Rock Blog #37: Fans Of The Dark, Atlantic, Pleasureland, Counterline, Danger Zone, Hydra, Sweet, Heartwind, Circle Of Friends

FANS OF THE DARK are unashamedly longing for the eighties. Their two previous albums have drawn inspiration from the movies and music of that decade, and that continues even more on the latest one, simply called ”Video” (RRRRr). It’s by far their best album so far. I’m not sure whether they’d agree, but I hear a lot of early Michael Bolton in their songs, mixed with keyboard sounds from Stranger Things soundtrack and some vintage eighties metal! They’ve got the ”Fools Game”/”Runaway” staccato keys on a couple of songs (”Let’s Go Rent a Video” and ”Find Your Love”) and I’ve always been a sucker for those… then they successfully combine Iron Maiden with AOR (AOR Maiden!) in ”The Neon Phantom” and ”Savage Streets”, while ”The Wall” sounds like Sabaton without the rrrough vocals! 

”In The Bay Of Blood” is another highlight, where you’ll find some rather unusual lyrics for a melodic rock track; ”Slash my wrist/Crush my skull/Death is just a gift/In the Bay of Blood”… don’t know about you but I find this refreshing, instead of the typical ”fire - desire - higher” stuff. 

The only weak track is the moody ”Tomorrow Is Another Day”, which doesn’t seem to go anywhere, and ”The Dagger Of Tunis” is maybe a couple of minutes too long, with some unnecessary doodling. Otherwise, this is one of the best albums of 2024 so far! Oh yeah, special mention for the soulful vocals of Alex Falk, he’s quite a character!

ATLANTIC released one album ”Power” back in 1994. It was good album, it didn’t make them household names but it did give them a cult status. This year the band has made a comeback, although with a different line-up. They recently played their first gig at Firefest. ”Another World”, their second album, was released a few months ago. 

”Another World” (RRr) is a pleasant sounding, nicely performed AOR album, but I have to wonder whether it would have been released if it wasn’t for the cult status of the band. With songs called ”Hold On”, ”Missing You”, ”I’ll Be Waiting” and ”Ready Or Not”, you’ll get the idea… ”AI, generate 11 song lyrics about finding love, losing love or missing love, using top 50 AOR albums of the eighties as reference.” Ok, maybe that’s a bit harsh, and I could tolerate these lyrics if the music was super brilliant, but it’s not. It’s as generic as these song titles, mostly mid-tempo or balladic melodic rock by numbers. The last song ”This Ain’t Love” is a bit harder-edged, classic rock in Bad Company vein, but not doesn’t score any more points than the others. 

PLEASURELAND’s first, self-titled album gets a RRR rating. They are from Sweden, which doesn’t surprise anyone I guess… in fact, sometimes it feels like I should write that ”all bands reviewed here are from Sweden, unless otherwise stated”! Anyway, their songs range from 70’s styled disco-rock of ”Shotgun City” to more typical Scandi-AOR of ”Before I De” or ”Hate Stronger Than Love”. My favourite track is ”White Light”, a fine pomp rock track in the vein of Touch. The band has two singers, Björn Segerblad and Jonna Sailen. Björn sings most of the songs, and he sounds like a curious cross between Kenny Lecrkemo and Fergie Frederiksen!

Colombian COUNTERLINE offer us their second album, simply called ”Two” (RRRr). If anything, the album shows how important a stronger opening track is. ”Night Of Rock and Roll” isn’t actually a bad song, but it’s a bit of a ”plodder”, and would have worked much better a bit later in the track listing. The band should have used one of the more captivating, energetic songs like ”Fantasy” or ”Beast Unleashed” as the opener. 

The album is a very solid effort from the (slow) start to finish. All the songs are decent, there are no weak links but then again, no real hits either. Musically the closest reference might be early Jaded Heart, especially since vocalist Harold Waller sounds a lot like Michael Bormann. 

