A wonderful year for music. One of the best. Pretty easy to pick my favourites and even though I haven’t had time to review a good many of these, they have all been in high rotation over the last 12 months. And yes, I will still run through some Reviews In Brief and add as many of these titles to the site. Past my Top 10, the rest were all very hard to put in order – some outstanding titles here, with quality music for all tastes released in 2017.
If you haven’t heard some of these titles, don’t waste another minute, check them out!
01. Harem Scarem – United
02. Eclipse – Monumentum
03. One Desire – One Desire
04. H.E.A.T – Into The Great Unknown
05. Threshold – Legend Of The Shires
06. Night Ranger – Don’t Let Up
07. Heaven & Earth – Hard To Kill
08. Degreed – Degreed
09. [TIE] Mr. Big – Defying Gravity
Tokyo Motor Fist - Tokyo Motor Fist
Kryptonite - Kryptonite
10. Sons Of Apollo – Psychotic Symphony
11. Wayward Sons – Ghosts Of Yet To Come
12. Black Country Communion – BCCIV
13. Night Flight Orchestra – Amber Galactic
14. Brother Firetribe – Sunbound
15. Jorn – Life On Death Road
16. All 4 1 – All 4 1
17. Art Nation – Liberation
18. Code Red – Incendiary
19. Houston – III
20. Riverdogs – California
21. Styx – The Mission
22. Inglorious – II
23. Wildness – Wildness
24. Lionville – World Of Fools
25. [TIE] Newman – Arial
Pick Cream 69 - Headstrong
26. Jeff Scott Soto – Retribution
27. Pride Of Lions – Fearless
28. Ten – Gothica
29. Revolution Saints – Light In The Dark
30. Tony Mills – Streets Of Chance
31. ColdSpell – A New World Arise
32. Midnite City – Midnite City
33. Cheap Trick – We’re All Alright
34. Crazy Lixx – Ruff Justice
35. The Radio Sun – Unstoppable
36. Santa Cruz – Bad Blood Rising
37. Dirty White Boy – Down And Dirty
38. Deep Purple – Infinite
39. Steve Walsh – Black Butterfly
40. Thunder – Rip It Up
41. Kee Of Hearts – Kee Of Hearts
42. Unruly Child – Can’t Go Home
43. Eden’s Curse – Eden’s Curse Revisited
44. Tales From The Porn – H.M.M.V
45. Jim Jidhed – Push On Through
46. Raintimes – Raintimes
47. Age Of Reflection – In The Heat Of The Night
48. Phantom 5 – Play To Win
49. Martina Edoff – We Will Align
50. Bonfire – Byte The Bullet
Song Of The Year
Threshold – Small Dark Lines
Harem Scarem – Here Today Gone Tomorrow
One Desire – Turn Back Time
H.E.A.T – Redefined
Revolution Saints – I Wouldn’t Change A Thing
Harem Scarem – Heaven And Earth
Eclipse – Vertigo
Eclipse – Never Look Back
H.E.A.T – Into The Great Unknown
Threshold – Stars & Satellites
Heaven & Earth – Hard To Kill
Heaven & Earth – The Game Has Changed
One Desire – Hurt
Sons Of Apollo – Coming Home
Sons Of Apollo – Signs Of The Times
Night Ranger – Somehow Someway
Night Ranger – Say What You Want
Mr. Big – Mean To Me
Mr. Big – Defying Gravity
Night Flight Orchestra – Jennie
Night Flight Orchestra – Something Mysterious
Unruly Child – The Only One
Pride Of Lions – All I See Is You
Riverdogs - The Revolution Starts Tonight
MelodicRock Records 2017 Releases
A special mention for the MRR releases of 2017. I would personally rank them all in the Top 50, but in an attempt to remain unbiased, I’ve left them out. But I am really proud of what the label has managed to achieve this year, it’s been MRR’s biggest year for number of releases, plus for sales in total and for individual titles setting sales records.
So what this means – I’ll have to make 2018 even bigger and better and so far it’s looking just that way! Stay tuned for news soon!
A huge HUGE thanks to the artists for believing in MRR and making this small label your home.
Another big thanks to all the journos, media outlets and magazines that featured MRR releases during the year.
