ANGELINE – Rhythm Of One (CD)

ANGELINE – Rhythm Of One (CD)

Swedish melodic rockers Angeline are something of an institution. I kinda compare them to House of Shakira. They do their thing, and they are dependable, they have a personal sound and touch, and the quality is always high. Both bands are musically quite close, too – classic high quality melodic hard rock/AOR. “Rhythm of Love” offers no unpleasant surprises, on the contrary, it’s, as usual, a high-class melodic rock product. Dynamic, powerful yet tight production. “Peace, Love & You”, I would have though was named “You live and you learn”, as this is how the chorus goes. Classic melodic rock, just as previously described. “Got Me Running” on the other hand offers some edgy and cool up-tempo riffing with a chorus that goes heavy. Great solos from Jan-Erik Arkengren. What I also like about singer Joachim Nilsson is that he has that typically bluesy British vibe that you hear in singers like Steve Overland or Pete Godfrey, which I really like. “Something’s Gotta Give” and “Now You See Me” are both a bit more traditional light-weight AOR, while ”Hope, Love & Everything” rocks it out a bit more with a great edgy vibe to it. It’s songs like this one I really appreciate with this band and stuff I think sets them apart a bit. This also applies to the title track with the rough edged neck pick-up Strat-intro and its cool hard rocking vibe with interesting rhythmical twists that I love when they do. A KILLER track, indeed! “Can’t Get Enough” is another heavier hard rocking track, with a classic 80s AC/DC-ish guitar riff. Phat and nice chorus choirs almost with a Def Leppard touch. “When We Were Young” takes us back to AOR land, with a strong vintage Bryan Adams vibe to it. “Heal” also offers up some solid hard edged melodic rock with great vocals from Joachim. Album closer “Til The Bitter End” is a straight-ahead, no frills party rocker. Nothing new under the sun, maybe, but when the sun shines, we do like it anyway. A solid album!

Country: Sweden

Label: private

Year: 2025

COLORSTONE - Steam (CD digi)

Hailing from Malmö, southern Sweden, this bunch released their excellent debut in 2011. The members are no beginners, which shows on the musical and vocal delivery. Singer Johan Dahlström once fronted Silver Mountain, while guitarist Fredrik Bergengren was in melodic band Time Gallery. On the debut I compared the band to colleagues Angeline, with their cool blend of pure AOR and chunky fat riffs with a seventies touch. Steam opens up at full steam with two outstanding chunky, funky, groovy and riff oriented rockers with Dahlström delivering top-notch vocals. They loose a bit of steam in the next number, but it picks up in power and speed in Breakdown again. Although some of the songs can seem a bit slick, what sets Colorstone apart a bit from your general AOR band is that Fredrik experiments a bit with sounds and effects you’d be more likely to hear on a Robin Trower album. I do wish they would add a bit more balls to some of the songs, such as Fighting For A Cause, which comes across as a bit “safe”. Whereas in the killer track Don’t Just Dream About It, they go all in. There may not be any immediate hits or classic killer tracks, but it’s an even album without any skip-tracks. Highly enjoyable and all in all a great follow-up!

Janne Stark

Label: private release

Year: 2014

Country: Sweden

Link: www.colorstone.se

ANGELINE - Dis Con nec Ted (CD)

Swedish melodic rock veterans Angeline returned last year with one of the better comeback albums. The follow-up is now here. To be honest I’m not really sure what to say about this one, but one thing – if you liked the last one, I don’t see no single reason not to like this one. It’s more of the same, but slightly different. Great melodic hard rock with an edge, but still something that will appeal to AOR fans. What I really like about this band is that they balance on the edge of being very commercial and poppy, but they land on the right side with nice rough edge guitars and a singer in Jocke Nilsson that has the proper roughness in his voice. The song material is just as strong on this album. It’s simply a bloody great melodic rock record.
Janne Stark
Label: Avenue Of Allies
Year: 2011
Country: Sweden