Rawk roundup – Heartbreak Radio vs. Wild Rose vs. Voodoo Circle

Rawk roundup – Heartbreak Radio vs. Wild Rose vs. Voodoo Circle

HEARTBREAK RADIO
On Air 
AOR Heaven 

Here’s a shocker. An AOR band from Sweden. Who would have thought. The latest one, Heartbreak Radio, are a spin-off act from Last Autumn’s Dream and released their debut album back in 2005. One that passed me by. Put together as an homage to West Coast AOR. Largely the brainchild of Mikael Erlandsson, it’s taken him till now to find the time to put another project together, and it seems to have been worth the wait.

This time around Heartbreak Radio includes, amongst others, guitarist Mats Johanson (who appeared on Asia’s “Aqua” album), bassist Berra Holmgren from Ace Of Base (oh, yes), drummer Peter Strandberg (Jeff Scott Soto band), on drums), along with a plethora of vocalists including Mikael Erlandsson, Jim Jidhed (Alien), Henrik Baath (from prog metallers Dark Water) and Martin Gabriel. And if you’re a fan of easy on the ear AOR that brings to mind the likes of Journey, Toto, and even Christopher Cross, then there is a lot for you to like here.

It’s a fine mix of AOR, West Coast and smooth seventies pop, with songs like ‘Angeline’ and My Heart’s Just Missing You’ straight out of the top drawer. Add in some exemplary musicianship, and you’re left with a fine, melodic treat.

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WILD ROSE
Dangerous 
AOR Heaven 

What! How very dare you. There I was grooving away (mellow stylee) to some fine Scandi AOR when I read the press release and discovered that WIld Rose are Greek! The cheek of it. Although, to be fair, they have brought in former Push (UK) vocalist David A Saylor since their debut “Half Past Midnight” alongside songwriter and guitarist Andy Rock and the splendidly named Dirty Haris (keyboards), Phil Gun (bass), Tiny Karpo (guitars) and Junior (drums). It’s a wise move as Saylor has a great, throaty, traditional AOR voice that really suits the material.

It is very eighties, which is a good thing in my book, and there is some cracking melodic rock guitar. Even when the songs don’t make the move from good to great, the quality of the guitars and the vocals make you think that the songs are better than they are. Which is a clever trick, and one that Bon Jovi made a career out of. The band can rock as well as smooth, so they can easily move from a hard driving tune like ‘Alone’ through pure AOR like ‘Hold On’ and album highlight ‘If You Still Love Me’, which would have been a sire fire top 10 hit in 1983.

There are a handful of songs that are as good as you will hear this year, and hopefully they can hang on to Saylor long enough to make a follow-up.

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VOODOO CIRCLE
More Than One Way Home
AFM

Voodoo Circle mainman Alex Beyrodt is well known for his work with Primal Fear, Sinner and Silent Force, buit this is now album number three for his eighties throwback rockers Voodoo Circle, and it’s another good one. I enjoyed the first couple of records, as you would expect. After all, they’re very Whitesnake. But this new one is the best one yet.

It’s basically the kind of eighties hard rock that I grew up with, and makes me alternate between smiling with joy and weeping over my long lost youth. It’s a rock solid band, with Primal Fear / Sinner colleagues Alex Beyrodt and Mat Sinner along for the ride, as well as drummer Marcus Kullmann and keyboards man Jimmy Kresic. Topping it all off are the vocals of Burnley lad and Pink Cream 69 vocalist David Readman. And the latter is in particularly fine form, ripping his way through some classic tunes, hitting notes that Sir David Coverdale can only dream about these days.

For sure, it veers towards tribute in places, but no-one makes records like 1987 and “Slip Of The Tongue” these days, so I’m more than happy to listen to songs like, wait for it, ‘Tears In The Rain’, ‘Heart Of Babylon, ‘The Saint And The Sinner’ and ‘Victim Of Love’. OK, they couldn’t be arsed changing the name of the last one, but I think you get the idea. Looks like the time Readman put in with Quitesnake hasn’t gone to waste. If you take this for what it is – a lot of fun – then you’ll really enjoy it.

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