And finally a big BIG thank you to all the stores and distribution outlets that also supported MRR and did such a great job getting these out there to fans.
To every single person that bought one or all of the releases this year – you guys ROCK!
Johnny Lima – Johnny Lima / Made In California (Reissues w/Bonus Tracks)
Shotgun Symphony – The Last Symphony (Reissues w/Unreleased)
Don Barnes – Ride The Storm (Previously Unreleased)
Arti Tisi Trilogy – New York City, Back Again & The Reeperbahn (All Previously Unreleased)
Jimmy Davis & Junction – Kick The Wall (Deluxe Edition)(Reissue w/Bonus Live Disc)
Jimmy Davis & Junction – Going The Distance (Previously Unreleased)
Rian – Out Of The Darkness (Debut Album)
Jan Akesson's Shadow Rain – Ascension (Debut Solo Album)
Scherer / Batten – Battlezone (Featuring Songs by Jim Peterik)
We were forewarned that these guys were great and something special was on the way. And boy, is this something special or what?
In a year packed with A-Game melodic rock and AOR titles, OD (or One Desire) deliver what will surely be one of the top few debut albums in several years. Europe is of course again responsible for unleashing another glorious AOR masterpiece on us, this time it’s Finland that takes the trophy.
Vocalist André Linman is quite a spectacular find. Powerful, emotional and in control of a wide vocal range – he uses it all here.
If you love keyboards entwined with guitars and a pulsating rhythm section and a sound that brings Def Leppard into the 21st Century mixed with Brother Firetribe, Treat and The Magnificent. It’s the Giuffria style 80s meets 2017.
OD really do have their own thing going on here and it’s one memorable song after another. From the passionate urgency of the fast moving melodies of Hurt; to the quirky hard hitting Apologise to the commercial high energy anthem that’s made for stadium’s Love Injection.
That’s followed immediately by another fast paced melodic gem in Turn Back Time; a monster ballad Falling Apart (which gets better every listen); then the fast and furious keyboard and bass riff of Straight Through The Heart and the hands in the air anthem Whenever I’m Dreaming, which seemingly has two monster chorus hooks, each as good as the other.
Do You Believe then makes it 8 from 8 as far as killer choruses; while Buried Alive is the heaviest track on the album, but also the most keyboard driven. Fabulous!
The band close this monster debut with the heartfelt power ballad This Is Where The Heartbreak Begin.
Another essential purchase for anyone that loves the usual fare served up by these freakish Scandinavians. We have Work Of Art, Eclipse, Brother Firetribe, Degreed, HEAT and now we have OD. Magnificent debut guys.
2017 is offering up a staggering number of new releases – from newcomers, to familiar names, to classic rock legends – there’s something for everyone as they say.
Here is a quick summary of some of those releases and some insights into the ones that I’ve been fortunate enough to hear.
Night Ranger – Don’t Let Up (March 24) Another well-produced hard rocking release with a couple of slower acoustic ballads, but very diverse – perhaps the most diverse NR album yet. The lead single is the most commercial and recognizable NR song, but also listen out for Running Out Of Time, Truth and Jamie.
Eclipse – Monumentum (March 24) There was never any doubt right? The lads have done it again and perhaps turned things up yet another notch as far as sonic bombardment and guitar shredding. Plus Philip Crusner on drums is fantastic. It’s heavy, its melodic, it’s brilliant! Look out for The Downfall Of Eden, Hurt and Killing Me. Extrordinary stuff and exactly what I was hoping to hear!
Brother Firetribe – Sundown (March 23) hang onto your hats boys and girlsd – here comes another multi-layered, guitar and keyboard soaked, big budget Scandi melodic rock album. Easily better than the great last album, and growing on me more every day, BFT fans can be assured they are getting a killer album here!
Pride Of Lions – Fearless (Feb 24) More or less, just another POL album. But that isn’t said with any complacency or hesitation. It’s another great set of songs from the pen of Jim Peterik and the voice of Toby Hitchcock. Diverse, pompous and theatrical as the couple of albums before it, more reliably memorable melodic rock.
Lionville – A World Of Fools (Feb 24) Always great to hear Lars singing and while we wait for a new Work Of Art album, this is more than enough quality AOR to fill the void. Expertly produced and featuring slick, pure AOR at it’s European best.
