Legend Records just released DARE 1991’s album “Blood From Stone“, for the first time remastered. Fronted by Thin Lizzy alumni Darren Wharton, DARE delivered a superb AOR debut album, but for this second effort Wharton decided to go for a more Melodic Hard Rock direction… and what a killer record it is in this genre.
By 1989-1990 Melodic Hard Rock was ruling the Rock scene and Wharton, perhaps also influenced by his previous stint with Lizzy, opted for a more muscular musical approach, so “Blood From Stone” turned to be a rocking affair.
Wharton’s vocals here are harder, grittier, filled with passion n’ pain, while guitarist Vinnie Burns finds more room to drop his melodious yet sharper riffs & solos, all but negating the need for Brian Cox’s artistic keyboard additions.
Yeah, “Blood From Stone” is the ‘different’ album from all Dare discography, so if you’re looking for crunching guitar riffs, big rhythm section and arena choruses check out tracks like ‘Wings of Fire’ and ‘We Don’t Need A Reason’.
Then ‘Surrender’ is influenced by the American hair metal scene, ‘Chains’ has a British hard rock pedigree on it, and ‘Cry Wolf’ and ‘Live To Fight Another Day’ are strong pieces of Melodic Hard made 1990.
‘Lies’ is a superb power ballad, ‘Breakout’ is one of my favorites with its huge, layered chorus, and for the end there’s some Thunder / Bon Jovi – that’s meaning equal British / American sounds – in ‘Real Love’.
For “Blood From Stone” Dare’s record label A&M brought in a stellar producer Keith Olsen… but gave him absolutely no budget. The result was a slightly muddy sound, but the songs are so awesome that we didn’t care.
This 2024 ‘Re-Mastered’ version improves the original tapes, but at the end of the day, as said, the big deal with “Blood From Stone” are its impressive songs.
A MUST
1 Wings Of Fire 5:00
2 We Don't Need A Reason 3:38
3 Surrender 3:40
4 Chains 4:04
5 Lies 4:43
6 Live To Fight Another Day 3:56
7 Cry Wolf 4:07
8 Breakout 4:09
9 Wild Heart 3:50
10 Real Love 4:04
DARE – Blood From Stone (Remastered Digital Album 2024), MP3+FLAC