If it is often announced that the third album is a turning point in the career of a rock band, Rust n' Rage offers us here a perfect illustration. After two opuses whose covers highlighted the female nudity with more or less elegance, the quartet opts from now on for a bird with a black and red plumage, as if to announce a passage towards more maturity. It is necessary to say that the Finns sign their first album on the label Frontiers and that the production of this "One For The Road" is assured by Jimmy Westerlund (One Desire).
The latter's touch is already present on the first track of the album, the single 'Prisoner'. Here is a track that could have been on one of the opus of One Desire. It seems far from the time of "Showdown" (2013) or "Tales From Wasteland" (2018) when Rust n'Rage worked on the territories of NWOBHM or a hard-glam of the 80s on which reigned Mötley Crüe or Guns'n'Roses. But if the producer imposes his mark, the melodic power of his original formation also mixes with the anger of a Santa Cruz and the festive madness of a Reckless Love to propose a tasty cocktail with strongly marked Finnish flavours.
The energy remains the main ingredient as well as the link between a series of varied pieces. The unavoidable landmarks that are the powerful voice of a Vince more and more at ease in his high-pitched ascents, the velocity of a Johnny illuminating each riff and solo, and a dynamic and flawless rhythm section, allow the band to always stay on the asphalt that it makes smoke at each acceleration. There are also these catchy choruses, some of which will undoubtedly be unstoppable anthems in live ('Heartbreaker', 'Ride On', 'Moving On') and in particular the eponymous title which can be shouted by the crowds at the end of the concert. As for the superb ballad 'Unbreakable', it succeeds the difficult alloy between delicacy and melancholy for a strong result in sensitivity and emotion.
Varied and catchy, "One For The Road" allows Rust n'Rage to reach a new level towards the summits of a Scandinavian melodic hard rock that seems to leave only a few crumbs to its competitors from the rest of the world. To reach the top, Pori's band will nevertheless have to gain in coherence, perhaps by asserting its identity more at the expense of influences that are sometimes a little too strong. Nevertheless, this album will delight all the fans of the genre and will once again prove the richness of the Finnish scene alongside the Swedish big brothers.