Tokyo Motor Fist (Feb 24) It’s a lot of fun. It’s quite varied and definitely reaches into Def Leppard territory during the second half, it really is a great mix of Ted Poley and Steve Brown’s talents. Production is pretty loose, but the energy and hooks are infectious.
Unruly Child – Can’t Go Home (Feb 24) Never a band to do things in the simple, structured way, this is another quality AOR album, more varied than the last album and still weighing in on the lighter side, but there’s a lot of musical intelligence in these songs and the performances.
One Desire (March 24) Pure Scandi-melodic bliss. Layers of everything (vocals, guitars and keys) and a monster production right out of 1985. These guys make the 80s sound like now with their contemporary production, yet classic AOR sound. Absolutely brilliant.
Black Star Riders – Heavy Fire (Feb 2) More Lizzy-like guitar driven 70s rock n roll and more quality music. Wasn’t as impressed with the last album, but this sounds up there with the debut.
Also coming up to watch out for:
Thunder, Dirty White Boyz, Black Country Communion, TNT, Steelheart, Treat (Live), Art Nation, Crazy Lixx, H.E.A.T, Degreed, Toby Hitchcock, Riverdogs, Harem Scarem, Mr. Big and Heaven & Earth!
And don’t forget the Arti Tisi archives from MelodicRock Records and new announcements due very shortly about 2 classic and unmistakably amazing albums that were never released back in the 80s!
Plus new albums from Faith Circus and a few other familiar MRR names.
The music video for first single, "Hurt" can be seen here:
One Desire was started in 2012 by drummer Ossi Sivula. A couple of years were spent writing songs and making demos with different musicians and friends with an aim to create music that could change the world. Various musicians came and went along the way, but in 2014 things started to click when they met Jimmy Westerlund (Negative, Sturm und Drang, Joel Madden of Good Charlotte, Pitbull, etc.), who has several platinum and gold albums to his credit as a producer, guitarist, and songwriter. He had just moved back to Finland after a stint in Los Angeles and the band hired him to produce some songs.
After recording three songs with a new musical direction, they managed to attract the attention of Serafino Perugino, owner and head of A&R at Frontiers Music Srl, but, at this point the band needed a great singer. After trying out some different options, Jimmy suggested his long time friend Andre Linman from the band Sturm und Drang (who had sold over 100,000 records and gone platinum and 2x gold in Finland) who had recently decided to go on hiatus. Andre got together for a couple of sessions with the guys and after writing a couple new songs together, the style and sound that was about to become ONE DESIRE was born. Ossi and Andre asked Jimmy to join the band in 2016 and this is the album that was born from that collaboration. Also, not long after this happened, the very talented Jonas Kuhlberg (Paul Di'Anno, Cain's Offering, MyGrain) was brought on and he became the last link in the chain.
This kickass new lineup perfectly captures the original vision for the band and continues upon Linman's and Westerlund's successful legacies. Musically, the band draws musical influences from classic rock bands like Journey, Toto, and Def Leppard, but also lots of heavier, more modern bands. “Our sound is very melodic, slightly pop-ish at times, but still based on a heavy rock sound,” says singer Andre Linman.
After Jimmy brought in the song “Hurt”, the band felt that that they had taken it to the next level. Andre wrote the beautiful ballad, “This Is Where The Heartbreak Begins” plus many other songs and at that time, ONE DESIRE started to find the right direction for Ossi's rocker, “Do You Believe”. Finally, in mid-2016, the band felt they finally were musically locked in and had the material to make an album that they could honestly stand behind and love beyond a shadow of a doubt.
“After the album is released we will be touring heavily, so stay tuned for some shows!” concludes Linman. 2017 will be a fantastic year as the journey of ONE DESIRE just begins!
“One Desire” tracklisting:
1. Hurt
2. Apologize
3. Love Injection
4. Turn Back Time
5. Falling Apart
6. Straight Through The Heart
7. Whenever I'm Dreaming
8. Do You Believe
9. Buried Alive
10. This Is Where The Heartbreak Begins
One Desire:
Jimmy Westerlund – guitars
André Linman – lead vocals
Ossi Sivula – drums
Jonas Kuhlberg – bass guitar
