 
Ever since I caught Toseland supporting Reef at
the academy in Bristol back in November I have
been waiting patiently for their debut studio
album ‘Renegade’ as they put on one
hell of a performance at the gig and the likes
of ‘Life Is Beautiful’, ‘Kingdoms’,
‘Crash Landings’ and ‘Renegade’
still remain in my memory from the show, the wait
for the album is nearly over as it is due for
release on the 24th March.
Toseland are made up of world superbike chamption
James Tosland (vocals), Zurab Melua (guitars),
Rebea Massaad (guitars),, Dave Hollingworth (bass)
and William Stokes (drums), now if you managed
to catch Toseland supporting Reef or have headed
to one of their many headline shows then you will
know exactly what to expect from the music of
Toseland but if you are new to the band then all
you need to know is that Toseland are a big stadium
rock sounding band who seriously know how to rock
out.
‘Renegade’ has been in the works for
many months now and has been funded by the fan
funding company Pledge Music and they smashed
the target they needed to create the album many
months ago and the total pledges currently stands
at 187% of their goal which clearly shows the
solid support that Toseland already have this
early in their musical career.
The album kicks off with ‘Life Is Beautiful’
a song which instantly shows off what Toseland
are all about whilst also setting the pace for
the next 45minutes, the song reminds me of American
rockers Alter Bridge as the band energetically
lay down some massive riffs and beats giving off
an overall solid sound.
‘Gotta Be A Better Way’ follows things
on nicely and proves to be yet another powerful
rock n’ roll song which is going to get
the pit moving like crazy at future Toseland shows
as the song really does have everything going
for it from chunky riffs, banging drum beats,
big basslines and a massive vocal performance
from James Toseland where he just lets rip and
thinks about coming up for air once he has got
his work done.
‘Singer In A Band’ see’s Toseland
go down the more radio friendly melodic rock route,
once again the song is massive sounding and when
the chorus kicks in with James Toseland singing
“Everybody wants to be a singer in a band
and I’m almost on my way” you can’t
help but sing-a-long whilst fighting the urge
to bounce off your walls and trash everything
in sight due to the sheer energy the song will
leave you wanting to let out.
The majority of the album is full of big hitting
rock songs but then we have the likes of ‘Just
No Way’ and ‘Kingdoms’ which
see’s James Toseland start things off on
the keyboard and both songs go on to be epic sounding
power ballads which tells me that Toseland have
seriously thought about each and every second
of this album and come up with a diverse sounding
album which rocks for the majority of the time,
hits your heart for a small portion and generally
ticks all the right boxes throughout.
The album comes to a close with the title track
‘Renegade’ which also happens to be
the first song myself and many other heard from
Toseland many months ago and is one hell of an
fist pumping, hard hitting, energetic number which
has you hitting the repeat button seconds before
the song comes to an end as seriously the more
you hear it the better it gets.
I had high expectations for the debut Toseland
album but I never expected the album to be as
good as it actually is as the albums features
11 songs and it is seriously all killer and no
filler. As soon as the album is released Toseland
head out on a headline tour and also spend a couple
of nights supporting three chord rock veterans
Status Quo and then who knows what’s next
for the band but I have a feeling that they are
going to go far.
5/5
Review by Trigger
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