If you like bands like Fuel or Our Lady Peace, if you enjoy listening to some straight-up rock music with strong guitars, thunderous drums and passionate lyrics, if you really want to dip your fingers in the luscious honey of fresh up-and-coming rock music and lick it off as well, then you better listen and watch out for Fallen Innocence. These guys can’t even be described as simple musicians; they’re more like melodic prodigies with ingenious musical talents. If you think that this is over the top, you simply haven’t been exposed to this amount of ear-candy.

As described on their website, “Fallen Innocence concentrates on pushing the boundaries of musical genres by blending high-power stadium rock anthems with soul searching acoustic ballads.” Their album, “Down Below the Surface” has an amazing mix of soulful rock songs including, “How to Leave,” “Affliction” and “Not Like You Cared.” In the words of Ferris Bueller, “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”

Fallen Innocence is from Rockland County, N.Y., a suburb of New York City and is composed of Jeff Kunzel on rhythm guitar/lead vocals, Mike Malone with lead guitar/backing vocals, Brian Cross on bass/backing vocals and Corey Jenkins on drums. They formed in 2001 and have been playing prestigious venues in the tri-state area ever since, such as The Wreck Room in Wallington, N.J., The Chance in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Arlene’s Grocery in NYC, along with an upcoming show at the Hard Rock Café in Baltimore, MD. They have been moving towards this area recently, with their appearance at The Fire in Philadelphia along with air play on WXVU 89.1 this past Tuesday. I should know because it’s my time slot at the station, and I will continue to play them every Tuesday from 5 – 6 p.m.

The band is loving every minute of their recent successes. For example, I had a conversation with Mike Malone about a show last week that the band was playing. They were playing a show at this nice place called the Ramapo Valley Brewery in Suffern, N.Y. With no particular set list determined, they played a total of 40 songs over two and a half hours, without realizing their time was much over an hour. As Mike describes it, “Time was certainly flying because we were having so much fun.”

It is obvious that Fallen Innocence will be packing up and shipping out to some big-name label within a short time, so you better catch them while they are still only music geniuses. Attend one of their shows before they are rock gods hanging backstage waiting to perform before a sold-out amphitheater, and you’re the guy that doesn’t have tickets.

For more info on this amazing new rock band, you can check out www.falleninnocence.com.