ROCK BLOG #43: W.E.T. , Arion, Gotthard, Streetlight

The (mostly) Swedish supergroup W.E.T. have been very consistent when it comes to the quality of their material. Naturally I had sky-high expectations for their fifth effort. First look at the track listing made me think that the band had dusted off a couple of older songs of theirs - ”Believer” (a track Erik Mårtensson wrote for Giant) and ”Day By Day” (the Talisman song).  That wasn’t the case, both are new songs, I guess they just ran out of song titles…it happens. Anyway, when it comes to the quality, ”Apex” (RRRR) is probably my least favourite W.E.T. album but it’s still better than most things released these days. There maybe a few songs that don’t work for me, but then again, ”This House Is On Fire”, ”Where Are The Heroes Now”, ”Day By Day” and a few others are H.I.T.S. 

ARION are a modern metal band with some progressive elements, and ”The Light That Burns The Sky” (RRRR) is their fourth album. Their turbo-charged melodic metal sounds more Swedish than Finnish for me, think Dynazty and Amaranthe. No growling or female vocals (except for Melissa Bonny on one of the songs), but catchy melodies mixed with intricate arrangements. Listening to the whole album from start to finish is a rather demanding experience, because the each song is so full of everything, but I can’t deny that the songs are mostly very good. Maybe a little bit of variety in the intensity the next time, okay?

Once upon a time, GOTTHARD were an unstoppable rock machine. Then they were struck by tragedy and vocalist Steve Lee died in an accident. The band soldiered on with a new, excellent vocalist Nic Maeder but somehow they lost their magic.  With their fifth post-Steve Lee album ”Stereo Crush” (RRRr) the band is trying hard to find their magic again, and at times they do get close. 

”Stereo Crush” is a decent album, with some solid hard rock songs, a few ballads and something in between, but I’m not sure whether any of these songs will end up as Gotthard classics. After a few spins, the closest contenders are the delicate, semi-balladic ”Burning Bridges”  solely written by Maeder and the excellent rocker ”Shake Shake”, a Leoni/Maeder collaboration. 

”Night Vision” (RRRr) is the ”difficult second album” for STREETLIGHT. Their debut ”Ignition” got some rave reviews a couple of years ago, the band’s retro-AOR sounded like it came directly from the early eighties. So, did they use all their ammunition for the first album? Not necessarily, but maybe the most shining diamonds were delivered on the debut and we’ll have to wait for the third album for the next batch of gems. Don’t get me wrong, there are very good songs on this album too, especially on the first half of it, but not quite as ear-catching as the best tracks of ”Ignition”.