Syndicate – Syndicate (2011)

Hard Rock From Australia.It’s been a long time since Australia had much of an impact on the modern rock scene here in the U.S. In fact, the only blip on the radar since the days of AC/DC, INXS and Men at Work was Wolfmother – and they seem to be missing in action the last couple of years.

My spidey-sense tells me that’s all about to change. You see, while scouring the internet for scene-related news and information, I stumbled across a little-known band out of Sydney called Syndicate – and after doing a fair amount of homework (including shelling out a few ducats for their self-titled debut), it’s apparent that we are on the back end of the calm that will soon become the storm.

I can’t give you a ton of history on these lads. There really isn’t much. But after listening to the album, I can promise you the history books are about to get a new chapter in the melodic rock section. Step aside, Nickelback – Syndicate is coming through.

If you’re going to fire your cannon into the rock scene, you might as well load it with as much gunpowder as possible, and that’s exactly what Syndicate did. The band itself doesn’t have a household name in the lineup, but the production team and guest musicians on this album are loaded with ammunition.

Production assistance came in the form of Jeff Blue (Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit), Brandon Friesen (Nickelback) andScott Humphrey (Metallica) and the album was tracked in both Matt Sorum’s (Guns n’ Roses) and Tommy Lee’s (Motley Crue) personal studios. If that’s not enough “cred”, the band also had songwriter Dianne Warren on board, who has written hit songs for everyone from Meatloaf to Bon Jovi, Celine Dion and others.

01. Pushing Me Away
02. My Mom Hates Me
03. Shout
04. Right In Front of Me
05. Holding On
06. Long Way Down
07. All My Life
08. My Confession
09. Tightrope Walker
10. Here We Go Again
11. Give You The World
12. When You Hurt
13. Dont Hate On Me
14. Bring It On
15. Falling Apart
16. All My Life (Reprise)

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