2018 was a stellar year for Sydney, Australia's CROSSON, as their album "Invincible" spent ten-plus weeks in the Top Thirty Official Rock and Metal Charts and was voted Sleaze Nation's number two Album of the Year. 2020's follow up, "Rock n' Roll Love Affair," is set to drop on the 27^th of March, and promises the same success. The album has been produced, written, and arranged by the band's namesake, the ultra-theatrical Jason Crosson; and mixed by Duane Baron, who has worked with MOTLEY CRUE, POISON, ALICE COOPER and OZZY OSBOURNE. The album was also mastered by industry legend Dave Donnelly, who has worked with AEROSMITH, KISS, and WHITESNAKE. Just in staff alone, the album has a pedigree a mile long.

Opening up the record is the slickly produced "Everyone's A Star," which opens with some nice power chord and keyboard exchanges. I was very unfamiliar with the band going into this review, so the vocal delivery on the song caught me a bit off guard. Jason's voice has a lot more in common with some of the New Wave bands of the eighties than most Metal acts of any genre. That fact is actually more prevalent on the second track, the rocker "Givin' Up Living Giving Up," at least on the verses. You can feel the theatrical nature of the band come through on both of these cuts, as everything has a certain "larger than life" feel to it. Once you get acclimated to the vocal delivery and start concentrating on the music itself, the only thing that really glares at you is just how talented the entire band truly is. All the instrumentation is top shelf. Everyone, with a special nod towards Stu Marshall, is on their game.

The album's third track, the power ballad "Rest in Peace," is a particularly well written piece, with a harmonized vocal intro and beautifully textured guitar work throughout. The song has all the ingredients to be huge. Other highlights on the record are "We All Need an Enemy" and "Possessed." The former features a healthy dose of cutting lyrics aimed at the "Socio-Political War Machines." The latter of the two songs again has the oddball vocal delivery, but damn is it fun. At the end of the day, that is exactly what we are here for. I would love to see a live show from these guys, especially if the live energy is as strong as this album promises.