The W.E.T. debut has been around the RockEyez "offices" for a couple weeks now and originally our head honcho, Brian Rademacher, was going to do the review because of his recent interview with lead singer Jeff Scott Soto . Well, Brian graciously turned the CD over to me to have a go with the review with one of the more highly touted releases from Frontiers Records.

Just in case you aren't familiar with who W.E.T. are, well, they are a trio of talented artists more properly known as Robert Sall, guitarist of Sweden's WORK OF ART (which was reviewed here at RockEyez last year), Erik Martensson, multi-talented guitarist and instrumentalist of Sweden's ECLIPSE and of course previously mentioned vocalist extraordinaire Jeff Scott Soto.

The word around the melodic rock world is this is a release that will end up at the top of many "best of" lists for 2009 and so I'll let you now a little about the record and let you know if I feel the same.

The record opens with two of the strongest tracks I've heard in a while. You get a one-two punch of "Invincible" and "One Love". The former is a balls-to-the-wall rocker with slicing guitars and it reminds me of the best moments of Soto's former band TALISMAN. The later is just maybe one indication of what a Jeff Scott Soto-led JOURNEY could have sounded like. The guitars are maybe tougher than anything JOURNEY would do but the vocal bliss that made them famous is fully on display. Ohh, what could have been? It's like a "Separate Ways" for the 21st Century, if you will.

"Brothers In Arms" keeps things grooving with a rocker that reminds me of a latter day GOTTHARD… if fronted by Soto of course! Next up is the smoldering "Comes Down Like Rain" which has modern flair in its arrangement but culminates with some immense guitar work. A special nod also to the keyboard work on this record, as it is certainly prevalent but never takes away from the power of the songs. It's used just about to perfection in my opinion. That's something I always felt about ECLIPSE also as each of their releases got progressively heavier. I guess Martensson's contribution shines through on W.E.T.!

One of Soto's old bands makes its presence felt with "Running From The Heartache" as I hear a heavy helping of EYES thrown into this tune for good measure. Soto sounds exceptional on this track. On the subsequent track we get the influence of Robert Sall's band with the song "I'll Be There". It's more of an AOR-sounding number but with a slightly chunkier guitar sound. As much of an AOR fan I am, I'm not sure I am totally excited about this tune. It seems a little paint-by-numbers even for AOR, with only the guitar work separating it from totally run-of-the-mill.

Another thing I always noticed about Martensson's band, ECLIPSE, is their influence taken from the mighty WHITESNAKE and you get that in doses on this record. It has more than a few moments of the 1987 WHITESNAKE album and one of those moments comes with "Damage Is Done", as the guitars bring back memories of the great John Sykes at times. We even get a little bit of a THIN LIZZY feel thrown in. And while we're talking WHITESNAKE comparisons, JSS pays a little homage to Mr. Coverdale with his "owe, owe, owe" scream to open "Put Your Money Where You Mouth Is". The song doesn't seem to quite take off into Snake territory after that and ends coming off as just a decent track that ultimately isn't one that would come to memory when thinking of the best moments of this record.

The next couple tracks are decent enough, but the ballad "One Day At A Time" as well as "Just Go" both seem to almost lose a bit of the steam the record has built up. Again, they are decent enough tunes - and probably better than a lot bands in this style – but just not as strong as the first half of the record.

The record concludes with "My Everything" and "If I Fall" and both have a strong JOURNEY vibe. Again, while listening to "If I Fall" I can envision what a Soto-led JOURNEY could have sounded like. Both tunes are totally AOR in nature and vocally great tracks as the harmonies make you want to sing right along. They help to bring back the album to a strong conclusion.

We also get an acoustic version of "Comes Down Like Rain" for good measure as a final track.

In conclusion, the influences of Sall, Martensson and Soto's prior projects are well represented on the W.E.T. album and it works most all of the time. Still the strong moments far outweigh the few average ones and with that being said "W.E.T." will be in my top albums of the year. Wow, the second half of 2009 is shaping up to be pretty solid! What's next???