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Review:
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Lars Mattsson is a highly experienced virtuoso guitarist
and musician with a long history, and this is his second
album with the most delectable of singers, Adrienn Antal,
with her ravishing rich voice. She is joined on some songs
by the rock voice of Status Minor singer Markku Kuikka.
Lars plays and produces everything apart from the wonderfully
named Eddie Sledgehammer on drums and the Astral Strings
and Woodwinds. ‘Never Stand Down’ sets out his stall and
shows the eclectic nature of Mattsson’s music - reggae verse,
symphonic chorus, prog flourishes, lightning guitar solos,
blues strut, in short the kitchen sink. ‘Believe’ is a very
melodic groovy catchy song, which heads off in all directions,
followed by ‘Tango’, which is great fun, I’d certainly like
the last tango with Adrienn! Mini rock opera ‘The Great
Escape’ starts with allsorts, then sitar on the verse, powerful
symphonic chorus, synth and guitar solos, then groovy and
balladic AOR rock, you cannot get bored listening to this!
‘I’ll Find Another Way’ is a lovely ballad, while Markku
gets a good run out on the complex Dream Theatre type prog
rock of ‘Shadows’. ‘The Scream of My Soul’ has a subtle
jazzy flavour, ‘Fire is Burning’ is superb Toto style rock
with Lars on vocals, and ‘Chain Me’ is another great ballad
with a Latin feel and tasty fretless bass. The last two
tunes are firstly ‘Tour De Force’, Lars has behaved himself
up to now, this is his chance to show off on guitar and
keys, and finally ‘Slave to the Road’ which is a fun groovy
bluesy Steely Dan’ish encore, I suddenly remembered who
Markku reminded me of, Colin Blunstone. Tango is a massive
improvement on the last album Dream Child, which tended
to get lost in prog excursions, and Eddie Sledgehammer sounded
like he was demolishing a brick outhouse. This one is far
more like Edenbridge, featuring great songs with prog flourishes,
rather than the other way round. Tango is a fantastic record
with more musical ideas in one song that most bands have
in their entire careers, so if you like melodic rock, prog
and symphonic rock then this will have you tangoing down
to the nearest record emporium. Yes, I’ve been Tango’d by
this one so 9 out of 10
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