Frontline arrived in the early 90’s and were quickly labeled the ‘German version of Journey’, and with good reason too.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Frontline
ALBUM: The State Of Rock
LABEL: Signo
SERIAL: SIG 340001
YEAR: 1994
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Germany
LINEUP: Stephan Kaemmerer – vocals * Robby Boebel – guitars, keyboards * Thomas Reiss – bass * Stephan Bayerlein – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Heaven Knows * 02 The Night Comes Over You * 03 Another Love * 04 Heaven Can Wait * 05 Endless * 06 Over And Out * 07 Dangerous Game * 08 Hold On * 09 I Have To Be Strong * 10 Victim Of Madness * 11 It’s Not Over
WEBLINKS: NA
Background
Just when you thought that bands like Boston, Strangeways and Journey had faded into the sunset, along come these German upstarts Frontline.
They reinvented the book of AOR and melodic rock, with a wonderful debut album, showing the rock world just what a talent they were, despite poor timing on the rock and roll timeline.
I have to say, the early 90’s weren’t great years for melodic rock, with grunge taking centre stage and everyone else booted out of sight. However, during these lean times, some artists kept the faith. Frontline were one of them.
You can tell quite quickly that Journey was a very big influence for them, as was Steve Perry for singer Stephan Kaemmerer. Not a complete ripoff, with a distinct European flavour being added to the mix.
The production duties were done by guitarist Robby Boebel. This guy has taste, class, and a superb ear. The overall mix was finished up by Boysvoice member Manni Gruber.
The Songs
Some of these songs are astounding to say the least. Tell me you don’t get shivers down the spine when you play ‘Another Love’. The verses just make you melt. What a monstrous song!
Elsewhere, ‘Heaven Knows’ and ‘The Night Comes Over You’ are immense slices of rock, while ‘Endless’ sounds very much like a beefed up Stan Meissner track. ‘Dangerous Game’ is a pulse laden affair which has some staccato like keyboards cascading throughout.
‘Hold On’ has similarities to Swedish band Dalton with those organ runs coming in over the top. Continuing the Swedish trend is a comparison to primetime Treat as shown on ‘Victim Of Madness’.
In Summary
From here we can see the first signs of Frontline developing into one of the 90’s top melodic rock bands. They are featured elsewhere on this site.
Drummer Stephan Bayerlein unfortunately did not continue on with the band, as he moved onto one of the leading lights working with record label USG who were prominent during the 90’s and 2000’s.
Kaemmerer and Boebel remained the nucleus and took the band to a new level of popularity, right up until the mid 2000’s. Other Frontline reviews can be read via their tag shown below.
Frontline on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
