Artist: The Ladder  
   Title: Sacred
   Label: Escape Music

Hailed by many as one of Britain’s finest Melodic Rock bands of the 80’s, FM were never one of my favourite bands at that time, as I was well into my Glam period and was worshiping the gods of Sunset Strip at all that was spandex and big hair.  But the FM phenomena kept the British melodic scene afloat and when in the 90’s Steve Overland and the band called it a day after their disappointing 'Dead Man’s Shoes' release, a lot of rock loving fans were greatly disappointed.  However, the band have remained active with the members featuring on different projects over the and in 2004 the debut album by The Ladder was released, featuring many FM songs that never made the albums back in their heyday.

The year is now 2007 and The Ladder are back with their new album ‘Sacred’ and quite honestly this is for me a surprisingly fine Melodic Rock album with the highlight being some great song writing and of course Overland’s vocals, both of which seem more mature and focused to me as a none FM fan.

The album itself gets underway with ‘Body And Soul’ and instantly this sceptic was impressed as Overland lets loose those recognisable smooth vocals and with the rest of the band taking a back seat on this one, it's Overland who brings out the best in the new songs.

The album continues with the title track ‘Sacred’ and once again the melodic prowess of Overland shines through, only this time with a harder edge to the sound, together with Gerhard Pichler’s guitars making more of a mark on the overall sound and showing he is more than worthy of replacing original guitarist Vinny Burns.

Things slow down just a touch with the moving ballad ‘Something To Believe In’, but this is just a short repose as the tempo picks up once more with ‘All Of My Life’ and the guitar rich ‘Believe In Me’.

The tempo changes once more and returns to a more gentle refrain that will bring all of those FM fans to raptures with ‘Run To You’.  This song has all that classic FM sound and vibe about it.  Though, it’s the more modern sounding tones of the likes of ‘Here I Am’ and the emotionally charged ‘Sea Of Love’ that really take this album away from the FM days and bring in the new dawn and show The Ladder as a band who can finally throw away those shackles of yesterday.

The album continues with a track which highlights once again the vocals of Overland with haunting melodies of ‘Make A Wish’, before closing with two tracks that define the words Melodic Rock.  Firstly the excellent ‘Mean Streets’ with its soaring guitar sound and finally the track of the album for me ‘Abandonded’, a track which rounds off an album that not only surprised me, but also will bring the names of Overland, Pichler, Jupp and Skeat into the forefront of the Melodic Rock scene once more.  

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