The Roth Brock Project is a collaboration between John Roth (guitar) & Terry Brock (vocals). Roth is known for playing with Winger, Starship featuring Mickey Thomas, and Giant. Brock has handled vocal chores on Scottish band, Strangeways, and Giant, where the two met in 2009. The two have formed a partnership and have been writing together. The Roth Brock Project is their debut album.
I wasn’t familiar at all with either Roth or Brock. I was only slightly aware of Giant during their heyday so it makes sense I wouldn’t be interested in any of their output in 2009. I was surprised to see that John Roth is in Winger during the Pull tour forward. This sparked my interest because Winger’s output has been so good since that time. Both seem to be still part of the 2009 iteration of Giant.
The current trend in modern hard rock is to create micro supergroup collaboration albums. You get a couple of performers who have varying degrees of connection, they put together an album by sharing files over the Internet, and then you get an album. Frontiers Records are the masters of these mashups. I think it’s great. It allows for the musicians to have more creative outlets and we get more music. The Roth Brock Project is a perfect example of one of those ventures.
On first listen, the album really flies! I was listening to it at work and before I knew it, I was already on the fifth track. Roth’s guitar work is smooth and fits perfectly with Brock’s vocals. Brock’s vocals remind me of a combo of Johnny Gioeli from Hardline & Paul Laine formerly of Danger Danger. Roth handles all guitar, bass, and keyboards. Scott Trammell, who is currently touring with Nelson covers drumming duties.
The album is full of solid AOR melodic rock stylings, making the album a fun listen. All of the tracks seem familiar and comfortable. I think that might be the problem, everything sounds good but there’s not really any stand out tracks. Too many of the tracks feel like songs you have heard before. The opening track, “Young Gun” is catchy but has a “Rock in America” sound to it. Another track, “I Don’t Know Why”, has an intro that reminiscent of Heart’s “Never”. That being said the tracks are still enjoyable listens. Overall, the Roth Brock Project a good listen but a little forgettable. I’d love to see more from the Roth Brock Project. Hopefully, there will be future releases.
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