The first album from LAWLESS via Escape Music, "Rock Savage" (2013), was a total surprise, a very diverse and entertaining mix of traditional British Melodic Metal with a strong 80's flavor, a guitar driven album updated with great playing and doted by a fat sound, surprisingly it features even some slight AOR melodic overtones in an old school thrilling spirit; this disc received many raving reviews...LAWLESS is a relatively young group, a four piece from the U.K. with in its ranks some veterans musicians, well-known in the Underground scene, each one is respected for their past work with pioneers DEMON or N.W.O.B.H.M. survivors, HEADRUSH / PERSIAN RISK.

This second album starts with a short intro recalling the 100th anniversary of the awful first World War, then it kicks directly into the first track, where you could experience, more or less, the same feeling already present in their debut, still reinforced by a fierce guitar barrage with a lot of nuances and once again a thick and yet very natural sound! The solid Tenor voice of Paul Hume is keeping the tradition to be a focus point in the whole sound design, with a range quite reminiscent of STRYPER's Michael Sweet or British fellow Martin Berkley from 90's underrated THE SHOCK (please check their Now & Then Records 1998's "Pinultimate" album). The pace is dynamic; it's a very promising sign of things to come. The chorus is very familiar and very much tagged in the great Heavy Metal legend with a giant quality stamp on it, this, as a matter of fact, will be a constant tendency for the entire listening session. Indeed the British Steel orthodoxy is honored again with the opening riff and the guitar work for "Pain" which is clearly in the great Downing/Tipton tradition while the chorus harmonized melody sounds like a more contemporary kind of Metal, maybe enhanced by a furtive Progressive impression! Same feeling with the epic orchestrated "Heaven Raining" or the superb cut "How Long" who start in a customary and regular method but it amazes in its unexpected development with a great harmonic chord progression...Maybe this is my favorite song with the opener "Ghosts of No Man's Land "!

Most of the time this style is updated, reworked and completed in a more americanized style, this includes of course an concentrated structures, short but smokin' lead breaks under a polished sound with huge backing vocals and a sing-along mania ("Dead Man Walking" + "Twisted and Burned" + "Diamond In The Rough").

The nasty Hair Metal tricks present in "Rise Up" or even more in "Kiss My Glass" are quite obvious, even if it's not the smartest number the party Rock feeling is still enjoyable and funny...Still I'm more impressed by the heavier songs!

The surprise effect can't works twice, but the interesting and captivating elements of "Rock Savage" are still perfectly in a working state, another pleasant and recommended effort by LAWLESS .