Stephen
The idea of having Rob Moratti and Reb Beach in one ship had excite me when the news of 'Victory' emerged a while ago and when I first heard this album, I think it's on par with my expectation, nothing more nothing less. This is one of those albums that after you listened to for a while, it really didn't get worse nor better, so it's basically the same as you've heard it first.
The typical Journey and Survivor influences as were seen in Moratti's Final Frontier project are also seen here, but Beach's sensational guitar touch added value to the whole album. 'Life On The Line' is a nice opener, one of my fave track, a brilliant chorus embedded to a pompous midtempo AOR. 'Everything But Goodbye' is also another great track but two perfect tracks in my opinion are the flawless ballad, 'Lifetime', and the midtempo tune on the second half, 'I Promise You'.
There are obvious weaker tracks here such as 'On And On', 'Take It All Back', or 'Jennie'. The latter is because it's too Survivor-copycat. But other winners like 'Power of Love', 'Standing On Top of The World', and 'Now More Than Ever' deserved credits for lifting this album's overall score. The production is great and if anyone's annoyed with Moratti's ultra-high supersonic vocal as in Final Frontier, I can see him singing here in slightly lower range, which is better.
'Victory' is already praised highly by many AOR fans and I agree that the quality of this album is worth around 80% so I'm on the side of the fence with those guys. Recommended for fans of Moratti, Final Frontier, and AOR/MHR in general.