Album review : CARE OF NIGHT – Live At The Sweden Rock Festival

Frontiers Music [Release date: 28.03.25]

With three highly rated Melodic Rock albums under their belt, Sweden’s Care Of Night were a welcome act at their home country’s annual Rock Festival last year.

Along with others on Frontiers melodic rock roster, like Eclipse, Art Nation, Streetlight, Perfect Plan, Houston, the rebirth of well constructed AOR songs, fleshed out with melody, harmony, a bit of grit here and there, and big anthemic choruses, is something to be celebrated.

The setlist is chosen more or less equally across those three albums, four from the debut, Connected (2015) ; three from Love Equals War (2018) and four from 2023’s Reconnected.

We picked out ‘Melanie’ and ‘Tonight’ from last year’s Reconnected album as being something special, and – unsurprisingly – they are strongly featured on the live setlist.

‘Street Runner’ opens the gig alongside ‘Love Equals War’, the title track from their second album. Appropriate homages to Journey and Survivor, the progenitors of the genre.

Calle Schonberg’s breathless vocals add a note of urgency, getting an enthusiastic response from a noisy audience. But it’s the two Bergs, Ostrom on guitar and Viktor on keys who are the driving force, ensuring the music maintains momentum.

And the crowd just lap it up.

Like much of the rest of this live performance, tracks like the wonderful ‘Contact’ and ‘Your Perfection’ sound like forgotten hits beamed in from some AOR FM radio station from the past.

Some will argue that these sounds are rooted in nostalgia, but they have a transformative power that appeals to today’s audience as well as yesterday’s.

‘Stay With Me’ and ‘Cassandra’ (hear the ghost of Jimi Jamison) are packed with emotion. Real crowd pleasers, witness the response.

The first song the band wrote, ‘Heart Belongs’ closes the show. Easily recognised by an attentive crowd. A splendidly apposite end to an exhilarating live performance.

Impressive recorded sound quality too. ***1/2

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 24 March 2025

HARRI LARKIN Too Close To The Sun (Robot Distro)
SANDNESS Not Your Dog (Rockshots Records)
DOCTOR BLACK Drag Me Down (indie)
COHEED AND CAMBRIA Goodbye Sunshine (Virgin Music Group)
LEONI JANE KENNEDY Closer (indie)
SMALL TOWN POLITICS Red Lights (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 24 March 2025

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Singer Songwriter)

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