From his legendary releases with Stryper, to his collaboration with George Lynch, to his solo work, there is one thing that you can count on when Michael Sweet is involved – outstanding songwriting. While Sweet was the one delivering the vocals on all of the aforementioned work, this time around his song is being brought to life by Benedictum vocalist, Veronica Freeman. Sweet wrote, produced and played guitar on a track entitled “Again,” which appears on the debut album from The V (Freeman’s solo project).
Often times, fans of 80s metal favor the “glory days” for nostalgic reasons. While some of the music may not be as relevant today as it was back then, the truly great songs with depth have a timeless sound. Sweet and Freeman have achieved that with “Again,” a song that gets better with each listen.
You could easily see “Again” being released as a Stryper song, but if Sweet wasn’t going to sing it himself, it’s hard to imagine him finding anyone that could have done it better than Freeman. In fact, with a delivery very similar to Sweet’s, you have to wonder if Freeman will be considered to front Stryper if Sweet ever steps back and focuses on guitar because of his admitted challenges with hitting all of the high notes…
“So I can’t hit all the high notes like I used to. I try and ‘choose my battles,’ but unfortunately, gravity as taken its toll. How would it go over if we found some young lad who can hit all the high notes and I just play guitar and sing from time to time? Don’t go crazy, just wanted to ask out of curiosity…”
Sweet never mentions a possible female singer, so this suggestion is pure conjecture on my part, but Freeman would be an interesting choice just the same.
Much like Slash’s early solo work, The V is a project that features numerous contributors. Of course, the undeniable chemistry between Slash and Myles Kennedy eventually led to a more permanent situation. It’s way too early to speculate about future collaborations between Sweet and Freeman, but based on this song, you have to imagine that the two will work together…“Again.”
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