Many fell in love with Dare upon the release of their quite beautiful 1988 ‘Out Of The Silence’ LP. However, they may have quickly fallen out of love upon hearing their 1991 follow-up ‘Blood From Stone’.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Dare
ALBUM: Blood From Stone
LABEL: A&M
SERIAL: 395 360-2
YEAR: 1991
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England
LINEUP: Darren Wharton – vocals * Vinny Burns – guitars * Brian Cox – keyboards * Nigel Clutterbuck – bass * Greg Morgan – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Wings Of Fire * 02 We Don’t Need A Reason * 03 Surrender * 04 Chains * 05 Lies * 06 Live To Fight Another Day * 07 Cry Wolf * 08 Breakout * 09 Wild Heart * 10 Real Love
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Dare Background
Many fell in love with Dare upon the release of their quite beautiful 1988 ‘Out Of The Silence’ LP. However, they may have quickly fallen out of love upon hearing their 1991 follow-up ‘Blood From Stone’.
Admittedly, this is not a bad album as such. it did show how flaky Darren Wharton must’ve been to follow the path set by. Europe and Bon Jovi. In the process ditching the stylish sound he put together on the debut.
I recall at the time of this release. It did come in for a bit of a shellacking at the hands of the press. They labelled the band as Thin Lizzy wannabes. As I said, it’s not a bad album, just completely different.
But when you look at Wharton’s pedigree, it was a logical decision to follow the Lizzy road. Even if it meant sacrificing some existing fans to do it.
The Songs
The album contains some out and out hard rockers. Check out the opener ‘Wings Of Fire’ and the fiery ‘Wild Heart’ for evidence. ‘We Don’t Need A Reason’ is pretty cutting stuff too, though ‘Surrender’ is throwaway hair metal to be fair.
‘Chains’ could be a cross between Thunder (UK) and Bon Jovi. Not sure if that’s a compliment or not, but that was the prevailing sound of the day. Dare know how to swing a good ballad or two, in this case ‘Lies’ delivers on all fronts, nice track.
‘Live To Fight Another Day’ and ‘Cry Wolf’ contain big anthems comparable to other bands of the era. Whereas ‘Break Out’ follows the trend set down by the likes of British compadres Thunder (UK) and Little Angels. Hard rockin’ and bluesy, though Dare in this case add their own metallic edge to it.
Surely the closer ‘Real Love’ is a tribute to Bon Jovi, the JBJ vocal comparison is just too close to call.
In Summary
Despite the bagging this album got, I still rate it. Yes, I was disappointed it didn’t move in the same direction as ‘Out Of The Silence’. But when you look back at the complete Dare discography, this is the only album which is different.
All the other albums since have gravitated back to the OOTS sound, perhaps even more so now. The meandering celtic atmospherics moving further left of the spectrum than their debut.
From this album, Vinny Burns would go on to tear up the fretboard for British band Ten for a number of years.
Wharton would return in 1998 for the laid back ‘Calm Before The Storm’. Hair metal fans would get a temporary kick out of this album. Even though Dare’s foray into that genre was short-lived, it was exciting nonetheless.
Dare on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
