll Coming Running - Free, FM, Airrace to name just three bands who have attempted the song off the top of my head. Actually this is the track that Ward cut as a demo for the album and is of the highest order. Completing 'A New Promise' is the mid-temp 'Give Into The World' and finally 'All Is Gone which proves to be a  great moody ballad.

'A New Promise' is album for all lovers of late 80‘s MHR/AOR and one that is well played, well sung and well produced and deserves the  9/10 mark it receives. However I’ve got one big problem with this release and its a simple one, the bulk of the songs were written by the Sugartown boys and if the tracks are good enough to feature on this release then why did Frontiers not sign the band at the time and let them release this material themselves. Just another case of labels wanting name acts to help sell product rather than taking a chance on new talent I guess.  Anyway the brothers Martin have moved on from Sugartown and formed a new band called Kryah, so to check out the talent responsible for a lot of 'A New Promise's material you can visit their website at www.kryah.co.uk, maybe then the band will get a fair crack of the whip

Let us know your views on 'A New Promise'

Track List

A New Promise
Alone
Let It Burn
Looking For You
All That I Have
The Damage Is Done
After The Way
You Can't Take Me (Away From You)
Tomorrow Never Comes
Fields of Fire
If You Dare To Dream
Give In To The World
All Is Gone

Line Up

Dennis Ward - Vocals
Tommy Ermolli - Guitar
Dario Ciccioni - Drums
Daniele Liverani - Keyboards/Bass