Label: Avenue Of Allies Music
Review by Kimmo Toivonen
The album number three from Sweden’s Coastland Ride is their strongest effort so far. It’s still smooth AOR but there’s a new kind of intensity in these songs. In my review of their previous album I hoped that they ”stay away from the yacht and crank it up” and that’s what they’ve done! I’m not pretending that they’ve done it because I said so but I’m happy they did, for whatever reason.
The album kicks off with ”Winds”, a classy AOR song that has echoes of Toto and Journey in it. Layered vocals, strong chorus and enough crunch, I like it! The next highlight is ”Love Is On Your Mind”, a very Toto-influenced track but with a great chorus. With ”Dead For Seven Days” the band really crank it up and come up with an excellent, gritty melodic rocker.
”Eye Of The Storm” is a smoother, westcoast-style AOR song but it works for me, as does the dramatic ”Nation Of Grace”. It’s dark, pompous and epic, something that I can’t recall this band having attempted before.
The last highlight I want to mention is the closing track ”Reasons To Try”, which is a fine AOR track that reminds me a bit of Alien. One of the best tracks of this album no doubt, and I think this would be a good live track too.
www.coastlandride.net
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