The Swedish AOR rockers are back with album number seven. Their Napalm Records debut is set to be released on Friday, but there was no way we weren’t checking this out early, given the chance. I’ve been a fan for a few years now and am excited to finally be able to review them.
After a departure-room intro track, ‘Stratus’ bursts in in prog rock brilliance, reminding me immediately of both Rush and The Who. However, it still maintains an 80s level of synth-rock awesomeness, too. It sounds MASSIVE and the main riff is awesome. It all builds to an arena-filling, hugely catchy chorus, the melodies and harmonies all sounding incredible. I absolutely love the arrangement throughout, the synth making everything sound so big and epic. The guitar solo is awesome, fitting the track perfectly and breaking up the amazing verses. It was the perfect choice to open this album; an immediate highlight and a track that easily makes the playlist!
‘Shooting Velvet’ continues the same vibe as the opener, the guitar and synth working perfectly together on an awesome riff! The vocals kick in and sound just as good, too. I’ll tell you what it reminds me of; 80s fight movie montage music. Like it’s ripped straight from Rocky or even cobra Kai. The chorus is incredible, so catchy and made to be played to huge stadium and festival crowds. And of course we get another awesome guitar solo tucked in the middle. It’s another amazing song, and the band are so far two for two for highlights!
‘Like the Beating of a Heart’ is yet another neon drenched, sunset-strip era glam rock anthem. It would fit so well if we got an updated Rock of Ages musical. The chorus is yet again soft rock awesomeness, and I can’t not gush over another great guitar solo, a bit slower and fitting the tone of the song so well!
The same sort of thing can be said about ‘Melbourne, May I?’, ‘Miraculous’ and ‘Paloma’. All three are awesome tracks, with the latter being another HUGE highlight of the album. It was also a touch different, being a bit slower and feeling like more of a ballad. However, it was at this point in the album that I was starting to feel a little like it was all getting a touch samey. I’ve loved every track, but there has been little variety aside from ‘Paloma’ (kinda) so far.
The rest of the album continued with kinda the same energy, too. Don’t get me wrong, there was some more change in tempo, which was certainly appreciated. There are certainly some more bangers in the latter half too, including the absolute funky bop that is ‘A Paris Point of View’. However, it is again still kinda samey. There certainly isn’t a bad track on the album, but for my easily-distracted brain it’s maybe a track or two too long, or it needed a little more variety in it. Heck, even just move the beautiful, prog masterpiece of a closing ballad deeper into the album to break it up a bit more. Still, as I said, it’s all fantastic soft/glam rock music!
Overall: This is awesome! Even with the few minor gripes I had with this album, it’s damn good, and solidly entertaining throughout. It’s packed full of amazing tracks and, as long and similar as it is, I couldn’t think of a single one to cut out of it. I liked that it all ran with the same theme too, and said theme fit the music and band as a whole perfectly. I’ll be listening to this is a lot more in the coming weeks and months, and this is a must for anyone into any of the genres I’ve mentioned earlier. It’ll certainly be up there in the discussion of the albums of the year list come December!
The Score: 8/10