Band:
Göran Edman - Lead Vocals
John Payne - Lead Vocals
David Mark Pearce - Guitars
C S Brown - Bass
Lisa LaRue - Keyboards, Bkg Vocals
Mikael Wikman - Drums
Discography:
Debut
Guests:
Oliver Wakeman - Guest Keyboards
Info
Production by David Mark Pearce
Released 26/6-2011
Reviewed 28/6-2011
Links:
davidmarkpearce.com
myspace
aorheaven
We speak here of melodic rock music, some might even call it AOR and that would be fine as the production is clean and well polished as i customary in that genre. Guitar lines speak to you as a listener and the vocals are clean and leans towards the higher pitched kind but not as much as in many other AOR-bands. I read somewhere that it had some progressive elements as well but to be honest you would be really hard pressed to find those elements, I think it was a review stating that. We have 49 minutes of music on ten tracks.
What strikes me with this album is the way it is good without really making an impact, everything is well made, production is great, guitars are great, vocals are really good, all elements are really good or great but still I just feel like there is nothing there that can grab me and keep my attention. Maybe the band are playing it safe not daring to really get out there or maybe they are just not managing to tick any of my boxes, it is hard to say which it is.
There is nothing there to complain about, it is all done in top notch style and skill. I just feel as though this is another good album that will only drown in the ever growing flow of good music. This year has been going in that direction all way through, many good albums that are just good and sort a nod and nothing more. I honestly don’t see where strange angel stand out from every other good melodic rock album I have heard this year, it is good to listen to but you don’t think of the songs when you have played through the album and you do not really look forward to playing through it again, of course it does not conjure up resistance either.
I do think the album starts well with the two best songs Alone I Cry and Shelter Me From the Storm but then it sort of ends there and the rest is just playing through with no real attention grabbers passing by. The two vocalist thing was something I learnt about when reading about the album while looking up the facts about it, I didn’t even think it could be two different vocalists as they sound very similar. I actually thought that David Mark Pearce was the singer and could not imagine that Edman was singing. I usually like very much what Edman has done but here he is just good but rather anonymous, Payne is also rather anonymous.
I think that if you like melodic rock music, there is a good probability that you will like this as well but it is not something that will draw anyone into the genre our anything that stand out like a beacon for the melodic rock music pulling everyone in their direction. It is well made, well performed melodic rock music but then there is really nothing else.
And I don’t really think that the ang3ls are that strange, other than the spelling and the drinking. A good album.
HHHHHHH
