Remember Cauldron and Axxion? Of course you do. I pose this question rather rhetorically, because despite being early forebearers of the so-called NWOTHM, both seemed to fade into the background come the scene’s explosion roughly a decade ago. The same can be said for fellow Canadians, Skull Fist, but I digress. Although things have been quiet on the Cauldron and Axxion front for the better part of a decade, that doesn’t mean the individual members of these band haven’t been keeping busy in other capacities. For example, take Axxion frontman Devon Kerr and Cauldron bassist Jason Decay, who together with euro metal drum sensation, Fabio Alessandrini, make up the AOR outfit, Lockhart.
Lockhart first made waves in 2022 with their debut EP, No Chance. A quick 3 song sampler of what was to come, I was immediately sold hook, line, and sinker. Sure, there was nothing groundbreaking about this release, and neither the writing nor the production itself was of the caliber of say Survivor or FM or any of the genre’s elite tier. With that in mind, the songs themselves were promising, and I looked forward to hearing what this band had to say on a full length, curious of what they’d achieve with a proper production, so to speak. Fast forward 4 years and said full length is now upon us in the form of City Pulse.
Unlike many bands who are branded as AOR today, only to be caught serving up glorified euro melodic metal (looking at you, Frontiers), Lockhart specializes in trve AOR, so to speak. In other words, despite the backgrounds of each member, don’t go into this album expecting anything remotely metallic. Sure, the riffs boast enough of a hard rock bite and the hooks are anthemic enough to shake an arena full of Aqua Net-headed kids circa 1987. However, by and large, this is a pop-driven AOR release, not far removed from the Top 40 fare of Night Ranger (“Sister Christian”), Survivor (“I Can’t Hold Back”), and Ron Nevison-era Heart (“Never”).
Kerr doesn’t exactly boast the superstar vocal abilities of a Jimi Jamison or Steve Perry, but what he lacks in range, he makes up for in vibes and emotion. This is best exemplified on cuts like the title track, “The Dose That Made You Poison”, and the closing “No Chance in Heaven”, which are easily the strongest moments on here. The rest of the album does sometimes lean a little too hard on the usual training montage cliches that dominate the genre, especially “Can’t Shake It”, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a big dumb smile on my face from start to finish. I also have to give huge props for tackling the Michael Bolton/Cher classic, “You Wouldn’t Know Love”: An absolute anthem guaranteed to weed out the posers from the true, I mean, trve AOR-heads!
If you’re a fan of big riffs, dreamy synths, neon lights, and sleepless nights, City Pulse is the go-to AOR album of the summer. I haven’t the slightest doubt that this album will grow on me as the impending warm, sticky season wraps its unrelenting grip around the Windy City. Whether or not Cauldron and Axxion will ever bestow another album upon us again remains to be seen. In the meantime, Lockhart are doing perfectly fine, providing us with fare as nostalgic as the members’ main acts. No need for a defibrillator here: This City Pulse is beating and vital!
7 out of 10
Label: High Roller Records
Genre: AOR
For fans of: Survivor, Night Ranger, Bryan Adams
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