Given that the debut album was songs mainly gathered from the past, I wasn’t sure we’d even get a second Seven album. But here it is and it’s great!
Vocalist Mick Devine as one of those ‘born for AOR’ voices and the music – even though delivered by a slightly different lineup, this is almost as good as the brilliant debut.
This time around only vocalist Mick remains, but the team of Andy Loos (bass), Fredrik Bergh (keys) and Lars Chriss (production, guitars, drums) who helped reconstruct the debut are present again, so the sound remains intact.
Up tempo Foreigner/Heartland/Signal style AOR and melodic rock is what we have here.
Light Of 1000 Eyes may be a good opener, but A Better Life is pure brilliance; while a moodier Fight has Mark Free written all over it. Other highlights include the high impact keyboard drenched Shattered; the anthemic High Hopes and the intense Last Illusion.
But that said, there’s no fillers here and folks are going to like different tracks more than others depending on mood.
It just needs to be stated that this is a very fine album indeed and a worthy sequel to the debut, if not quite as catchy, but still a great sound and a very well-produced example of classic AOR with a contemporary production.
