Tracks
1. Just As I Thought
2. Hypnotized
3. Written In Your Eyes
4. Dare To Love
5. Never would I
6. Heal Me
7. Cage of Broken Dreams
8. Tearing Me Down
9. For The Times We Share
10. You Got What It Takes
11. Modern Times

Band:
Pierre Wensberg - Lead Vocals
Johan Bergquist - Keyboards
Magnus Lindqvist - Guitars
Robert Garnold - Bass
Anton Roos - Drums

Discography:
When Kaleidoscopes Collide (2008)

Guests:

Info
Produced by Martin Kronlund at JM Studios

Released 27/5-2011
Reviewed 12/5-2011

Links:
elevener.com
myspace
aorheaven

Swedish AOR, can it be anything? Well of course it can, after all there is some AOR culture here in Sweden with some decent bands to brag about. Elevener is one of the newer bands from this nation and they are now releasing their second album following the debut in 2008. The difference though is that this time Elevener is a band for real, last time out they were a project of two friends and now they are a band for real. One thing they do have is a quite nice album cover with a great combination of colour, it does not covey much in terms of motive but it still looks rather nice and Symmetry in Motion is also a clever title and it sounds a bit ambitious as well, maybe a little atmospheric would be the guess from looking at the cover and the name.

My guess about the atmospheric side was in error as they are more towards the standard type of the genre with the melodic tunes, the keys, the clean production, the choruses and anthemic feel to some of the songs. The record of course has eleven tracks, these take almost 47 minutes to play through and I would say that the band does not really offer anything in terms of surprises as their music comply to the standard format of the genre.

The album starts with the track called Just as I Thought and that can actually be said to have crossed my mind as well when I first heard the album. It is a good track no doubt but at the same time it feels like the typical AOR-album opening track. I think the same, or thereabouts can be said about the rest of the tracks as well, the album feels like deja vu, it is a recollection of what I have heard before from many other bands, or the feeling is like that anyway.

I think the songs on this album are really good, they work well to listen to. I enjoyed the tracks to listen to but at the same time they do not convey the same emotion as the bands with more of their own identity do. I still do think that Elevener does perform well, everything about the album is spotless, the vocals, guitars, production, it all falls well into place, the problem for me though is this sensation of having heard it before.

I believe this to be something of a song writing issue, maybe the fact that they are really only working together as a band for the first time or maybe the tribute to the inspirators shine through more than the individuality of the band because that is the main and only problem for this band, they lack identity.

So in the end we have an album that is well made, it sounds great and everything but it does absolutely nothing for me as album regarded, I think it is good but I don’t enjoy it like I do with bands like Bad Habit or TNT or Million to namedrop a few recent good releases in the melodic rock genre and actually on the same label as well.

Therefore my judgement reads: a good album but it is one that has been done before and most of us have already heard it.

HHHHHHH

Label: AOR Heaven/GerMusica
Three similar bands: China/Big Life/Million
Rating: HHHHHHH
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm