Jerome Mazza - Outlaw Son
www.jeromemazza.com

Rating: A+

Almost three years after his first album, veteran Jerome Mazza returns to the scene with "Outlaw Son," with the illustrious company of Swedish Tommy Denander and legendary Steve Overland. Over the years, Mazza has joined the bands Angelica and Pinnacle Point, as well as participating in the latest album by veteran Steve Walsh, released in 2017. With a very contemporary sound and well-constructed songs, Mazza's return is one of the great surprises of year.

The album features songs that are very cool and diverse, as one can notice in the rockers "Neverland" and "Immortal", in addition to the paced "The Dark Side" (whose introduction reminds me of Kansas’ "Carry On Wayward Son") and the thrilling "Streets Of Fire," with its grinding chorus. All four songs are worthy of your full attention and of those already traditional multiple auditions in full volume.

"The Last Goodbye" is another captivating rocker with sticky chorus, while "Undercover Love" comes as an engaging mid-pacer, just like "Song For The People," a rhythmic rocker with abundant keyboards in the arrangement, "Til Last" is an imposing rocker, where the keyboards and guitars divide space in this song that sounds very much with material that Brits of FM have been doing lately, especially in the refrain. Here are four other great moments of the album that deserve your unrestricted attention.

We still have the great rockers "Crossfire" and "Calm Before The Storm" (with their well-crafted and full-faceted arrangement), plus the frenetic "Outlaw Son" and "Unfinished Business", the latter with a more classic arrangement and a quietly refrain explosive. Finally, this Japanese edition brings the great "Streets On Fire" transformed into a duet with the legendary Steve Overland, in one of the great moments of the album. But I confess I would also like to see a duet on "Save The Best 'Til Last." Anyway, we can’t win all the time.

In short, my dear friends, "Outlaw Son" marks the return of Jerome Mazza in style. Overall, the album is well cohesive and features a carefully assembled tracklist. The production of Tommy Denander is better than we usually expect from him, and the presence of Steve Overland only adds quality and brightness to what was already pretty cool. If it's not an exponent album, "Outlaw Son" is undoubtedly one of the best works of AOR / Melodic Rock of the year and that will certainly surprise you.

Tracklist
01 Neverland
02 Immortal
03 The Dark Side
04 Streets On Fire
05 The Last Goodbye
06 Undercover Love
07 Song For The People
08 Save The Best 'Til Last
09 Crossfire
10 Calm Before The Storm
11 Outlaw Son
12 Unfinished Business
13 Streets Of Fire (With Steve Overland) (Bonus Track)

By Juliano Mallon