Review: Rising Wings – Reach

Pride & Joy Music (September 22^nd 2023)

Reviewer: Jason Hopper

Hailing from Germany, Rising Wings is pretty much a one-man band with founder Florian “Flo” Bauer contributing in every way to this album outside of drums. According to the bio, Florian released two EPs over a decade ago but has not released anything since. This makes me wonder what took him so long and why the public has been deprived of what turns out to be an album with some of the best songs I’ve heard from any band this year.

The album opens with a bang!  ‘Ride On’ starts out inconsequentially. A standard build up that many bands utilize until the riff kicks in and grabs you with both hands at it rockets you towards the sky. The type of song that is so well constructed you feel as if you can fly through the air.  There are several songs on this album with the theme of breaking free and each one hit home with me. This is exactly what I want to hear when I need music to temporarily take me away.  What a way to open the album.

Second track ‘Lonely Is The Night’ slows things down a bit with a mid-tempo melody that seems custom made to be a single, and a quick YouTube search confirms that it was the leadoff single.  The type of tune that has that commercial sound that could be easily mistaken as a track from a band you have never heard from in the late 80s. All the elements are present for that mass appeal that bands strove for back then.

Track three nearly knocked me off my chair. A punchy, crunchy, powerful riff showcases ‘Whatever It Takes’. This track could have easily come off Bonfire’s ‘Point Blank’ album. It does help that the song and album was co-produced by Chris Lausmann, who engineered and produced for Bonfire, but with this song he really nails their sound. Once again, another song about overcoming adversity, this track is sure to make people’s best of list for this year.  Sensational!

While those are the three best songs on the album, I enjoyed nearly all the others as well. Some highlights from the rest include ‘Hey You’, which takes an acoustic power pop approach with just a touch of country flair.  It’s a nice change-up from what came before and adds some variety to the collection.  ‘Reach The Sky’ is full of energy and incorporates a good use of melody change by opening big before going slower and building up to its chorus, where the change up bursts from the speakers.

The only song I found fault with was ‘Keep Going On’ simply for the chorus. There is an octave drop that brings the chorus down. In a traditional sense, the vocals in a chorus should soar as it’s the heart of the song. The drop nullifies that power. With that said, the song ends strong, with Florian pitching the chorus higher and taking the refrain to its conclusion. It almost redeems the song.

If this is just the beginning, then we can expect to hear great things in the future from Florian. I just hope he won’t take another decade to come out with new material. Fans of melodic bands like Eclipse and Bonfire have a new album to check out this year. An overall great rock album with some killer tracks that people will reference in online and social circles.

Tracklist:

1. Ride On
2. Lonely Is The Night
3. Whatever It Takes
4. Remember
5. Hey You
6. Reach The Sky
7. Keep Going On
8. Wild And Free
9. Crying Time
10. Times of Rain