For a band many rockers consider criminally underrated, the mission for Tyketto on Closer To The Sun feels simple, turn the volume up and remind the world that big rock with a big heart has never gone out of style.
Some bands bend with the times while others stick to their guns and turn the amps up until the rafters shake. Tyketto have always belonged to the second camp, and with their sixth studio album, Closer To The Sun, the veteran hard rockers return with both fists swinging.
Closer To The Sun is simply the New York–born band doing what they’ve done best for decades, write unapologetically melodic rock songs that hit with both heaviness and heart. It really sounds like a band that’s fully aware of its legacy yet still hungry to leave scorch marks. The first single “Higher Than High” is a swaggering blast of groove rock that could easily fill arena. Built on catchy riffs and a rhythm section rumbling along like a freight train, the song captures the vibe that’s always fueled Tyketto’s music. Frontman Danny Vaughn lets loose with a chorus looking to heal every battered soul out there, a reminder that music at its most honest can always be a lifeline.
Vaughn describes the track as pure, unfiltered Tyketto. Life gets messy, hope flickers, and somewhere in the chaos a song shows up to help carry the weight. It feels tailor-made for open highways at top speed, the kind of tune that demands to be played at maximum volume.
Across the album, the band explores the bruises and beauty of everyday life with the confidence of a band who’ve seen it all and then some, and came out the other side in one piece. The title track rises like it’s trying to reach stadium rafters, celebrating love’s stubborn ability to outlast the wreckage around it. Elsewhere, the punchy “Hit Me Where It Hurts” is pure adrenaline, while the soaring ballad “The Picture” leans into the power that defined so much classic hard rock in the late '80s and early '90s.
Stylistically, Tyketto still stalk the same ground as bigger names like Whitesnake and Aerosmith, the hardest of blues rock with choruses that reach for the skies. But the biggest trick the bands seems to pull off might be how fresh they can still make that formula sound when delivered with conviction. The current lineup backing Vaughn helps bring that firepower. Guitarist Harry Scott Elliott, keyboardist Ged Rylands, bassist Chris Childs of Thunder, and drummer Johnny Dee of Doro are the kinds of players who know how to get the job done.