Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way: Kryptonite are yet another of those ‘projects’ assembled by a record company. In these impoverished days it’s becoming a financial necessity for musicians to be in more than one band at a time and when Jakob Samuel, voice of The Poodles, met Alessandro Del Vecchio, in-house producer at Frontiers Records and a writer for the likes of Neal Schon, Fergie Frederiksen, Steve Lukather and many more, the result was inevitable.
Though the results of such collaborations can be iffy, Kryptonite – also featuring guitarist Michael Palace, bassist Pontus Egberg and drummer Robban Bäck – are striking: as glacial and imposing as their namesake alien mineral.
Best exemplified by Chasing Fire, Across The Water and Get Out Be Gone, the music is slick and hook-laden, fusing the clean, modern-sounding sensibilities of today’s Scandi-AOR acts with the timelessness of 1987-era Whitesnake.
Whether or not Kryptonite will get to make a second record remains to be seen. On the evidence of this debut, though, such a prospect would be very welcome.
