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THE RATTLER: The Leaving

Any band that contains Knightshade guitarist Rik Bernards and BoP keyboard legend Ritchie Pickett is surely going to have two feet firmly placed in the classic rock arena – and nothing on this album from Cambridge five-piece The Rattler disabuses that notion. Each track features Bernards’ arsenal of guitar moves over some fairly standard rock rhythms, on a set of songs that never move far from the formulaic sound of ’70s/’80s FM rock. Pickett’s piano, vocalist Steve Mitchell’s acoustic guitar and the band’s harmonies add a country rock component into the mix and the overall effect can at times makes them sound like an antipodean Bon Jovi. There’s certainly a feeling of ‘lighter in the air’ stadium balladry in what The Rattler do, a reflection perhaps on the fact that the band’s formative musical experiences occurred in the ’60s and ’70s. Nothing contemporary or experimental about ‘The Leaving’ then, but that’s probably intentional from this bunch of musical veterans. The mixing by Jason Long and mastering by Zed Brookes are sympathetic to the cause. •

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