Like a single day haven't passed by... it seems like yesterday the last time I heard 4 and now I listen the same guitar tuning, the same sensational vocals... like Brother's Keeper released a year after 4. A comeback from Fair Warning was something I longed for - yes there are countless other bands I like to see once again rising from their ashes but Fair Warning was on the top five of my list.
The worst thing that can happen in a reunion album is the disability of the band to reach the status of their previous releases, thus letting fans down. Hopefully for all of us Brother's Keeper is a well crafted album that can look up to its pre-ancestors without hesitations. As I mentioned earlier there seems to be a natural flow between the material of 4 and the new album. I assume that some of the songs included here where written few years ago? Yeah that's a possibility.
But thinking about it having a band with two distinct trademarks, Heart's vocal abilities and Engelke's guitar technique, a sonic similarity has to be anticipated. But it is also the production, the known warm sound all Fair Warning albums have, that sets the mood from the first song. Speaking about songs I manage to pick a few out of the bunch (the album contains 13 tracks, one of them Still I Believe is a European bonus track): of course the opener Don't Keep Me Waiting, the modern age oriented Generation Jedi but also The Cry and the more US fashioned Once Bitten, Twice Shy.
At this point let's also mention that the album's duration is rather lengthy: above 70 minutes! Cool huh? OK I prefer shorter in durations albums but I really don't believe there are filler songs in this one. In conclusion Brother's Keeper is a really good come back album. Definitely not the best album in the band's career but a damn good one!