Back in the 80’s, Richard Lewis Springthorpe aka Rick Springfield was huge. For some weird reason his music never resonated with me back then. Sure, I knew the hits and I thought they were pretty good but I never got around to buying any records. Up until 1988 and Rock Of Life that is. But even though I dug – and still dig – that record hard I never got around to checking out any of his older stuff – or stay in touch with what came after it. It would take me something like 20 years to do that. In 2008 Springfield released Venus In Overdrive, a record that totally floored me. Songs For The End Of The World (2012) sealed the deal for me – I was now officially a Rick Springfield fan – and now I love his old stuff.
Category AOR
Kent Hilli – Nothing Left to Lose
Ever since Swedish Melodic Rock/AOR outfit Perfect Plan released their highly acclaimed debut album All Rise back in 2018 the world of singer Kent Hilli has been a busy one. Two additional albums with his mothership has been released, one album as the new singer in Giant, a cameo in the Restless Spirits project and a solo album has gone into the singer’s account. And touring of course. So why sit idle? You really can’t, plus it just might be a good idea to strike while the iron’s still hot, right? There’s been talk of a new Giant album is in the making but while that’s going on, here comes yet another solo effort from Hilli. Production duties this time was held by One Desire’s Jimmy Westerlund which adds to the expectations.
Mitch Malloy – The Last Song
Back in 1997 it was this () close that Mitch Malloy became the new singer in Van Halen after Sammy Hagar’s departure. That’s pretty cool. But David Lee Roth rejoined for a few minutes and then Gary Cherone (Extreme) got the part. I can’t help but to wonder what Malloy’s career would’ve looked like had he gotten that gig. Malloy’s self-titled debut album from 1992 has now gotten an almost iconic status in AOR circles and rightfully so because it’s awesome. But some albums with shifting quality followed that record and Malloy’s career took a bit of a halt. But since 2011 and his album II, the quality of his records has been very high. After Making Noise (2016) Malloy joined Great White as their singer but has since then left that band and his solo career is now back as his main focus.
Cry Of Dawn – Anthropocene
Got cravings for yet another Frontiers project? Well, congratulations because here’s another one. This is the second effort by this project that features former John Norum/Yngwie Malmsteen (among others) singer Göran Edman. The self-titled debut that was released back in 2016 was crafted by people like Michael Palace, Daniel Flores, Sören Kronqvist and Alessandro Del Vecchio and was an uneven affair. Good songs that never really hit home with me. This time Edman has paired with multi-instrumentalist and song Writer Tommy Denander. With Denander’s later projects in mind – the last Radioactive album for example was great – I have some high hopes for this record. The project bears the same name but it holds different collaborators.
Seventh Crystal – Wonderland
When Swedish AOR/Melodic Rock band released their debut album Delirium back in 2021 the press-release spoke of a new band that would take this genre into new heights with their own style and sharp-edged hooks all over the place. The debut was good but didn’t exactly set the world on fire but it was true that they sported their own identity and didn’t sound like many of the thirteen-a-dozen Scandinavian AOR bands that had released music in later years. They also played live which proved that they weren’t just another project out there. I saw them once and they surely delivered the goods with a heavier approach than on the record.
Creye – III: Weightless
There was some big talk about the then new AOR outfit Creye back in 2018 when they released their debut self-titled album. Wherever I looked fans in that genre were going bananas over the Swedes and it wasn’t exactly hard to become highly interested in the band. For me personally, the hype din’t really keep that promise. The album was good and well-produced but unfortunately it sounded like most of the contemporary Scandinavian (mostly Swedish, actually) AOR bands and even though I enjoyed listening, the music didn’t really linger. A step up was the follow-up II (2021) but that album suffered from the same thing. Much too my surprise, Creye released a live video from a studio and I had a hard time believing this was the same band that had released those records.
Arctic Rain – Unity
As a big fan of AOR and Melodic Rock, I must admit that many – too many – of the new bands and records of the last ten years or so in the genre has been underwhelming. Same song-structure, same sound, same production. At times it has even been hard to tell some acts apart. But there are always exceptions. Swedish act Arctic Rain is one of those exceptions. The band – Tobias Jonsson (vocals), Magnus Berglund (guitars), Gert Daun (bass), Jörgen Jönsson (drums) and Pete Alpenborg (keyboards), the latter known as a song writer who has contributed lots to many projects from the Frontiers label – knocked me out back in 2020 with a Melodic Rock/AOR album that sounded fresh and vital and while not revolutionary by any means, they sported a personal sound with shitloads of great songs.
Issa – Lights Of Japan
The phrase “The Queen of AOR” pops up ever so often when Norwegian singer Isabelle Oversveen aka Issa’s name is mentioned, especially when she’s about to release a new record. Thing is, after her brilliant debut Sign Of Angels (2010) her albums has, without being bad, been too samey both in sound and song structure where the later releases sound way to much like those all-star projects from Frontiers. In my review of her last album Queen Of Broken Hearts (2021) I wrote that I hoped that next time she would find herself a new producer and new song-writing partners, maybe to reinvent herself and her style a bit and it happened with this album, something that got my hopes up for maybe another killer like her debut.
Autumn’s Child – Starflower
This is Autumn Child’s fourth release since the self-titled debut in 2019. That’s some creative work in this day and age when bands usually take at least three years in between albums. Ok, so the band/project isn’t exactly touring the world 24/7 – or at all – but the fact that none of those albums has been worse than good is pretty impressing considering the pace. With Jona Tee of H.E.A.T. – who was heavily involved in the song writing in the beginning – now completely out of the picture, at least what it seems, it’s time for this band to prove that they can stand on their own two feet. Now Tee is a song writer extraordinaire and hard to replace so it feels like this album is a trial by fire even though Tee’s involvement in the last two albums has been sporadically.
Captain Black Beard – Neon Sunrise
I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that a band with a name like Captain Black Beard plays AOR. In my book, that name is more fit for a Metal band or something in that vein. For some reason, these guys has never gotten the recognition they deserve. After putting out five high-quality records full of catchy, melodic Hard Rock and AOR since 2011, the band should really be bigger than they are. Fact is, the band still works in the shadows for some reason but after getting stronger by each release something should’ve happened by now. Well, to give in seems to not be in their vocabulary and only two years after the release of their last album Sonic Forces a new album comes our way and hopefully this will be the one that sets the record straight and brings them up another step on the ladder of success.
CD & Festival reviews 