W.E.T.: New Album Details Revealed

Frontiers Records will release W.E.T.'s new studio album, "Rise Up", on February 22 in Europe and February 26 in North America.

W.E.T.'s 2009 debut CD was one of the rare occasions when a band, created by the vision of a record label president, managed to generate a wave of enthusiasm and interest from fans and the media alike. Not only did it go beyond the band's own expectations, but it pushed the musicians themselves to raise their own game, when in the beginning they thought no one would care except maybe the die-hard fans from the three bands the name W.E.T. came from.

The key element to the success of W.E.T. was to create a modern melodic hard rock sound and drive it into the future with powerhouse rhythm and production, making it an equally classic and contemporary release.

Robert Säll (the "W" from WORK OF ART),Erik Mårtensson (the "E" from ECLIPSE) and Jeff Scott Soto (the "T" from TALISMAN),along with returning ECLIPSE members Magnus Henriksson and Robban Bäck, accepted the daunting task to create a follow-up that could live up to the expectation of thousands of fans across the globe.

The album's release will be anticipated by the release of the single, "Learn To Live Again", on December 17 — an unbelievably radio-friendly song, which features for the first time a vocal duet between Mårtensson and Soto.

"Rise Up" presents again a massive production and equally impressive songwriting, which updates the term "classic rock" into the new century.

"The songs were written between December 2011 to February 2012 and were recorded between March through May. We then wrote/added three more songs in September, recorded them in October and the whole album was finally mixed and mastered," says Erik Mårtensson. "To me, this album sounds more like a 'band' verses the first album", adds Jeff Scott Soto. "The first album was great as it had a lot of great songs, but this one has great songs and a band personality, which shows growth as far as I'm concerned."

Hook after hook, "Rise Up" is another one of these albums where you can enjoy the dynamics of a brilliant partnership bringing out a unique result. Melodic bullet rockers are followed by haunting ballads and fabulous arena rockers in an album that will leave listeners in awe from start to finish.

"We took what we all loved about the first album and built the songwriting and sound from that," says Mårtensson. "We wanted to give the band more of an identity and tried to find 'our' own sound. I really think we achieved it with this album. Heavier and darker than the first album which we all in the band love. It's melodic rock for a new century!" Soto adds: "Strangely, my faves are the more uptempo songs and ballads on this album, W.E.T. do great AOR stuff naturally but to have more strength on some tracks and then get emotionally charged in others made those songs the more interesting for me."

W.E.T. plans to launch the new album through a special live show in Stockholm at the Debaser Club on January 17, 2013. The band so far has made only one live appearance at the annual Firefest event in the U.K. in October 2011, but in this new and special concert appearance, they will be showcasing for the first time new songs as well as digging some tracks from the now classic debut, plus some cool surprises.

"Rise Up" track listing:

01. Walk Away
02. Learn to Live Again
03. Rise Up
04. Love Heals
05. What You Want
06. The Moment
07. Bad Boy
08. On The Run
09. Broken Wings
10. Shot
11. Still Believe In Us
12. Still Unbroken

W.E.T. is:

Jeff Scott Soto: Lead Vocals
Erik Mårtensson: Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Vocals
Robert Säll: Keyboards, Guitar
Robban Bäck: Drums
Magnus Henriksson: Guitar