Label: AOR Heaven 2015
Review by Kimmo Toivonen
Christian (Sundell), Ola (Af Trampe) and Peter (Sundell). That’s their excuse for yet another bloody D.O.T band name… but let’s just concentrate on the positive things, like the band’s music for instance!
All three members of the band have a band called Grand Illusion in their past, and I think most Grand Illusion fans will enjoy these songs too. The ”C.O.P. Rock” might be a bit more straight-forward, but Peter Sundell’s distinctive vocals and the band’s love for big, melodic choruses are a reminder of the past. For those not familiar with Grand Illusion, I’d describe the band’s sound as a mixture of Zeno, Harlan Cage and 80’ies TNT with lots of keyboards, all iced with the Swedish melodic sensibility. Damn, do they spend hours studying ABBA in the Swedish elementary schools or what?
The standout tracks on ”State Of Rock” include the super-catchy ”In The Night”, ”Loner” and ”I Want The World To Know” which reminds me a lot of Harlan Cage/Fortune. Even though the album is very keyboard-oriented, it never sounds too wimpy, underneath the layers of keys there’s a solid guitar foundation by Ola Af Trampe which gives these songs a bit of an edge. Same goes for the songwriting, the songs have a darker edge than most standard AOR songs. Don’t know about you but I find that very appealing.
What’s more? Well, call me the ”songtitle police”, but I find it odd that a band can still come up with songs like ”Without You”, ”In My Dreams” and ”Broken Heart” in 2015. Just by looking at the track listing, you’d be forgiven for thinking that C.0.P.is a cover band…
https://www.facebook.com/C.O.P.aor/
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