Fastway were formed back in the early 80's by former Motorheard guitarist 'Fast' Eddie Clarke and UFO bassist Pete Way, who enlisted Dave King on vocals. The band had considerable success with their first couple of albums before (and the soundtrack album to film 'Trick Or Treat') they all but disappeared from view in the early 90's.

This new album marks the first new studio album in twenty years. Only 'Fast' Eddie Clarke remains from the original line-up - vocalist Dave King is busy making a successful career with Flogging Molly.

Instead on vocals (and bass plus production duties) is Toby Jepson, a man whose been busy in recent years with Gun and a solo career. Drummer Matt Eldridge rounds off the line-up.

Overall it is not a bad album - plenty of hard rock songs and each song features a neat solo from 'Fast' Eddie Clarke. Toby Jepson puts in his usual high standard on vocals.

The only thing that is missing are a couple of killer songs that leap out at the listener after a couple of plays. The nearest to this would be the bluesy 'Deliver Me' and 'Leave The Light On'. 'Dead And Gone' slows the pace down whilst 'On And On' cranks it up for one of the heaviest tunes on the album.

Be interesting to see how this album fares, as original Fastway fans maybe wary given the change of vocalist plus the band have been away from the scene for so long, bar a reissue campaign and best of some years back. A decent enough album but not quite matching the Dave King era albums.

***½

Review by Jason Ritchie