People have the tendency of choosing sides when some things happen. Today, is easy to hear and see some fans siding only with 70s and 80s Metal, others with younger genres, and it’s a waste: you can find good music on bands on both tendencies, there’s nothing wrong with it. If one can understand such words, this one will surely love the work of the Canadian quartet FREEWAYS heard on “Dark Sky Sanctuary”. Their music resembles a lot the early works of NWOBHM acts, when the limits between Heavy Metal and Hard Rock weren’t defined, so their music is full of melodies, and it’s really heavily influenced by acts UFO, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, THIN LIZZY, RAINBOW, AC/DC but with that organic touch of acts as PRAYING MANTIS, DEMON, SAXON and others on such trend.

It’s melodic, accessible and truly good to be heard. Such kind of music demands an organic sonority, relying more on the musicians’ abilities to set their gears on the studio than on the sound desk technician knowledge, because things must sound simple and straight, in an easy way to be reproduced on live shows. The band did such thing, with a good level of definition. It’s not perfect, but it’s very good, indeed.

“Forever Protected” (a song with a strong feeling inherited from Hard Rock and Boogie Rock, with a massive melodic energy, and very good guitars), “Can’t Deny Destiny” (a stronger and heavier moment, with melodies from Hard Rock gaining weight due the strong rhythms of bass guitar and drums), “Give ‘Em the Gears” (a dirty and fast Hard ‘n’ Heavy moment, with NWOBHM guitars and strong vocals), “Dark Sky Sanctuary” (very good melodies once more, with charming vocals), and “Private Myth” are the right ones for a first dive on the album. But the musical ideas of the quintet are very good on all the tracks, indeed.

“Dark Sky Sanctuary” is really an excellent release, but it’s clear that FREEWAYS can surprise us all in the future. And we hope it’ll become true!