Album Review: A New Tomorrow - Universe

By the end of the year, when I'm already doing plenty of retrospective thinking, there isn't a lot of room left for new records to make an impact. It does happen from time to time (such as the lone Adler album - still great -, or Baroness' "Purple" - a mistake in hindsight, given how much I've grown to hate the production), but very rarely. There isn't a firm cut-off date for when records need to come out, but let's be honest, not many of us are really clamoring for even more records when December rolls around. But they do still come, and we have to give a few of them a chance, since you never know when something great is going to roll in.

A New Tomorrow is put in the unfortunate position of their debut album being released into this black hole of the year, which can't be their first choice. But with a list of classic and modern rocks bands they cite as influences, they seemed worth a shot. The single "I Wanna Live" leads things off, and I liked it when I first heard it. It takes a while to get going, but there's something about the chorus that caught my ear. It has a bit of a 90s flair to it, and made me pay attention. That same feeling carried on to "A Million Stars", which also sounds like a solid mix of everything that is modern rock radio, but done very well.

There is definitely a feeling to this album that is akin to Alter Bridge, which is a bit funny, since that band just released an album in October. It would be foolish of me to say that A New Tomorrow matched their excellent effort, but the comparison is not a complete bloodbath. This album isn't as good as "Walk The Sky", but I do think the opening gambit is as good as the two Alter Bridge albums that came before. The guitar work isn't quite as dense or technical, but the production is sharper and brighter, and the songs boast strong hooks throughout. For a debut album, it's a good start.

But like a lot of bands finding their way, there are some bumps along the way. "Mother Earth Is Calling" is a weaker track, and the vocals don't sound consistent all the way through the album. There are some affectations that work, and some that don't. They go from sounding normal on one track to having echoes of Sebastian Bach's screechiest moments on the next. It almost makes the record sound a bit like a compilation, rather than a unified statement of who and what A New Tomorrow is.

That opening run of songs makes you think this is going to be more than it is. The middle sags fairly hard, with a three run set of songs that are all ballads. It's a curious decision, since it kills any momentum the album might have been able to build up, but more because it puts three of the least rocking, least interesting songs all in a row. Halestorm pulled off that trick once, but their three songs were all very good, and featured some other-worldly vocals that carried the day. These songs are just boring.

The end of the record doesn't pick things back up, either. Once those first three songs are over, the rest of the album drags along until the end. There isn't much to keep me from turning it off once the good songs have finished. In fact, that's what I would recommend. Listen to the first three tracks, and then decide if you want to hear more. The record is front-loaded to the extreme, and perhaps it would have made for a good EP. As an album, the band still has a ways to go.