Stephen
Following the path of its fellow Finnish melodic hard rock outfit, Brother Firetribe, Free Spirit emerged to the scene with its debut, "Pale Sister of Light". The musical style is not much different, crossing between Danger Danger, Bon Jovi, and Brother Firetribe itself, but the burden is quite heavy because they have to be better, or at least equivalent to Firetribe to be spotted, not to mention that in 2009, there are a lot of veteran bands making comeback and releasing a lot of strong albums, so it's quite a hectic market and tense competition out there.
Evaluating from several spins, I can say that Free Spirit has the potential but still many untapped resources needed to be explored. The troubling experience with them is although none of the songs are bad, most of them are way too similar. Several outstanding tracks ranging from the midtempo anthemic of "Shadow of A Man" which is the best pick of the album, the title track, the Whitesnake-ish power ballad tune of "Strangers", the catchy "Far Away From Heaven", and the passionate "Preacher Man". Couple of other good tracks are "Moonlight Ride" and "Heroes Don't Cry", the rest are easy on the ears, but slightly weaker than the other.
Free Spirit still needed some time to evolve, this album is probably inferior compared to the sensational Brother Firetribe release, but somewhat is more interesting compared to Leverage's "Circus Colossus". I just hope they didn't stop here, I have high hopes for their second release.