Album Review

Toseland - RenegadeToseland – Renegade

Ever since I caught Toseland supporting Reef at the academy in Bristol back in November I have been waiting patiently for their debut studio album ‘Renegade’ as they put on one hell of a performance at the gig and the likes of ‘Life Is Beautiful’, ‘Kingdoms’, ‘Crash Landings’ and ‘Renegade’ still remain in my memory from the show, the wait for the album is nearly over as it is due for release on the 24th March.

Toseland are made up of world superbike chamption James Tosland (vocals), Zurab Melua (guitars), Rebea Massaad (guitars),, Dave Hollingworth (bass) and William Stokes (drums), now if you managed to catch Toseland supporting Reef or have headed to one of their many headline shows then you will know exactly what to expect from the music of Toseland but if you are new to the band then all you need to know is that Toseland are a big stadium rock sounding band who seriously know how to rock out.

‘Renegade’ has been in the works for many months now and has been funded by the fan funding company Pledge Music and they smashed the target they needed to create the album many months ago and the total pledges currently stands at 187% of their goal which clearly shows the solid support that Toseland already have this early in their musical career.

The album kicks off with ‘Life Is Beautiful’ a song which instantly shows off what Toseland are all about whilst also setting the pace for the next 45minutes, the song reminds me of American rockers Alter Bridge as the band energetically lay down some massive riffs and beats giving off an overall solid sound.

‘Gotta Be A Better Way’ follows things on nicely and proves to be yet another powerful rock n’ roll song which is going to get the pit moving like crazy at future Toseland shows as the song really does have everything going for it from chunky riffs, banging drum beats, big basslines and a massive vocal performance from James Toseland where he just lets rip and thinks about coming up for air once he has got his work done.

‘Singer In A Band’ see’s Toseland go down the more radio friendly melodic rock route, once again the song is massive sounding and when the chorus kicks in with James Toseland singing “Everybody wants to be a singer in a band and I’m almost on my way” you can’t help but sing-a-long whilst fighting the urge to bounce off your walls and trash everything in sight due to the sheer energy the song will leave you wanting to let out.

The majority of the album is full of big hitting rock songs but then we have the likes of ‘Just No Way’ and ‘Kingdoms’ which see’s James Toseland start things off on the keyboard and both songs go on to be epic sounding power ballads which tells me that Toseland have seriously thought about each and every second of this album and come up with a diverse sounding album which rocks for the majority of the time, hits your heart for a small portion and generally ticks all the right boxes throughout.

The album comes to a close with the title track ‘Renegade’ which also happens to be the first song myself and many other heard from Toseland many months ago and is one hell of an fist pumping, hard hitting, energetic number which has you hitting the repeat button seconds before the song comes to an end as seriously the more you hear it the better it gets.

I had high expectations for the debut Toseland album but I never expected the album to be as good as it actually is as the albums features 11 songs and it is seriously all killer and no filler. As soon as the album is released Toseland head out on a headline tour and also spend a couple of nights supporting three chord rock veterans Status Quo and then who knows what’s next for the band but I have a feeling that they are going to go far.

5/5

Review by Trigger

 Band Members

James Toseland
Zurab Melua
Rebea Massaad
Dave Hollingworth
William Stokes
 Track Listing

1. Life Is Beautiful
2. Gotta Be a Better Way
3. Singer in a Band
4. Crash Landing
5. Just No Way
6. Comin' to Get Ya
7. Good Eye Blind
8. Kingdoms
9. Burning the System
10. Emergency
11. Renegade

 Band Related Links
Toseland Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?