Take no prisoners! The Vikings are back and they’re gonna take your heart and soul! A triumphant return from the Swedes who can show many others how to do melodic rock with knobs on!
‘Vertigo’, the opening track, is truly infectious. Chunky pounding riffs, it’s not for the faint hearted, rock to get the blood pumping and make you feel alive! ‘Never Look Back’ is more towards the pop persuasion, but is nevertheless great singalong concert material. Equally as commercial ‘Killing Me’ has killer guitar that never makes you doubt its rock credentials. ‘The Downfall of Eden’ reminds of Europe the band, another high flying Swedish crew despite the song’s slightly Scottish sounding refrain mid song. ‘Hurt’ is a slower track with more of the pace of a ballad and Martensson and Henriksson’s sense for accessibility and monumentality shines through in this slightly sparer format. It’s back to fast pace for ‘Jaded’ and the substance and energy of this music would make it ideal for film. Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger comes to mind for the fighting driving pace and indomitable spirit of this album encapsulated in ‘Born to Lead’ and ‘For Better Or For Worse’. ‘No Way Back’ and ‘Night Comes Crawling’ are both decent accessible rockin tunes. ‘Black Rain’ closes on a high point with monster riffs and is a great anthem with classical music style composition on guitar, traditional roots and yet somehow manages to have a totally modern sound. Eclipse have really come of age with this album (note its Monumentum or monument in latin, not momentum). Mature, well rounded, enjoyable, addictive and indeed built to last. What more could we ask for?! Dawn Osborne 9/10
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Dawn
|