TERRA NOVA
Escape
Frontiers Records 2005
www.terranova.name

What’s the 4-1-1?
After a 6 year split, the Dutch melodic rock band is back in business with their 4th album.

Genre
Melodic rock / pop

The Good
When talking about this album, the hard rocking high-energy songs are absolutely fantastic musically speaking. Songs like “Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll”, the title track, “Back in the Eighties” and “Part Of The Game” all feature superb guitar work augmented by the rhythm section and keyboardist Ron Hendrix.

The Bad
The main problem with the album, at least for me, is the vocal work. The band reminds me a bit of 80’s commercial successes like Journey and Survivor. The difference here is that they had vocalists who shined both as a part of and above and beyond the music. Vocalist Fred Hendrix’s work simply did not connect with me. There are parts of the album where the vocals seem to be placed below the music. He also produced the album and I’m having a hard time figuring out what the thought process was for the decisions made in the mixing of the album. Another thing I didn’t like was the harmony vocals. They were entirely too overproduced.

The Verdict
Terra Nova’s Escape has everything you could expect to find, good and bad, in a European based melodic rock album. The album would have received a very high mark if judged solely on the music. Sadly, the vocal work served to drastically reduce my opinion of the album.

Did You Know?
Vocalist Fred Hendrix studied for two years at The Conservatory of Music in The Hague.

Rating: out of 5

-- Jay Roberts