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SWEET & LYNCH
Heart & Sacrifice

Frontiers (2023)
Rating: 8.5/10

Heart & Sacrifice heralds the return of the mercurial tag team of guitar god George Lynch (ex-Dokken / Lynch Mob / KXM) and Michael Sweet (Stryper) and as expected it’s another corker of an opus.

This is the third full-length release from the talented duo and it comes jam-packed with crisp, memorable anthems which rock so hard. Sweet’s vocals rise from the smouldering axe work like a glinting Phoenix in full flight. The riffs of Lynch have that steaming hot and driving power, but weight is never sacrificed when the grooves start to sizzle. The variations explored here dazzle because the heavy rock framework constructed so often flexes due to the varying tempos arranged and so sturdily delivered.

You get the expected steelier cuts which strut and hammer with the title track, ‘Where I Have To Go’ and ‘You’ll Never Be Alone’ being just a few examples, but this opus is riddled with a metallic muscularity and a certain degree of brooding within its heavyweight dynamics. Call this classic metal if you will with nary a subtlety in sight (even with the token ballad ‘After All Is Said And Done’) but of course, each perfectly executed track comes with many layers built around the diverse axe work of Lynch.

Other rocky romps are ‘Give Up The Night’ and ‘It Rains Again’, but as with a majority of other tracks, this impressive brace exude power, grace and bombastic melody, as does the stunning ‘Miracle’. The album boasts some speedier moments too which may surprise some, but the punchy nature is so consistent that with each listen this platter hardens even further.

Both exquisite and robust, Heart & Sacrifice is a deep and instantly affecting album, but with Sweet and Lynch at the helm this was always going to be a brilliant work.

Neil Arnold

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