Stephen
"Back From The Dead" is an obvious sign that the Canadian's Renegade is cracking up their tomb and arise again with their long buried tracks from the 80s. Carrying the classic mid-80s AOR which also popularized by Boulevard and Glass Tiger from their country, that's smoothed out with early 90s melodic rock in the veins of Harem Scarem or Brighton Rock, Renegade sits comfortably in the middle to appeal both fans of the genre at the same time.
"Standing Out In The Rain" is already a quality opener. The tender keyboard with sheer joyful melodies is utterly beautiful. "The Best of Me" continues in a the same fashion but "Sign of The Times" stands out better. "Prisoner of Your Heart" is also another gem and "Big City Nights" is a superb anthemic tune and these four are my personal favorites of the album.
One thing that fell short is that literally, this album is short. Consisted of 8 tracks, with the last closing track, "Betrayal", is an instrumental left over, and skipping the passable filler, "Don't Be Afraid of The Dark", basically you'll get 6 great tracks. "After The Smoke Clears" is a good decent ballad, but I prefer their rocking side as I think they shine best on that.
The dusty sound is acceptable considering these songs are taken out from their vault that's kept for more than 10 years, but I'm hoping a longer album and putting on couple more uptempo tracks can push this album higher beyond 3.5 stars. "Back From The Dead" is nevertheless a great album and recommended for fans of Canadian rock, or melodic rock/AOR in general.