Rating: RRRR
Review by Kimmo Toivonen
Today is the release date of ”Garder La Flamme”, the debut album by Swedish newcomers Daytona. Featuring former and current members of Miss Behaviour, Eclipse and Osukaru, the band has taken on the mission to create an album in the style of late eighties hard rock/AOR scene. That’s an ambitious task, considering that the bands of the era usually had huge budgets, songsmiths and name producers helping them create polished and commercially viable products.
I would say that Daytona have succeeded quite well. ”Garder La Flamme” is a polished and great sounding album with a strong late eighties vibe. ”Last Of The Runaways” by Giant has obviously been a huge influence, you’ll even find a lyrical nod to ”the days of innocence” in the majestic opening track ”Welcome To The Real World”. As for being ”commercially viable”, I’m afraid that’s not really possible for an AOR album in 2024, but I guess that band isn’t expecting to find themselves on the Billboard charts. Within the melodic rock scene, this is one of the more interesting debuts of recent years.
Apart from Giant, you’ll hear echoes of Toto, Foreigner and many others, but not in a ”copy/paste” way thankfully. My favourite track is the irresistible single ”Looks Like Rain” with ”Town Of Many Faces” being the runner-up. That song sees the band taking a bit of a departure from their chosen ”late eighties” style, as there are 70’s styled disco elements in the song, similar to The Night Flight Orchestra’s material.
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