Album Review: COLLATERAL – Should’ve Known Better

Review by Peter Coates – www.facebook.com/InsideEdgePhotography

COLLATERAL
SHOULD’VE KNOWN BETTER

Released May 24^th 2024
Big Shot Records

Having blitzed their way onto the British rock scene in 2020, weeks before COVID appeared to shut the country down, and prevent any in-person touring to promote the record, Collateral was forced to cancel their highly successful tour with Phil X (Bon Jovi) halfway through. This made the band hungry to keep the momentum. With innovative ways to produce top quality live streams, the band became special guests supporting a range of artists through online events.

In October 2022, the band independently released a re-mixed and re-mastered version of their debut album as Re-Wired which featured Jeff Scott Soto, Phil X, Kee Marcello, Rudy Sarzo, Danny Vaughn, and Joel Hoekstra. After the gruelling back-to-back tours with Skid Row, H.E.A.T and Reckless Love, the band re-ignited a spark and strengthened their already loyal fanbase leading them to win the opening slot at the 2023 Stonedead Festival.

The first album captured the raw energy of the band, much like the first Bon Jovi record did, with catchy songs, big harmonies and bigger hooks, and some quality riffs throughout. The new record, although a bit light on with only 9 tracks and 35 minutes, has taken several steps along the road, and the huge production from Dan Weller (Those Damn Crows, Enter Shikari, Monster Truck, Kris Barras) has lifted the band into a new dimension, with the first single Glass Sky being a really ambitious and sophisticated slab of modern melodic rock. The more times I listen to this, the more I hear in the production, and in the slick and clever elements that run through the track, making this just a stunning opener to the record.

The band is back to a 4-piece with original guitarist Todd Winger having departed on amicable terms, and by all reports they have been able to deliver a full-on live sound on their recent run of dates with the mighty FM, and the opening riff of Original Criminal could be off the Tough It Out record, while the slightly out-there pre-chorus leads into a balls-out chorus from the great days of Ratt or Great White with Angelo Tristan’s vocals towering over the multi-layered harmonies.

Angelo openly admits that Jon Bon Jovi and Steve Tyler are heroes, and Just One Of Those Days could be from the JBJ country-rock songbook, much like Midnight Queen from the early Collateral days. Teenage Dreams harks back to those glory days of classic Bon Jovi and so many others, with the added dimension of an acoustic guitar from Angelo adding to the terrific riffing and soloing from Louis Malagodi. The middle-eight takes us into a slightly different feel as the bad rocks out, before heading back to the relative safety of the massive hooks of the chorus.

The song that perhaps captures the essence of Collateral is Elysium, which has a bit of Huey Lewis and Bryan Adams in the mix, but an outrageously radio-friendly sound and another big chorus, underpinned with the sort of huge drum sound I love from Ben Atkinson. This could become the live party anthem of the set! The sole ballad on the record, On The Long Road, was written to reflect on the passing of Angelo’s partner’s Mum during COVID, and this brings all the emotion and intensity through the lyrics and the vocal delivery. The guitar solo opens over a stripped back refrain, before the band opens up and the guitar soars away.

We dive back into a gritty AOR mode with the superb No Place For Love, which the band have been playing for a while, but which the production has lifted to a much higher level, with the opening guitars having a Reb Beach feel, and in which Louis delivers a ripper of a solo, before the clever mid-song pre-chorus which adds some solid accents, crushing power-chords and then the perfect harmonies in the main chorus hook-line. This may well be the best song the band have ever written, and one of the best AOR rockers of the 2020’s.

The last two tracks on the record are both flat out melodic rockers, with Game Changer tearing through quality verse and chorus, with Ben and Jack Bentley-Smith combining to provide a belter of a backing track, while Louis shreds his way through the solo to the insane middle-eight, which allows the band to show off some impressive chops and patterns, before the very brief interlude the sets up the final chorus, with Louis showing some real virtuoso licks over the vocals.

Final Stand is equally powerful, with the pick of the riffs as the key, and while it has a bit of the Scandinavian hard rock feel to it, it has that British rock edge underlying the glossy melodies, and an almost industrial harshness to the guitar sound, which drives the middle-eight into some grungy vocals, but this complements the superb soaring harmonies from Angelo and the backing vocals that follow in the final choruses.

Collateral has changed a bit since the early days, but they have not lost their core energy and trans-Atlantic melodic rock sound. They write some cracking songs, have an endless store of killer catchy choruses, and in Angelo they have a front-man who can command a stage as well as having a superb AOR-rock voice.

COLLATERAL:
Angelo Tristan – Vocals/Guitar
Louis Malagodi – Guitar
Ben Atkinson – Drums
Jack Bentley-Smith – Bass