Peter Martinsson Group – Changes (CD)

Once upon a time, back in 1979-80, guitarist Peter played guitar in underground bands Plebb and Purple Haze, each one with one release to show for (rarities today). In 2012 he was brought back to the musical scene with his outstanding instrumental album “Guitar State Of Mind”, followed by “No Grey” in 2014. Now it’s time for another dose of instrumental high-class guitar playing. Peter Martinsson Group is more about melodic hard rock oriented songs that high speed shredding. “Never Again”, for instance, has an aura of 70s Rainbow hanging over it, while “You Can Dance” crunches out some heavy bluesy riffs which makes me think of Michael Katon. “Ahead Of Time” has a cool 70s feel of Janne Schaffer (think “Halkans Affär” or “Fillins Mignon”). Peter’s tone and feel often give me serious goosebumps! His sweet notes are just there! His melodic feel is outstanding and even though I’m not a huge fan of instrumental albums, I just can’t stop listening to his music! I just love the quirky playfulness of songs like “Happy Happie” or the coolness of “Loosen Up”. He also does a killer version of the traditional folk song “Barkbrödslåten”, quite different from Kebnekajse’s rendition. Highly recommended!

Janne Stark

Label: Plebb

Year: 2017

Country: Sweden

EVIL MASQUERADE - Requiem (CD)

Evil Masquerade have delivered quite a bunch of high class albums leaning on the legacy of late seventies/early eighties bands like Rainbow and Deep Purple. Think Rainbow Rising mixed with Perfect Strangers with a heavier edge at times. Singer Apollo Papathanasio is also found in bands like Firewind and Spiritual Beggars, and he does an equally great job here with a voice that fits the style like a glove. Guitarist Henrik Flyman has also played in bands like Moahni Moahna and ZooL, bands that also had hints of the same style, especially the latter. Great, tasteful guitar playing is his forte. Not forgetting the excellent rhythm section featuring bassist Thor Jeppesen and drummer Dennis Buhl, who both provides a really solid and quite groovy foundation. Don’t expect no bells or whistles, this is classic hard rock the way it’s supposed to be played. This is the type of album I always tend to fall back to after having been enchanted by some technical wizardry for ten minutes. You know what you get, but what you get is a good and solid album that you can listen to beginning to end and each track just makes you feel good. Like I said, classic hard rock played and sung great with a fat and solid production.
Janne Stark
Label: Dark Minstrel
Year: 2012
Country: Sweden
Link: www.evilmasquerade.com

ETERNAL – Chapter 1 (CD)

Eternal produces really good high quality guitar dominated melodic metal, very similar to Nocturnal Rites on The 8th Sin. The band has an outstanding singer in Christer Gärds with a great, raspy, still very melodic voice, actually a bit similar to Johnny in Nocturnal Rites, which is just great in my book. In Scream Higher I also hear quite a lot of Graham Bonnet in Christer, which is yet another nice touch. The balance between keyboards and guitar is really good, with the great guitarplaying of brother Bosse Gärds never being overshadowed. Keyboardist Pontus Lekaregård also does his part with a nice touch, not only laying down carpets of sound, but actually adding some nice key-twiddling in the background, like in second track Human. The production should be credited Peter Tägtgren who proves he not only masters the heavier side of metal, but does a great job also when it comes to melodic metal. Come to think of it, the keyboard sound of Human actually made me think of Tägtgren’s Pain. The album offers a nice variety of songs, from faster stuff like Virus and Ray Of Light, to heavier stuff like Stay The Night and the Rainbow:esque The Thing with its oriental harmonies. All in all a really good solid heavy melodic rocker of an album, that should fit in well on the roster of labels such as Escape or Frontiers.
Janne Stark
Label: High Gear Music
Country: Sweden
Year: 2011
Link: http://www.eternalsweden.com/