There are no two ways about it, everybody at some point in their life has been part of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, whether you’re aware of it or not. So, when a new band is formed with ex-Trans-Siberian Orchestra members, it could be literally anyone. Joking aside, when Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Savatage drummer Jeff Plate and keyboardist Jane Mangini joined forces with Tommy Cook, Zach Hamilton and Collin Holloway of Sunsonic to form Alta Reign, the expectation was high for their debut album ‘Mother’s Day’.
As debut album, it is possible to see the utmost professionalism that has gone into ‘Mother’s Day’ conducted by real veterans of the music scene. ‘Mother’s Day’ is an excellent album of melodic progressive metal which manages to catch the listener by surprise; the technicality is there, of course it is, but it isn’t at the forefront as one may expect with progressive metal, but instead a veneer of polished production has been placed over the top to make ‘Mother’s Day’ an exceptionally accessible album with some beautiful melodic rock style vocals seen during ‘Thin Red Line’, ‘Witness’ and epic closing ‘Rise’ which really push this album into a real solid album of progressive metal that would have fans of Savatage, Dream Theater and Fates Warning drooling.
With ‘Mother’s Day’, Alta Reign have kicked off 2022 in style, they have lain down the gauntlet and raised the bar high to all the bands around as they stand back, nod and say: “beat that”.
