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Frontiers Records [Release Date 14.6.13]
He may not be a household name, but Magnus Karlsson has been one of European hard rock’s go-to people for some time, assembling critically acclaimed projects like Starbreaker and Allen-Lande, writing prolifically, and for the past five years playing guitar for doyens of the power metal scene Primal Fear.
For his first album under his own name (though confusingly adopting the moniker current Swedish retro rockers), he has enlisted no less than nine different singers, mainly from past collaborations. Sometimes this can give an album a disjointed feel but on this case it is not at the expense of a cohesive set of songs.
Indeed it is interesting how the various guests adapt to his songwriting style- on our Time Has Come ex Malmsteen singer Mark Boals sounds like Bob Catley, whose last solo album Karlsson wrote, while I could have sworn the soaring vocals of the second track in, Higher, were those of TNT’s Tony Harnell, but in fact they are those of Primal Fear’s Ralf Scheepers. The former, who collaborated in Starbreaker, gives the ballad Stronger a typically smooth melodic feel, while other songs are in heavier territory and closer in feel to his present band such as Not My Saviour.
Magnus’ Malmsteen-esque guitar work is all over the album but never at the expense of the songs and his own voice loses nothing by comparison to his all-star guests on the three songs he sings, including Heading Out and Ready or Not, even though the latter’s keyboard riff sounds like a metal version of the old Blockbusters theme!
With an album that straddles the worlds of power metal and melodic rock with ease, Magnus Karlsson has come out of the shadows with an album to rival the best work he has produced. ****
Review by Andy Nathan
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