Review: Gone Savage - Retrograde

Review: Gone Savage – Retrograde

Muzzle Records (October 25^th, 2024)

Reviewer: David Mark Pearce

As soon as this came up for review I snapped it up immediately. Not because I was any kind of life long fan or knew of their music even, because I’d never heard of them apart from, could it be the band a friend of mine Dex had recently recorded drums for? Well, yes indeed it was!

So let’s start there with the drums. Dex Tyler, a veteran of some 30 albums and countless gigs and tours, performs the drums for this extremely fine album of melodic hard rock! Dex really powers through here, every song is right there in the pocket and your foot, head and maybe other body parts will be grooving along throughout. And I also want to give a shout out to another friend, Gary Williams who recorded the drums at his studio ‘Red Media’, and I must say they both did a cracking job here, which is brought out by the mix, which is clear as a bell and punchy as hell, so also a shout out to Brad Rolling. Stella job sir!

So we’d better see who else is responsible for this very fine album – On vocals – Will Glover, Bass/Acoustic guitars/keys and programming – Ian Salpeker and then there’s a whole host of electric/Acoustic guitarists – James Matsh, Rob Rideout and another friend of mine Tracy Story. And it’s all rounded out by Ian Schofield and Lee Bradbury on keyboards. Phew that’s quite a list!

So what’s it sound like? Well it’s definitely got a very strong 80’s influence but modern enough to fit in today’s market. I think we’ve got Alice Cooper, Icon and XYZ in there as possible stablemates! Probably bands that don’t even come in to it for the Gone Savage guys but that’s what it was reminded me of.

Having listened to this album a lot I’m scratching my head as to why I’ve never heard of them before, and I probably wouldn’t have paid further attention if some dear friends of mine hadn’t been involved in, it but I’m really glad I have got to hear this, and indeed review it, because it’s great. I’m not just listening because I volunteered to review it, I’m listening because I really enjoyed it. Ian on the bass really compliments Dex‘s drumming. It’s low, powerful and also right in the pocket. This gives the various guitarists room to do their thing. The guitars are also powerful and crunchy with some great solos throughout. This musical bedrock allows Will to sit right on top of the mountain and blast out his cracking voice! I think his voice is what reminds me of Alice Cooper and Icon and the guitars are where I’m thinking XYZ in the riff department!

Now as always I’m not going to go through every song and say who/what it sounds like as I just think that’s pointless and as music is personal, that’s your job. I’ve already started the ball rolling with what bands I think it’s in the ballpark with, so over to you!

All I will say is it’s been a repeated listen since I got it and I think will be for some time to come!! Excellent!!

Tracklist:

1 Ram Me Down
2 Shameless
3 Money Power Love
4 Here Comes The Shade
5 Soul Sister
6 Adrenaline Junkie
7 World Gone Crazy
8 In 2 Ya
9 Sunshine And Flowers
10 D.R.O.W.N.I.N.G.