Brit band Pulse deliver an album that’s competently played and the production is really good, but the songs didn’t grab and hold on.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Pulse
ALBUM: Chasing Shadows
LABEL: Self Released
YEAR: 2020
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: 
LINEUP: Simon Abbotts – vocals * Vince O’Regan – guitars * Pete Betts – bass * Irvin Parrat – keyboards * Andy Pierce – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 River Of Tears * 02 Broken Land * 03 Chasing Shadows * 04 Woman * 05 Hold Back The Rain * 06 Field Of Dreams * 07 Runaway * 08 Looking For Love * 09 One More Night * 10 Over My Shoulder * 11 Save Me
RATING: 
WEBLINKS: FB page
Background
These guys were previously signed to Now And Then-Frontiers back in 2001 for their self-titled debut, then MTM Music for their second effort’ Worlds Apart’ during 2004. Then they disappeared off the map 15 years, re-emerging in early 2020 with this self released effort.
Like many British bands in recent years, Pulse have reformed, perhaps with the intent that there is unfinished business to attend to, or maybe there’s a bunch of old unreleased songs that need justice done to them. In any case, Pulse are back, and doing it on their own accord. No record labels involved, and using social media to get the word out.
The Songs
Judging by what I’m hearing, Pulse have a good sound, somewhat like early era Ten (when they were a decent outfit). Plus a bit of Magnum, but that’s to be expected really as several of these blokes were in Bob Catley‘s band.
It’s competently played, and the production is really good, but the songs didn’t grab and hold on, and in this genre of AOR and Melodic Rock that is pretty much a prerequisite. ‘River Of Tears’ is a mild beginning, acoustic guitar leading us into the fray. The whole thing reminded me of 80’s Magnum, probably due to Simon’s similarity to Bob Catley on this one plus the arrangement of the chorus.
‘Broken Land’ is a bit of closet killer, loads of melody, run at a fair clip and topped off a super solo from Vince. This is a keeper. ‘Chasing Shadows’ is where Pulse’s intentions all come together. Good production, strong driving arrangement, riffs aplenty and even the synths come to the fore. From here, I ended up drifting off, as only a couple of tracks did enough to warrant some attention. ‘Runaway’ and ‘Over My Shoulder’ in particular being two of those.
In Summary
‘Chasing Shadows’ comes to us in 2020 as an unheralded album, mainly due to lack of professional marketing and PR; but these days in the world of music promotion, you can set loose a smoke signal from 10 parsecs away, and pretty soon punters will be sniffing around in next to no time. Give it a shot, listen to the clips below and see what you think.
Video
Broken Land
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