Wild Frontier

Wild Frontier is the eighth studio album by Gary Moore, released in 1987. His first studio album after a trip back to his native Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1985, this album has several songs about Ireland and even the music itself is steeped in Celtic roots. The title track was intended to be sung by Phil Lynott, however Lynott's death in January 1986 prevented that. The album is dedicated to Lynott's memory, with the words "For Philip" on the rear cover.
Wild Frontier contains the hit "Over the Hills and Far Away", which reached #20 in the UK as well as a cover of the Australian band The Easybeats' hit of the middle of the 1960s, "Friday on My Mind". The Max Middleton-penned "The Loner" was originally recorded by Cozy Powell for his Over the Top album in 1979 (which Moore did perform on, albeit not on Powell's recording of "The Loner"), but was substantially altered by Moore for his own recording, thus he was credited as a co-writer.
All drums on Wild Frontier are sequenced with a drum machine (something bassist Bob Daisley voiced great dissatisfaction with), but the programming is uncredited in the liner notes of the album. Former Black Sabbath drummer Eric Singer would join Moore's backing band on the Wild Frontier tour, before leaving shortly afterwards to form Badlands.
"Over the Hills and Far Away" was covered by the Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish on their 2001 EP of the same title, and Swedish viking metal band Thyrfing on their album Urkraft. The Spanish band Saurom also did a cover of this song with alternative lyrics called "La Disolución de la Comunidad".