Album review: STATE OF SALAZAR – All The Way

Frontiers Records [Release date 25.08.14]

“All The Way” is the debut album from Swedish band State Of Salazar and the review could be condensed to state “yet another Scandinavian rock band releases yet another superbly produced slice of genuine 1980’s prime time AOR”….

Five students from the Malmö academy of music decided to form a band in 2010 to play rock music for big arena and so State Of Salazar was founded. The band consists of founder, main songwriter and vocalist Marcus Nygren together with guitarist Johan Thuresson, bassist Johannes Hansson, drummer Kristian Brun and Stefan Mårtenson on the keyboards.

The PR literature describes “training montage” music as being one of their biggest influences and why they stand out from other bands of their ilk. I’m sorry but what the frak is training montage music…maybe elevator music…

To my ears the songs fall into one of two categories, namely Toto songs (I Believe In You, Field of Dreams…) and wimpy ballads (Love of My Life, Let Me Love…). The only one that sounds a little different is title track “All The Way” with its Fish era Marillion keyboards.

State of Salazar do however need to distance themselves from that “Toto sound” that they use so frequently throughout this album. I’m sure they have the talent to do this so let’s see what their next release brings.

“All The Way” shows a lot of potential for the future and this is definitely recommended for all the Toto fans who miss the band’s 1980’s output…this has been getting rave reviews but personally it leaves me a bit cold though… ***

Review by Phil Berisford

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REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

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