Album Notes

Some people will have you believe that we all eventually mellow with age. However, UFO’s much acclaimed lead singer Phil Mogg’s new band, $ign of 4, have come to the party fully intending to kick dust in the face of anyone who thinks that’s what to expect from the new four-piece rock outfit.

The group’s debut album, ‘Dancing With St. Peter’, starts in fine fettle with the loose, phase drenched riffs of the album’s opening track, ‘Overload’, proceeding to erupt into life, and in doing so setting the tone for an highly impressive eleven track set.

This album was never going to be a sedate affair. Teaming up with guitarist Jeff Kollman (Mogg/Way, Cosmosquad, Edwin Dare) drummer Shane Gaalaas (MSG, Glenn Hughes, Yngwie Malmsteen, Uli Jon Roth) and bassist Jimmy Curtain, ‘Dancing With St. Peter’ is an album that sparkles with melody and is driven by personal passion and combines guitar based rock and soulful blues perfectly.

The album’s title, Dancing With St. Peter, a track about the reality of living life a little too close to the edge for comfort, drips with eerie percussions and dark chords. The mood is palpable. However, tracks such as ‘Beautiful Friend’ ooze a bittersweet optimism, full of warm acoustic guitar chimes, this is a beautifully emotive song that is sure to be filed under ‘classic’.

Stand out tracks like, ‘Driven’, continue to underpin the album’s underlying feel of melancholic reflection about our own mortality. However, there are many colours to this album and the soulful ballad, ‘Afterglow’, display’s $ign of 4’s ability to groove effortlessly as well as rock, even possibly hinting at the sound of things to come.

Whatever the future holds, the present offering from Phil Moggs’ new band shows he is back to his best - and far from Dancing With St. Peter.