This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
You’ve gotta feel sorry for the Lynyrd Skynyrd boys — and I’m not talking about that plane crash.
Horrific as that was, it’s also gotta be rough to keep slogging on year after year, playing the old hits and knowing nothing you do can ever top ’em. Case in point: Edge Of Forever, a solid outing with three original members (guitarist Gary Rossington, bassist Leon Wilkeson and incredible pianist Billy Powell), the vocals of Ronnie Van Zant’s little brother Johnny, and a band made up of the cream of the southern-rock crop. It’s got a whole lick o’ spit-kicking tracks that are so close to vintage Skynyrd you can almost see the Confederate flags waving. But even with all that, they can’t reawaken the spirit of the old days; the devil-may-care swagger and bravado that Ronnie and co. — and thusly their music — had back then. It’s close, but it just ain’t the same.
