Contagious – The Calling 2004

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This is chock full of catchy in your face hard rock….with a riff-heavy guitar sound but it´s basically Melodic Hard Rock and almost every track is enjoyable. The guitars have it all – from blistering solos to blissful melody with a bit of ‘Lizzy’ harmony thrown in. The talented rhythm section are enhanced by awsome keyboards. Production is ok but could be better.

Brought alive by Z Records, Contagious put many monstrous riffs that’s highly infected by Dokken and also somewhat similar to Spanish’ hard rock band, Airless, into ‘The Calling’. The melodies are quite simple but enchanting, if you ever heard the band Change of Heart, I found some similarities but Contagious is way much heavier. Check out ‘Lost And Lonely’ and ‘Flying High’, you need to seriously go see the doctor if these tracks can’t move your head and legs.

‘Hear It Calling’, a brilliant melodic rock opener, the chorus is stunning; ‘Time And Again’ is a proof that the band has been listening to Dokken non-stop for years; some other tracks are also pretty nice such as ‘Lady’ or ‘Outta Time’, but even though there’s no bad fillers at all, you can always live without tracks like ‘Suzi Ann’ or ‘Fantasy’. Glenn Watmough’s vocal is a little inconsistent at times, sometimes he screeches too much, but the whole harmonic vocal thing is perfectly done.

Recommended for fans of melodic heavy metal or mid-80s glam metal, the guitar is also phenomenal, the production is great for an independent release. An underrated release and an unknown band, worthly to be checked!!!