Cassidy Paris is a rock singer from Australia who has released two E.P.’s – ‘Broken Hearted’ (2019) and ‘Flirt’ (2021) – and one full-length album – ‘New Sensation’…
…released in 2023 featuring eleven hard rocking songs across an even harder rocking forty minutes! The album consists of a selection of songs from both E.P.’s along with a few new ones, the line-up for ‘New Sensation’ boasting some well-known musicians – multi-instrumentalist Alessandro Del Vecchio (Edge Of Forever, Enemy Eyes, T3NORS, The Big Deal), drummer Mirkko DeMaio (Mind Key, The Flower Kings), guitarists Dave Graham and Steve Janevski (both Wicked Smile), and of course, singer Cassidy Paris. But wait! There’s one more, Paul Laine – the former Danger Danger frontman providing backing vocals. Now that’s a line-up!
And wow what an album! And for some reason, I’m not sure why, I imagined the twenty-year-old Australian singer Cassidy to have a sweet, almost angelic pop rock voice – just how fucking wrong am I? Very – the maturity and deepness of her voice dropped my jaw to the floor with an almighty thud! Amazed, shocked and incredibly embarrassed that my imagination saw a young blonde girl and immediately went the stereotypical route, I apologise unreservedly and move on with my review of ‘New Sensation’ – a prophetically titled album as Cassidy, is the newest sensation on the block in the world of rock! At just eleven years of age she met Paul Laine, who developed a unique mentoring role, taking Cassidy under his wing to help develop her as an artist and songwriter, collaborating with her in songwriting and producing her music. And how superbly that turned out – three releases in four years, touring across Australia, in America, Japan, and the UK! So lookout rock fans – Cassidy Paris is coming for ya with grit, determination, and a sensational album…
…an album that storms into life with the bombastic heavy hitter ‘Danger’ – and an almighty similarity to rockers Vixen. The American all female foursome had a sound all their own, and now, over three decades later, a new rock star has emerged oozing the same kinda energetic and highly infectious rock and roll swagger! Did ya hear the thud? That’s the sound of my jaw hitting the floor again – ‘Danger’ a simply sumptuous opener with immense magnetism, pulling every single listener around the world towards Cassidy’s new album. An album that trots on with the heavier hitting ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Hearts’, incorporating elements of AOR into its punchy framework! The opening double has been nothing short of breath taking, ‘New Sensation’ turning heads and opening the mouths of everyone in all one hundred and ninety-five countries around the world!
The stunner from down under is surely one of the years most emphatic surprises, ‘Here I Am’ entering the fray with all the signs of power balladry. Listeners, fans and followers everywhere begin to sway gently from side to side, raising lighters high in the air to salute a top shelf power ballad – even singing along too! For the chorus break emanates such an anthemic vibe it’s impossible not to – simply superb songwriting. And incredibly, the energy level surges even higher, ‘Walking On Fire’ picking up the thunder, fire and brimstone, burning red hot as it strides across the land with shoulders back and head held high. A Cassidy Paris live performance must be fucking electric, energy fizzing through the air infecting every concertgoer – what a sensation that’s gonna be!
And when I think back to the good old days of rock evolution during the seventies and into the eighties, and the pioneering female singers that led the way for women in rock – singers such as Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, Suzi Quatro, Lita Ford and the Wilson sisters Ann and Nancy – you can hear a lot of their influence in Cassidy’s music and vocal style. Just take a look (and listen) at the official Cassidy Paris YouTube channel, where you’ll find sparkling covers of Joan Jett and Pat Benatar songs. But right now, let’s return to the matter in hand, reviewing Cassidy’s ‘New Sensation’ album, an album that strides on with the mellow soft rocker ‘On The Bright Side’ – which quickly becomes a hard rocker, leaving the mellow beginning well and truly behind!
Now the world of heavy metal has a queen – Doro Pesch, proudly wearing the “queen of metal” crown for over thirty years! Australia has its own metal queen in the fine shape of Genevieve Rodda (Temtris), a pop princess in the shape of Kylie Minogue, and now a rock princess in the shape of Cassidy Paris – I’m telling ya’ll, if it’s rock and metal royalty you’re looking for, Australia is the place to be! And with an immense energy spike, ‘Song For The Broken Hearted’ lets rip, searing the airways with a party atmosphere and a kick ass rhythm – ‘New Sensation’ at its most feisty, Cassidy at her sassiest, with listeners drooling like the Wallaman Falls in Tropical North Queensland! Mellowness makes a return in the grand shape of ‘Searching For A Hero’, but not in a power ballad way, much more in a soft rock way. The album has bounced around every rock genre there is, delivering a wide array of songs to an even wider array of listeners – Cassidy’s fanbase growing bigger with each song that passes by.
And with a title that suggests an incoming power ballad, ‘Like I Never Loved You’ is the exact opposite! ‘Like I Never Loved You’ is the most energetic song on offer, powering forth with enough energy to power the Large Hadron Collider in Cerne, Switzerland should scientists deem it necessary to repeat 2012’s “splitting the atom” experiment! Just give Cassidy Paris a call, she’ll split the atom for ya! The amount of energy, oomph and oof ‘New Sensation’ has on show is sensational, ‘Stand’ actually reining it all in, creating a huge bubble straining to explode – yet it’s not allowed to, Cassidy and co doing a fantastic job as gatekeepers. Bloody brilliant stuff from a brilliant group of musicians…
…musicians that aren’t done yet! There’s still two more songs to go – the first of which ‘Addicted’, is prophetically titled, as that’s exactly what you’ll be after your very first listen! Not just to ‘Addicted’, but the album as a whole – the energy level reaching new heights as ‘Addicted’ gallops outta the blocks and runs wild! Pounding the ground with enough force to reactivate dormant volcanoes, ‘New Sensation’ is at its most bombastic here, giving every listener, fan and follower a massive eargasm! And bringing a stunning album to a close, ‘Midnight Desire’ is an elegant mid-tempo swagger of the heaviest hitting hard rock you could ever wish for. ‘New Sensation’ has been nothing short of a new sensation in the world of rock, Cassidy confirming her potential to become the next red hot rock star – and as far as I’m concerned, she already is!
Overall, an energetic album of infectious, catchy and highly sing a long-able songs, ‘New Sensation’ is incredibly hard rocking.
TRACKLIST
Danger
Rock ‘N’ Roll Hearts
Here I Am
Walking On Fire
On The Bright Side
Song For The Broken Hearted
Searching For A Hero
Like I Never Loved You
Stand
Addicted
Midnight Desire
Cassidy Paris: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: Frontiers Music s.r.l.
Category: Album
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
