Stephen "On The Edge" is the second release of Canadian's Renegade, featuring a different singer, Steve Foster, but still offering a set of songs from the 80s, except for two songs, "Angel of Love" and "On The Edge" which was recorded and finished in 2004. Musically, the style is exactly mirroring those songs in their debut, a typical melodic rock and AOR stuffs in the veins of Loverboy, Boulevard, Alias, or Bad English.

The scent of the 80s is very thick within the arrangement, you'll know this definitely doesn't come from 2004 in your first spin and while 36 minutes of running time is too short for me, there are several great tracks to love here such as "Testify", the bass pumping intro with blissful keyboards make up a wonderful melodic tune to rise as the best track of the album; "On The Edge", another beautiful tune to love; and "Take A Chance on Romance", a strongly-composed melodic rock track.

"Friends of Lovers" is the decent filler ballad here and the rest are between decent to good in average. "It's My Life", "It's Only Make Believe", or "Kids Runnin' Wild" are all good tracks and I guess Renegade did it again, to release such a nostalgic album for those who grew up in the 80s decade. This second album is as good as the first, though I still favor "Back From The Dead" over this, you need to buy this for the tracks "Testify" and "On The Edge" alone.

Stephen "Back From The Dead" is an obvious sign that the Canadian's Renegade is cracking up their tomb and arise again with their long buried tracks from the 80s. Carrying the classic mid-80s AOR which also popularized by Boulevard and Glass Tiger from their country, that's smoothed out with early 90s melodic rock in the veins of Harem Scarem or Brighton Rock, Renegade sits comfortably in the middle to appeal both fans of the genre at the same time.

"Standing Out In The Rain" is already a quality opener. The tender keyboard with sheer joyful melodies is utterly beautiful. "The Best of Me" continues in a the same fashion but "Sign of The Times" stands out better. "Prisoner of Your Heart" is also another gem and "Big City Nights" is a superb anthemic tune and these four are my personal favorites of the album.

One thing that fell short is that literally, this album is short. Consisted of 8 tracks, with the last closing track, "Betrayal", is an instrumental left over, and skipping the passable filler, "Don't Be Afraid of The Dark", basically you'll get 6 great tracks. "After The Smoke Clears" is a good decent ballad, but I prefer their rocking side as I think they shine best on that.

The dusty sound is acceptable considering these songs are taken out from their vault that's kept for more than 10 years, but I'm hoping a longer album and putting on couple more uptempo tracks can push this album higher beyond 3.5 stars. "Back From The Dead" is nevertheless a great album and recommended for fans of Canadian rock, or melodic rock/AOR in general.