It seems, ever increasingly, that the various factions, cultures and creeds that make up the modern world are becoming evermore separate and segregated. Entrenched in their own personal viewpoints and unwilling to empathise and understand those who think differently, we seem to be a world divided on everything from religion to politics to cultural beliefs. We lack trust and are becoming isolated and distant from one another.
The Battle is, amongst other things, an effort to build bridges. The East and West have held each other in suspicion for decades, but American musician Troy Lindsey and Russian singer Bosaya show that music is one way to put our differences behind us and heal the wounds through creative collaboration and understanding.
But it is also a cracking album, one filled with groovesome rockers such as Propaganda, more delicate deliveries such as opener Butterfly Emotion and whistful country stomps as found on Old Enough to Know Better.
But it is when Bosaya adds her voice to songs such as the whistful and haunting PTSD or the blend of melody and muscle that is the title track, that we find an exotic blend of east meets west, Occident meets Orient, working its magic.
Collaborations like this might seem like small steps, but they are important steps at that. After all, steps lead somewhere, and perhaps it is with albums such as this that we can build a momentum that carries us all to a better place, a more peaceful world and the creation of a more empathetic human race. And let’s face it; those are things we are sorely lacking at the moment.
