Rock Blog #50: Treat, Stargazery, Midnite City

I could be accused of not using the whole scale of R’s when it comes to these reviews of mine, and that would be correct. Do you want to know why? It’s because there’s so much music released these days, and while I do check out a lot of albums, I really don’t want to spend too much time on listening to music that doesn’t appeal to me for one reason or another. So basically most of the stuff I review is something that I like or otherwise important releases in the genres RockUnited.Com covers. Back in the days when labels and artists sent us physical copies we tried to review everything, but nowadays that would be impossible. Even without Spotify, there’s so much stuff being sent to us for streaming or download, that I could spend every moment I’m awake listening to something, and still not be able to listen to it all. Now, having gotten that off my chest, here’s a few albums I’ve been listening to lately, and none of them suck!

TREAT has been one of my favorite bands since the mid-eighties. As many of the 80’s hard rock bands, they  broke up during the nineties, but made a glorious comeback in 2010 with ”Coup De Grace” and have released four studio albums since then, with brand new one ”The Wild Card” (RRRRr) being the latest of those.

”The Wild Card” is a fine example of modern-day AOR which bridges the sounds of 2025 with Treat’s 80’s style quite nicely. This doesn’t sound like retro-rock, even though they sing about ”1985” and so on. The songs are polished, fine-tuned and meticulously produced, with emphasis on big hooks and perfectly crafted background vocals. Obviously Robert Ernlund’s lead vocals have been touched upon and sometimes it’s not that subtle, but then again, it’s 2025…

Anders Wickström is one of my favourite songwriters, and I think he doesn’t get enough credit for that. As far as I’m concerned, he is a Hit Machine, coming up with superb melodies and choruses at an alarming rate! All 13 songs on ”The Wild Card” have those, and while I initially thought I had found my favourites quite easily, the less immediate ones have started to chase those, when it comes to the top positions. Anyway, at the moment my favourite track is the mid-tempo ”Heaven’s Waiting”, with ”1985”, ”Back To The Future” and ”One Minute To Breathe” very close. In the next batch there’s ”Rodeo”, ”Endeavour”, ”In The Blink Of An Eye”, ”Hand On Heart”… but if you ask me again in a couple of weeks, everything might have changed. 

STARGAZERY aren’t messing around with modern influences. ”Carnival Puppeteers” (RRRr) sounds like it could have been released in 1987, which really isn’t a bad thing. They draw their influences mostly from the melodic heavy metal of 80’s and 70’s: Rainbow, Dio, Malmsteen and the likes. 

Jari Tiura’s heroic vocals are quite unique, I can’t really think of anyone else who sounds like him. Maybe a mixture of Kal Swan (Lion, Bad Moon Rising) and Ronnie James Dio could be close… or maybe not. There’s a Dio cover ”Rainbow In The Dark” on the album and Tiura does a decent job on it. The Spotify version of the album contains also another cover, Def Leppard’s ”Too Late For Love”, which isn’t quite as convincing, vocally or otherwise. Maybe the original is so strongly etched to my brain that nothing else will do.

As for the band’s own songs, my favourites are the title track, ”Strangers Before Blood” and ”Can You Deny”.  All three have some majestic keyboards and good hooks. Towards the end of the album, my interest seems to wane and the last few songs don’t do much for me. 

If you like traditional melodic metal like the bands mentioned above or someone like Axel Rudi Pell, do yourself a favor and give ”Carnival Puppeteers” a spin, not to mention the band’s older output. 

MIDNITE CITY have been around since 2017 and they’ve been quite productive with 5 full-length albums and an EP. ”Bite Te Bullet” (RRRRr) is the album number 5, released last month (November 2025). If you have liked the previous ones, you can make a blind purchase with this one, as the band is staying on their chosen path. As before, their songs range from Party Hard Rock to more melodic AOR, with influences from Danger Danger, Def Leppard, Alice Cooper and the other masters of the genres. 

So what do we have here? The Aerosmith-meets-80sAlice Cooper swagger of ”Live Like Ya Mean It” kicks down the door to the party house with a heavy boot. The AOR-friendly ”Worth Fighting For” and ”It’s Going To Be Alright” take us away to the other room, where the mood is more introspective and emotional. The album’s stand out track ”Heaven In This Hell” has a strong Alice Cooper-vibe again, ”Spark In The Dark”-guitars and a chorus that Desmond Child would be proud of, and we’re back in the party room… the AOR room calls us with ”Running Back To Your Heart”, but ”Lethal Dose Of Love” says it’s still time to rock out, with its’ clever guitar work and shout-along chorus. 

With the melancholic instrumental ”Archer’s Song”, the band lead us to the rooftop terrace, where the view is  beautiful and we can settle to the AOR mood with the balladic ”Seeing Is Believing”, Bon Jovi’sh ”No One Wins”, the catchy ”Hang On Til Tomorrow” and ”When The Summer Ends”. The last song might make you want to shed a few Blue Tears, it’s that good. As is the whole album, I think this might be the best Midnite City album so far.