Eat Dog Eat presents the kind of music that made hard rock so appealing in the ’70s and ’80s before bands starting manufacturing commercially-accessible Slade-like chants (thanks a lot, Desmond Child) and God-awful — and I do mean really God-awful! — power ballads (thank you Poison, Motley Crue, and the rest).

Fastway are back and powercharged with new electric songs. In “Leave the Light On” you can hear some of that Fast Eddie/Motorhead grit in the guitars, wrapped in a classic Whitesnake feel (Whitesnake pre-hairspray and pre-Tawny Kitaen, that is). In fact, Eat Dog Eat songs “Sick as a Dog,” “Who Do You Believe?” and “Love I Need” can all be considered classic hard rock cuts here. And “Deliver Me” is a real straight out-of-the-box hard rocker with a killer Fast Eddie Clarke riff. And the strong vocal duties of Toby Jepson perfectly match the song’s power. If it’s not a 5-star song, it’s damn close. That’s how good its groove is throughout. Even what can be considered lesser songs are not throwaway songs here — for instance, “Freedom Song” and “On and On” are good not great. But still respectably good.

Jepson (Little Angels, Gun) really does have a remarkable hard rock voice. What a catch. Fast Eddie is good in his own right — and delivers — but he really should be thankful for Jepson. Really. This kind of soulful, powerful hard rock voice is a rarity nowadays. The team of the two musicians together is what makes Eat Dog Eat a really fantastic comeback album.

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