There is a lot of bands out there from the 1980's that are still rocking to crowds all around the world. In contrast, there is a lot of friction within these bands and you get more than one incarnation of the band itself afterwards. It happens that one main band member decides to go on tour with the band name without the consent of the others and you have a lot of crap on the legal front because of that. In this case, Jack Russell decided to adopt the name of JACK RUSSELL's GREAT WHITE to differentiate himself from GREAT WHITE that have continued without him with a new vocalist. We saw the same thing with bands like WARRANT, QUEENSRYCHE amongst many others. Some bands make it and some bands don't, is it better with original members or a rehash of old glory, well let's see with this release...

It sure as hell hasn't been easy for Jack Russell in the last decade or so, I won't detail all the stuff that happened but it's fair to say that now he seems to be in a better place in life. The guy is happily married and he has a new rocking album out. I think this album might be really a cathartic way to make peace with the past and continue going forward from now on. The opener is ''Sign of the Times'', it's the first single off of the new album and the lyrics are directed towards this purpose. He says it's a sign of the times that he understands what's done is done and you can't come back in time. Life is one sense is that very sign of the times, you have to get the good from the bad and vice-versa. He feels like it's time to move on and at the same time you can sense the GREAT WHITE of old on many of the songs on this album. To be honest I never listened to any GREAT WHITE albums back in my day and there were so many bands in the 1980's in Glam Rock and Glam Metal that you had to make a choice what to listen and what to discard. Alot of people do consider GREAT WHITE as highly underrated and they did have a string of hits nonetheless. I was able to listen to some of their old stuff and it's still pretty good.

Like I said the first single is pretty damn good. It's very melodic and Jack Russell hasn't lost a step and still have a lot of power and emotion in his voice. I don't feel it's like a rehash of GREAT WHITE, I think he's got his groove on and he is doing is own thing right now. As for the rest of the songs, they are pretty interchangeable, it's not a knock on the album it's just that a lot of songs do sound alike and the order of the songs don't matter. The flow of the album is what counts in the long run. I mean nothing stands out as mind boggling awesome, I feel that the songs are all very good and well written stuff. There is no rhyme or reason, each song has it's personal touch and my favourite would definitely be ''My Addiction''. This might be the most personal song off of this release. If you guys weren't aware, Jack Russell had a rough time the last decade or so and he did have to face his personal demons. After the death of his close friend Jani Lane from WARRANT, he turned his life around. He conquered those demons and he has remained clean and sober since the death of his dear friend. In this song he talks about conquering those demons and that addiction is nothing to laugh about. Everyone has one or has skeletons in their closet, they won't find peace until they face those fears and become a better a better, from themselves and everyone around them.

As for the rest of the album, two other songs really grabbed my attention, ''He Saw it Comin'' and ''Blame it on the Night''. These songs do remind me of that time where Glam Rock and Glam Metal was all the rage, these songs could have been major hits back then. It's nothing to write home about but these songs have that nostalgia feeling and that's not a bad thing. It's not regretting what could have been, it's updating their sound and making good rocking music again. I think he is definitely back on track with this album and this album is a personal reflection of a man that is in a good place and life and has conquered a whole of suffering and anguish. This is one solid release.