by Derric Miller
— Managing Editor —
How a band—OK this isn’t a band in the true essence of the word (yet)—can go over 10 years and STILL come up with the best work they’ve ever created is beyond explanation, but that’s exactly what Tony Harnell and Magnus Karlsson argue on their third Starbreaker release, Dysphoria.
Any sort of Hard Rock/Metal fans know both of these gents, Harnell as the man with the golden vocal chords who made his name fronting the American/Norwegian band TNT and guitarist Karlsson as a songwriter extraordinaire and producer who has spent time in Allen/Lande and still writes and records with Primal Fear. Dysphoria is an amalgam of all of their experiences and echoes of their other bands do color the music, but this is something new … and maybe even better.
“Pure Evil” opens Hell’s gates on Dysphoria and to call it unexpected is watering things down. It’s a ripper of a track, the fastest thing they’ve recorded, and Harnell snarls the opening verse before falling into his uber-melodic prowess on the chorus. Karlsson’s leads are one thing to gawk at, but the solo here ranks him up there with the best Metal guitarists around. (Like he wasn’t already considered such?)
The first track is just a cold-water shower, a smack in the face saying “WE’RE BACK!!” and then you glide into “Wild Butterflies,” a much more expected journey. It’s moody, somehow both foreboding and uplifting. Harnell brings things vocally back down to earth and the chorus is one of the catchiest on Dysphoria. “She was fire and I was wind,” sings Harnell, telling you all you need to know … the flame either engorges everything from being fed, or, their love is snuffed out.
The title track features keys before blazing into razored riffs and again, some darkness. It’s called Dysphoria for a reason, after all. This actually sounds personal, when Harnell sneers the lines, “All the demons all the lies, all the devils in disguise … all the anger in your eyes.” They picked the perfect song to represent the album, since it has everything aforementioned—searing solos, off-the-charts vocals, a mixture of anger and bleakness, and expert songwriting.
Somewhat surprisingly, Harnell noted the song “My Heart Belongs to You” wasn’t a song he had as much to do with. It was a Karlsson composition, and it sounds almost exactly like an older TNT track, like something off of Intuition. It’s a breather when one is needed so you don’t need to dissect emotion, or the storyline, and bang your fool head off but instead just enjoy the hit-making tendencies of this hyper-skilled songwriting duo.
Some other highlights include “How Many More Goodbyes” and the intensely delivered “Bright Star Blind Me,” complete with those soaring vocals. It all ends with a cover of Judas Priest’s “Starbreaker,” also where the band took their name from. You know since Rob Halford was one of Harnell’s biggest influences, this had to be a rough one to record because who could do it justice? Harnell, that’s who, and you can hear it on Dysphoria.
It’s a bit too early in the year to talk about “The Year’s Best,” but the overlap of this album’s pull is hard to argue against. It’ll get Power Metal fans pumped, Hard Rock fans screaming along, and globally, the reach should be all over Europe, the U.S., Japan and South America, for a start. Starbreaker’s Dysphoria shouldn’t be this good after such a long stretch between studio releases, proving once again, you don’t know what you don’t know … until you do.
Genre: Hard Rock/Metal
Band:
Tony Harnell – vocals
Magnus Karlsson – guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
Jonni Lightfoot – bass
Anders Köllerfors – drums
Tracklisting:
1. Pure Evil
2. Wild Butterflies
3. Last December
4. How Many More Goodbyes
5. Beautiful One
6 Dysphoria
7. My Heart Belongs to You
8. Fire Away
9. Bright Star Blind Me
10. Starbreaker
Label: Frontiers Records
Online:
https://www.facebook.com/starbreakerofficial/
Hardrock Haven rating: 
(9.3 / 10)
