Dare's Out Of Silence is one of my favourite CDs of all time. It was really landmark album when it was released. The last time I checked out the band on "Calm Before The Storm" the product didn't quite match my expectations, which admittedly were quite high. I skipped "Belief" & "Beneath The Shining Water". After a break for a few years Darren Wharton is back with Richie Dews on guitars and Kevin Whitehead on drums for "Dawn Of The Arc".

 

The album opens with the soft Celtic rock of "Dublin" where you are immediately struck by Darren's vocals which always seem to have a stirring emotive quality. "Shelter From The Storm" and "Follow The River" continue with a little more pace.

 

After a break of number of years it is surprising that at this point, instead of new material, we get re-recordings of "King Of Spades" and "I Will Return" from the debut album, "Out Of The Silence". Both seem a little restrainted and I prefer the originals. Darren revisits his past again with a cover of the Thin Lizzy song "Emerald", giving it the Dare treatment and transforming it into a semi-acoustic Celtic rock song. It takes a bit of getting used to after the "Live and Dangerous" version. A less dramatic transformation occurs when the band turn their attentions of Cheap Trick's "The Flame".

 

That leaves a couple of ballads in the form of "Still Waiting" and "Remember". The latter being a slow ballad that I imagine the video for would feature Darren singing standing by a campfire interspersed with pictures of bleak Irish hills. Sandwiched between these is the catchy "Kiss The Rain" which is my favourite song of the album. The album closes with a semi-ballad that reminds me of Magnum crossing the Irish Sea.

 

Judge this as an AOR or a rock album and you will come away saying it is playing things too safe and that is too single paced, with not enough to distinguish individual tracks. That will happen if you look back and compare it to "Out Of The Silence", which is the frame of mind I was in whilst writing the majority of this review. However, if you look at the way Dare have developed over the years, and treat this as relaxing background, even new age, music, then you will have a much more positive view.