Label: Escape Music 2012
Review by Kimmo Toivonen
It has taken seven years for Prayer main man Tapani Tikkanen to follow up the band's debut "Wrong Address". Good things come to those who wait they say, but in this case I can't agree. While the first album was a decent AOR disc, "Danger In The Dark" falls short when it comes to the songs and especially the production.
The songs aren't actually too bad. Msybe not quite as good as on the previous album but mostly likeable enough. The title track could be a new genre classic with a better production, and "Find Another Fool" and "Never Let Your Dreams Die" aren't far behind. I like Tapani's positive lyrics, there's plenty of uplifting spirit on the album. But the production... I don't know how many studio hours were spent on these songs during the years, but the results are far from perfect. The drums sound lifeless and plastic, and the overall sound is kind of messy. Sounds like there's too much emphasis on the higher frequencies.
Just so that we don't have to wait another seven years for the next album, I'd like to suggest that Tikkanen would take a look into the past and resurrect some of his 80'ies "Tanna" songs to this project. He wrote some deadly sharp hooks back then and I'm sure the AOR fans would get a kick out of those songs.