Band : Ross The Boss
Album title : Hailstorm
Label : AFM Records
Distributor : Rock Inc. – Bertus
Release date : 29/10/2010
Release : CD

Ach...Ross The Boss, American guitarist with a love for Europe whom I discovered first with female-fronted French band Shakin' Street before I found out he was also part of New York “Punk” outfit Dictators! In between, he's played with Manowar (from 1980 to 1988), got the Dictotors goin' again after having played for Manitoba's Wild Kingdom (the latter fronted by his singer from the Dictators), played with Heyday (1994), and ended the '90s wilding his axe for Spiantras. In the new millennium he started up several NY City based bands which co-exist to date: Brain Surgeons and Thunderbolts began in 2005, Thunderbolts was started in 2006. So many fond memories... Oh, and I hear that, following a special guest appearance at Sweden Rock Festival in 2008, Shakin' Street (with Ross on guitar) felt they had another album in 'em, releasing 21st Century Love Channel in February 2009 (gotta gét that, because I've always loved Fabienne Shine's awkward vocal stylings).

For the foundation of Ross the Boss (aka The RTB Band), we need to go back to the 2006 edition of the German festival Keep It True, where Ross was invited to play alongside members of the Manowar tribute band Men Of War: singer/ guitarist Patrick Fuchs (of Ivory Night), bassist Carsten Kettering (Burning Buses, Ivory Night) and drummer Matthias “Matze” Mayer (Divinus). The performance obviously got a spark goin' between the musicians, and the new name was taken as the guys started writing new material together, material which saw the light of day on Ross The Boss' majestic debut album New Metal Leader, released in 2008. A glorious album which harkens back to the beginning days of Manowar (minus Orson Welles contribution) with 11 songs, none of which a filler! Followed several performances at the European festivals (i.e. Bloodstock and Bang Your Head) to promote the album, where the quartet proved to be a “real band”! Proof of that also comes in the act that each member contributes to the material, and in the fact that Ross took the RTB Band out of the “My European Band” idiom by taking the guys to the USA for a series of shows in the New York State area.

With their new album (again an 11-tracker thanks to the short instrumental opener “I.A.G.”, which has some keyboards in it...as does the album opening song “Kingdom Arise”), The RTB Band continue their conquest of the Northern hemisphere. For those who haven't come across the band's music yet: musically they are véry much alike Ross' old band of the '80s, and lyrically they use the same heraldic topics. What's somewhat different, is the vocals, as singer Patrick Fuch's is of a slightly higher pitch than that of Manowar counterpart. Still, he's got a nice vocal signature which sets him apart as a singer, and therefore adding to the “uniqueness” of The RTB Band! As far as I know, the only website on the Net where you'll find some music by this band is myspace.com/newmetalleader, but even there you'll only find 45-second samples of 4 songs off the debut album. Therefore I guess people wanting to get a whiff of the new album's material will have to check out the album's page at one of the trusted online sales sites (as they usually provide the prospective buyers with 30-second samples of all songs). This time around, The RTB Band started the promotion of their new album in the US, playing a foursome of shows in September (including the Prog Power Pre-Party on Sept. 8). No news of European shows to come, yet (and, by the way...I HATE the new MySpace look – it's so f***ing unpractical!!!

90/100

Tony.