Bridger 2011

"Melodic and even poppy, yet metal-tinged, Bridger's eponymous debut album is a collection of broadly appealing rock tunes. A considerable portion of tunes on the album should appeal to metalheads and hardrockers. Tracks like 'Don't Push Me', and 'How Long' are quite hard rocking, at times bordering on being metal (this especially applies to 'Don't Push Me'). And then there is the cover version of the Sabbath-classic 'Heaven and Hell' which is, of course, all out metal. Although it has been "modernized" with keyboards and stuff, it still does justice to the original. Other tunes, like 'Good to Be Home', 'Without a Sound' and 'On the Ledge' also contain hard rock elements, but these are combined with elements from other rock genres and are also of a more melodic character in general. In addition to the metal-tinged and hard rocking tracks, there are also a bunch of ballads which, while well performed and well put together, are a bit too sappy for my taste. Overall "Bridger" as a broadly appealing guitar-driven hard rock album with just enough metal elements to satisfy the needs of more metal-oriented hardrockers while still very melodic such that it will probably also appeal to fans of more melodic rock and even pop music. (review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"