W.E.T.

W.E.T., released in November 2009, is the debut on which experienced melodic rock musicians gathered and put the strength of the songs first. It began with Frontiers boss Serafino Perugino, who wanted Jeff Scott Soto — freshly out of Journey — to sing high-purity melodic rock in that lineage. In 2008 the label asked Robert Säll of Work of Art and Erik Mårtensson of Eclipse to bring six songs each. The original name was “Lost in the Shadows”; nobody liked it. The name they took instead, W-E-T, is the initials of the three men's own bands: Work of Art, Eclipse, Talisman. Mårtensson and Säll wrote most of the music and Soto the lyrics. Thick choruses, polished guitar and a voice that lifts the emotion give every song a wide sense of release. The writing is highly finished, yet never craftsman-cold. The bass in the videos, including “One Love,” was played by Marcel Jacob, Soto's comrade from Talisman — and about a month after the shoot he was gone. The release carries a dedication to him. Exhilaration and melancholy together: one of the reference points of modern melodic rock.