DANGER ZONE from Italy are hard rock veterans, who have been in the game since the early eighties. Their first full-length album was released in 2012 though. ”Shut Up!” (RRRr) is their fifth album, and it’s a pretty good melodic hard rock with gritty vocals and excellent keyboards. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the first half of the album, but the more melodic approach of the second half convinced me. The fourth full ”R” wasn’t far…Highlights; ”Hurt”, ”When You Broke My Soul”, ”Tell Me Truth”. The Vocals of Giacomo Gigantelli are an acquired taste, he’s not your typical smooth melodic singer, more like Brian Johnson or Marc Storace.

HYDRA’s second album ”Rehydration” (RRRR) sounds a lot like Isolation-era Toto on steroids, with a strong injection of that Swedish AOR potion as well. Yes, they are from there… It’s all good material, with ”We Belong” and ”Eye Of The Storm” as my current favourites. There may be a few too many bands with a similar sound around, but credit where credit is due, Hydra are very good at what they do. 

SWEET have been around for a long time. In the seventies they scored a lot of bubblegum pop rock hits penned by the Chinn-Chapman duo, before branching out on their own. ”Fox On The Run” and ”Action” were two of their self-penned hits, and they’ve been covered by several hard rock bands who cite Sweet as one of their biggest influences. 

Once the band’s mainstream popularity waned, their story got so complicated that I won’t even attempt to summarize it. Now in 2024, the Sweet that has recorded ”Full Circle” (RRR) contains the original guitarist Andy Scott and a cast of British musicians, including vocalist Lee Small of Shy/Lionheart fame.

The echoes from the seventies are evident some of these songs. You’ll hear the swirling synths of ”Fox On The Run” somewhere there, and the high-pitched harmonies the band was known for. Some of the songs. Aren’t really blessed with good melodies, but there are a few rather fine, timeless melodic rock tracks among the 11 songs: ”Fire In My Heart”, ”Rising Up” and the power-balladic ”Everything” with its’ massive chorus.

HEARTWIND’s ”III” (RRRR) is almost like a compilation album, ”Best of Swedish Hard Rock”. The core of the band is the trio of Göran Engvall (guitar), Mikael Rosengren (keys) and Peter Svensson (drums), who have been active in the Swedish rock scene for several years.  Engvall and Rosengren were also heavily involved in writing the songs on the first Circle Of Friends album. For this third album they’ve invited a lot of familiar Swedish rockers to participate. Vocalists include Jacob Samuel (The Poodles), Robert van Der Zwan (Remedy), Matti Alfonzetti (Bam Bam Boys, Jagged Edge), Andreas Novak (House Of Shakira), Rick Altzi (Masterplan) and Thomas Vikström (Talk Of The Town), while other musicians include Nalle Påhlsson, Fredrik Folklore and Henrik Bergqvist, to name a few.  

An all-star cast doesn’t necessarily mean an amazing album, but in this case the outcome is very good. The Heartwind guys know how to write melodic rock songs, and the 10 songs here are all enjoyable. My favourites include ”Warrior”, ”Facing The Night”, ”Now Is The Time” and ”Brothers”. 

And while on the subject of CIRCLE OF FRIENDS…”Cherokee Moon” (RRRr) is the second project under that moniker. Just like the first one ”The Garden”, this one features a few covers and songs especially written for it, sung by various singers. I liked the first one more, mainly because the songs were better. There are a couple of very good originals on this one too, and the covers aren’t bad, but mostly not that exciting either. The highlights include ”Starlight”, sung by Olivia Dei Chicci, who is the daughter of Robin Beck and James Christian and the Rainbow classic ”Can’t Let You Go”, featuring Harry Hess of Harem Scarem. The Spotify version and Japanese CD edition include ”No Candle In The Window”, which is sung by Jeff Scott Soto. The song is a remake of the James Christian solo track from his first solo album, but for some reason the chorus has been re-written, and I wonder why? It was perfect as it was, and now the song kind of loses momentum when the chorus comes.