GOTUS
GOTUS “Gotus”
By Colonel Angus
Well, well, well, 2024 is turning out to be a good year for music. Right out of the gate I was given this album by some seasoned veterans to review. GOTUS is a new band that has its roots in KROKUS with Mandy Meyer and Tony Castell both being members. Joining them is someone who has been very active lately and released a great solo album last year. Ronnie Romero lends his vocal talents to this band as always puts in a great performance. Rounding out the sound is Alain Guy on keyboards and Pat Aeby on drums. The band formed a number of years ago but like all things in music (and life), things took a turn when the pandemic hit and the guys haven’t had a chance to put out a record until this year. And what a record it is! The material has a very late 80s/early 90s melodic metal vibe with a couple of detours to make the whole package interesting.
The record starts off properly with a RAINBOW-ish (at least to my ears) sounding fast rocker that is the perfect way start proceedings. “Take Me to the Mountain” is the first single and does a great job of representing the album as a whole. That late 80s melodic metal sound is all over this disk and “Beware of the Fire” , “Without Your Love”, and “ Weekend Warriors” are clearly the stars here. I especially like the guitar work (courtesy of Meyer) on “Beware of the Fire” along with the extremely catchy chorus. Had this song been recorded 30 years ago, it most certainly would have been part of the soundtrack of my youth.
There are a few ballad type of tunes on this self-titled release but they are not typical “power ballads” in that they rock a little harder when you delve deeper into them. “Love Will Find its Way” has some heavy guitar riffing and soloing to keep it away from the dreaded power ballad territory. “Children of the Night” comes a little closer to that style but quite honestly, when it performed this well, I can look past some of the ballad clichés. As with the previous song I mentioned, the guitar work is great and vocally, Romero shows why he is in-demand by other great guitarists (Blackmore and Schenker). The last ballad is a re-recording of GOTTHARD’s “Reason to Live” (not to be confused with the KISS tune of the same name) and they stick pretty close to the bone on this one. It sounds very similar to the original and my hope would be that it would spark an interest in GOTTHARD to those who are not familiar with the band.
Since we are on the topic of re-recordings, the album features a song that I am very familiar with but I’m sure many others out there would not have a clue. Back in 1990 (or maybe 1991 – my mind is foggy in my old age), there was a short-lived band called KATMANDU that Meyer was a part of that also featured the vocal talents of Dave King (of FASTWAY fame). I was a first day purchaser and was really disappointed that it turned out to be a one record band. Anyway, GOTUS have re-recorded “When the Rain Comes” from that release and it sounds just as good as the original. Sure, Romero doesn’t sound exactly like King but he does a phenomenal job honoring the original. This is one of the songs that doesn’t quite fit the style of the rest of the material but it does add to the overall release by giving the listener a little detour towards another style.
Elsewhere, we get “Undercover” where the opening riff reminds me a lot of TOM PETTY’s “Running Down a Dream”. The song thankfully goes into more familiar 80s melodic metal territory which is consistent with the majority of the material. Overall, this is a great record full of songs that don’t even come close to “filler” material which can be difficult to achieve when you consider that there are eleven tracks. I’m not quite sure what the ultimate goal of GOTUS is but whatever the future brings, they have at least left us with this album. My hope that is that they tour and continue this band as I feel that they have more to say. If this is how 2024 is going to start out, I feel that we are in for a great year of music and this self-title release is the perfect way to kick off the new year.