RockBlog #52: Petra, Temple Balls, Emotional Fire, Beyond The Black, Symphony Of Sweden

Approximately two months of 2026 are behind us, so it’s time to check out some of the music released so far. 

First we have ”Hope”, a somewhat surprising comeback album from Christian Rock legends PETRA. They were one of my favourite bands back in the late eighties and actually the first major international band I saw live, way back in 1991. They officially called it quits in 2005, but have played in different formations occasionally every now and then. Now, more than 20 years after their previous studio album, the band is back, touring and recording. They’re scheduled to play in Finland this March, and I have tickets! 

In my books, ”Hope” is probably the best Petra album since ”Unseen Power”. I didn’t have high expectations, but the band sounds quite re-energized!  The heavy and gritty ”Filthy Lucre” opens the album convincingly, followed by a selection of songs in various styles. There’s ”We Rejoice In Hope”, a bouncy praise song, a couple of ballads, but mostly it’s hard rock with good hooks. ”Thorns” and ”Deliver Us” made it to my Best of Petra playlist straight away - the fact that they can still come up with songs this good is something special. Let’s just not talk about the reggae experiment ”Oxygen”…. Rating: RRRR

The Finnish hard rock band TEMPLE BALLS suffered a major loss recently, when their guitarist Niko Vuorela lost his battle against cancer. Their new, self-titled album features his contributions and serves as a fitting tribute to his passion and spirit. 

Produced once again by Jona Tee of H.E.A.T., the album is an energetic slab of hard rock. Riffs and shout-along choruses galore, and I get flashbacks to the late eighties stuff from Steelheart and Victory. Jona Tee’s influence can be heard on the songs, and if you like H.E.A.T., you can’t really go wrong with this album.

The bangin’ hard rock songs are very good, but the top pick for me is ”The Path Within”, which showcases the band at their most melodic. Still, ”There Will Be Blood”, ”Stronger Than Fire” and ”Soul Survivor” and many others have tremendous hooks as well. This one gets RRRRr from me!

EMOTIONAL FIRE from Sweden were put together by formed by Ron and Nina Dahlgren, who are behind the project GATHERING OF KINGS as well. Initially the band was an all-female project, but these days there are two members of the original line-up in the band, vocalist Therés Enström and drummer Linnea Waljestål, with Pär Eriksson (guitars), Daniel Myhr (keyboards), and Oliver Lee (bass). Waljestål is the band's producer and main songwriter. About half of the material of the band's debut "Rising" has been penned by prolific Swedish songwriters Alpenborg/Lönnqvist/Altzi. There's one cover on the album, "The Beast In Me". It was originally recorded by Bonnie Pointer for the "Heavenly Bodies" soundtrack (1985). The band has previously released a a cover of their namesake song, written by Desmond Child, Diane Warren and Michael Bolton, but that didn't make it to the album.

Robin Beck, Alyson Avenue, Laos... just some of the names that pop up when listening to this album. The voice of Therés  Enström is powerful and quite distinctive and she definitely adds personality to these songs. One could argue that these are "AOR by numbers" and I kind of felt like that after the first spin too. However, the songs started to show their true colors after repeated listening, and I now I have to say that I quite like them all. Highlights: "Turn Around (And Walk Away)", "Be With You", "Will You Be There". I might have swapped "Don't Lose Yourself" with that aforementioned "Emotional Fire", because "Don't Lose..." sounds like it desperately wants to be a Journey song. Anyway, the album gets a very strong RRRR. Additional "r" was quite close!

In the over-saturated genre of melodic metal one needs something to make them stand out. BEYOND THE BLACK seem to have decided that adding some not-so-typical vocal stylings, languages and effects is the way to go. Their latest album "Break The Silence" has several tracks that feature some different flavors. Some of them work well, some don't.

The first single from the album, "Rising High", comes with a weird male vocal chant (is that Mongolian Throat singing?). Can't say I like it, it sounds as if it has been pasted in as an afterthought, and the song itself isn't one of the better ones. The again, the Bulgarian vocals of Gergana Dimitrova blend in nicely with Jennifer Haben's on "Let There Be Rain", which is one of my favourites from the album. The duet with Lord Of The Lost, "The Art Of Being Alone" is a rather conventional duet, and it's another favourite of mine. The there's "The Flood" with an annoying robot voice, which is one of the less successful experiments. The robot returns for "(La Vie East un) Cinema", thankfully only briefly. "Can You Hear Me" features guest vocals from Asami of Lovebites, a Japanese metal band, and I would say that this combination works well. I have to mention "Hologram" as well, even though it doesn't have anything "weird" in it - it's just a very strong track! 

So, "Break The Silence" is a bit of a mixed bag but it's quite interesting and the best songs are great. RRRR.

SYMPHONY OF SWEDEN describe themselves as "the missing link between pop and metal". Their latest album "Stand My Ground" does fit that description, even though I'm not sure whether the link has been missing - a lot of bands have combined these elements quite successfully. 

Anyway, some of these songs sound like metalized versions of E-Type or some other 90's eurodance act, while others take cues from the long tradition of Swedish hit song writing in general. Some symphonic elements are added, and I'm pretty sure that "We Go Off Tonight" has been influenced by "Cha Cha Cha" by Käärijä. 

With each song around the 3 minute mark, Symphony Of Sweden are not writing epic symphonies. Instead, they write unashamedly commercial songs with hooks mercilessly hammered to your head. They do have a softer side too: half of the songs are more or less balladic, with echoes of Europe, Roxette and maybe even Ghost. 

For the record, I don't think "commercial" is something terrible, the bigger the hook the better. While this album is very chorus-heavy and each song has certain hit potential, I do think that some of the hooks are somewhat too simple and repeated endlessly. RRRr.

That's all for now, I might be back with more reviews sooner than you think... at the moment I'm listening to Induction - very Beast In Black-ish, not too shabby!