Age of Reflection
In the Heat of the Night

Well, their name isn’t an appropriate representation of the world we live in today, as it seems like a significant amount of people are completely without the ability to reflect. But the name is likely built from the acronym AOR and that is actually a rather clever thing considering that AOR is the genre of the band. Although they are not musically as clever as the choice of name, their music feels old, outdated and like something we have heard before many times. A musical shrug on the shoulder is the impression I leave this album with, as well as a sigh of relief for finally being able to put words about it in an html-file.

Have you heard an album in the AOR genre, any album? If you have, use that as a frame of reference and you know more or less how this sounds. We get the obligatory ballad, the catchy choruses and melodic songs, the keys and guitar lines, we have heard it all before many times. The tempo is rarely very high and the vocals are a tad lower pitch than some but this could be a collection of songs from just about any 80s melodic rock band. I don’t think the sound is very fresh or interesting either, I guess it comes as no surprise that this is another AOR band that offers music completely without surprises. And completely without own ideas.

Sure it sounds pretty good, songs are good and familiar, and the nostalgia card is played once again. Opening Borderline is good until you realise that it is an opening song you have already heard on several albums in recent months. I also like Evelyn and maybe one or two more songs but none of them really stand out. I think they sound more or less like any other band, they don’t really do anything to make you notice them and of the AOR releases from the same day I think this one is the least interesting. One reason is that they have a rather boring un impersonal vocalist, hade they stolen Lars from Work of Art, Jeff Scott Soto or another very competent vocalist they would probably have raised the quality of this album significantly.

Do you collect AOR? All AOR? If the answer to both questions is yes then by all means you should get the album. But if you are looking for the gems I would advice you to look at Pride of Lions, they are in the same style but much better and just recently released a new album. I never want to write bad things or be hard on musicians who does what they want to do and make the music they love but the problem is that someone should consume that music, and just a step back and a moment of reflection is advised. Had they done so and looked at it objectively they would have realised that their album sounds more or less like anything else, it is not bad but nothing sets it apart from the thousands of albums already released in this genre. There are already more than enough albums of the calibre that Age of Reflection has put together.

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