GDM has been championing the musical exploits of Rob Moratti since the late 90’s, and decades later the man is still rockin’ up a storm.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Rob Moratti
ALBUM: Epical
LABEL: Frontiers SRL
SERIAL: FRCD 1279
YEAR: 2022
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: 
LINEUP: Rob Moratti – vocals * Joel Hoekstra – guitars * Pete Alpenborg – keyboards, rhythm guitar * Tony Franklin – bass * Felix Borg – drums, percussion + keyboards (#11) * Fredrik Bergh – keyboards (#6)
TRACK LISTING: 01 Can I Hold You For Awhile * 02 Masquerade * 03 Nothing Left To Say * 04 Valerie * 05 Hold On * 06 For The Rest Of My Life * 07 Stay The Night * 08 Love * 09 Crash And Burn * 10 You Keep Me Waiting * 11 Stranger
RATING: 
Background
GDM has been championing the musical exploits of Rob Moratti since the late 90’s, and decades later the man is still rockin’ up a storm. In recent years Rob’s solo career has changed labels. From Escape Music to AOR Heaven and now Frontiers. All of his past albums have touched a pleasant nerve, but it’s that super run of Final Frontier albums between 2000 and 2007 that take the prize.
Yes, not quite his solo material, though his last two albums ‘Renaissance’ and ‘Paragon’ are both decent efforts as is the 2011 set ‘Victory’. A few familiar faces return to help out including Tony Franklin and Fredrik Bergh, while Joel Hoekstra – who played on one track on ‘Paragon’ takes over guitar duties, plus we add Arctic Rain Pete Alpenborg and Taste (Sweden) drummer Felix Borg to the lineup.
The Songs
Opening with ‘Can I Hold You For Awhile’, this one bowls along at a good clip, the vocals will be familiar to long time listeners. Good to hear Joel’s finger work giving these songs a beefy backdrop. If Rob has developed a template over the years, then ‘Masquerade’ falls into that pattern. Both ‘Valerie’ and ‘Love’ are commercial and catchy, with singalong choruses. If not for the fiery guitar this pairing would’ve been a touch too syrupy.
The racy ‘Hold On’ is one of the album highlights, you are literally holding on waiting for Joel’s solo. ‘For The Rest Of My Life’ is another that rides the tide of above midtempo AOR. It works for me. ‘You Keep Me Waiting’ is the albums power ballad, normally a track like this is enough to get me going. Though good, I was left in the starting gates not flinching one bit. ‘Strangers’ is the last track, it’s slightly heavier with riffs and solos flying off the handle.
In Summary
In wrapping up, I’ll go out on a limb and say that ‘Epical’ didn’t quite hit the same sweet spots as past Moratti albums, but there a few songs that lift the album but you’ll need to spend time with it to extract the maximum amount of enjoyment from it.
Video
Can I Hold You For A While
Love
Hold On
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This one had the same production vibe as First Signal, but with diff vocals applied obviously.