Wildness started in summer 2013 as a studio project, originally founded by drummer and songwriter Erik Modin while Pontus Sköld and Adam Holmström were in to share the lead guitar parts early on. The search for the right lead singer wasn’t easy, but after a few months they came across Gabriel Lindmark, and it didn’t take long until it was clear that Wildness deserved to be a real band. In 2015, they independently released their self-produced debut single “Collide”, and started playing gigs. After the release of their second single, “Turning The Pages”, they were approached by Georg Siegl of German record label AOR Heaven, and here is the debut release as a result. Both singles were re-recorded for the album, which was produced Erik Wigelius (Wigelius, Care Of Night).
It took me a little while to get to grips with this album, just because I knew they reminded me very strongly of one particular band, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. However, during “Alibi” it finally dawned on me that here was a band who were firmly channelling the nighty Shy. Shy never managed to gain the plaudits and success they deserved, but even now I have the video for “Break Down The Walls” on my phone. I was lucky enough to be able to interview singer Tony Mills a million years ago, and to hear a new band coming out with a very similar approach if like manna for my ears. The keyboards are important, combining with crunching and strident guitars, with the vocals very much at the front of everything they are doing. This is melodic rock looking back twenty or thirty years for inspiration, and is all the better for it. In the right market this album is going to do very well indeed, and rightly so. I can play this all day, superb.
