As someone who grew up in the 90's, it's pretty surreal to imagine that enough time has passed between then and now for a band that was active in that decade to have had a career and release several records, break up and spend 17 years separated, and then re-form for another album out of nowhere. 17-year-reunion territory belongs to dinosaur bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, not obscure prog metal groups like Galactic Cowboys - but here we are. The original lineup of the band was comprised of Ben Huggins on vocals, Dane Sonnier on guitar/vocals, Monty Colvin on bass/vocals, and Alan Doss on drums/vocals. To give you an idea of their sound, this was their "big hit" from way back in the day. Layered vocal harmonies, thrash riffs, prog rock chops and an off-beat sense of humor round out the package. I've covered them before and had assumed that the boys had packed it in after their 6th disc in 2000, but apparently a friend at Mascot Label Group floated the idea of another album to the singer and bassist, and the thought stuck, resulting in Long Way Back To The Moon arriving here in 2017.
Things are kicked off with "In The Clouds", a nice and compact little chugfest that has a bit of history to it, as it was originally a track from their 1989 demo tape before the first album dropped. Production-wise, they replicated that classic Cowboys sound perfectly, and I actually really like how different it sounds from the rest of the album and bridges the dirtier, rougher edge from their early albums into the cleaner, more modern sounds of the rest of the disc. Besides the nostalgia appeal, I also really enjoy the way the track shifts around the 3 minute mark from a kind of mid-tempo plod into a bass-driven fast n' dirty groove that quickly drives us through the last couple of minutes of the song. Long Way Back... stays strong as "Internal Masquerade" takes over and gives us a taste of the rest of the album, production-wise: surprisingly clean (maybe a little too clean, especially on the group harmonies), with pretty clear/even instruments. Monty, Alan, and Dane all sound great, but Ben's vocals never quite make it up to their level as I find his lines tend to get buried, especially as Monty's distorted bass takes up a decent amount of sonic space just by itself. He suffers the same problem that J.D. Cronise went through on the early Sword albums with getting drowned out, and I wonder if double-tracking vocals would've helped thicken the sound and push back against the wall of distortion coming from the rest of the group.
Leaving production aside, I'm relieved and impressed by how much quality songwriting is contained here. "Zombies"' is an amazing little riff monster with fantastic lead work by Dane, "Next Joke" is trademark Monty grunge-punk, and the 2 bonus tracks are so unexpectedly good that I wonder why they didn't make it onto the proper album. Fans expecting "Sea of Tranquility"-levels of start-stop prog thrash might not be totally enthused with the overall slower pace of the songs here, as everything (and everyone) is running a bit slower these days. Hard rock is the name of the game on Long Way Back... and thankfully that vibe is never killed by any cheesy ballads, which has been a pain point on previous Cowboys records. Unfortunately, that even-handed approach to a common tone between all of the songs leads to a tendency for things to blur together, and the weaker songs seem to lean on the "Galactic Cowboys© Sound" more than quality writing, most noticeably "Blood In My Eyes", "Hate Me", and "Amisarewas", that last one featuring some Christian lyrics, another Cowboys quirk - they were not ostensibly a Christian band, but they displayed a kind of red blooded conservative Christian viewpoint in some songs (including one of their most popular tunes, no joke) that always seemed out of place in the mainstream music industry. Special attention has to go to standout cuts "Believing The Hype" and the title track, which easily stack up with the best that that GC has recorded. Long Way Back To The Moon starts and ends strong, which counts for a lot, and even the weaker songs are just OK hard rock filler tracks. Solid production (not sure by who though as I don't have my hard copy of the album yet), solid songwriting, solid artwork... for a 17 year reunion, it could have gone a hell of a lot worse.
