Peterik / Scherer
Risk Everything

I don’t think that Jim Peterik really needs any closer introduction, a man behind the band Survivor that was fairly successful and popular and nowadays he deals more with lions in the Pride of Lions project with excellent singer Toby Hitchcock. He found another excellent singer and figured that he would risk it all and create another project that simply is named from the members’ last names. The first album of this project is named Risk Everything and it has a lovely cover artwork, and the singer Marc Schere is something of an unknown but I have noticed that he likes to answer comments on the videos on youtube and from there I have learnt some things like the fact that he likes one of the great vocalist heroes of all time, Dennis DeYoung and that Pride of Lions is still alive and well. By the way, you can hear Toby Hitchcock doing some backing vocals on this album.

The musical style of this album is of course AOR of the traditional kind, fans of Survivor can rejoice as it nods back towards that but you also recognise the style of Jim Peterik’s song writing. It feels fairly fresh for the genre, the sound and production is excellent. The vocalist Marc Scherer is also brilliant and at times he reminds me of previously mentioned Dennis DeYoung, especially in the fifth track Thee Crescendo that reminds me a little of DeYoung’s band Styx when they were in their prime – which is quite long ago now. But it is not only that, the album is varied and it has some surprising angles while still being just the kind of albums all those people who likes AOR albums that sound the same likes – it has potential to appeal to anyone which is not the most common thing.

It all starts with a kick in the face, that is the title track it is a great AOR tune that sets a tone for the album to follow – which it does, brilliantly. It is something so rare as a traditionally styled AOR album that doesn’t feel somewhat predictable and after a few plays somewhat boring, a fresh version of a tiring genre – that is not bad. In all its greatness it is a bit destructive though, ruining my work with reviewing albums for this webzine as I have spent much of the time listening to this album limiting the time spent on other albums. So in a way it is good to be finished, one thing I do think of though is that maybe they should kill off the lions and focus on this project instead – but then I think that it would probably get boring and the variation for Peterik writing for these different projects rather than just writing for one of them – I think it spices up the show a bit and you also have to admire the guy for creating such brilliance despite the fact that he has nothing left to prove, although he might feel the urge to prove that you can still create AOR that feels fresh and exciting.

All the eleven tracks on the album are excellent; in fact the entire album is excellent. I do have a few favourite tracks though, Thee Crescendo that I have already mentioned builds up to a great crescendo and entertains a lot, and I also think that the track Broken Home is excellent – I really enjoy those two tracks but there are more great tracks on the album, all of them in fact. You can say a lot more but one word really sums it up, that word is WOW! An album where every note is a precious part and an album that requires your attention, I think it is one that anyone can enjoy and if enough people get it we might get a sequel and that would be brilliant.

So, don’t miss this album – it would almost be criminal negligence to miss it so don’t miss it.

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