{"id":40075,"date":"2014-04-28T08:51:55","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T13:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=40075"},"modified":"2014-04-28T11:36:31","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T16:36:31","slug":"alien-eternity-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/alien-eternity-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Alien | Eternity<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"ALIENYears before such hybrid genre-related terms as New Wave Of Swedish Sleaze Metal were coined, Scandinavia was a very fruitful land for a different genre to flourish. And no talking about black metal here \u2013 think the 1980s, think Treat, Da Vinci, Bad Habit, Baltimoore, 220 Volt\u2026 From the Scandi AOR-melodic rock acts of the era, Gothenburg-based Alien was undoubtedly one of the finest, their self-titled debut album now being a cult classic among the fans of the genre. Hence, the recent original line-up reunion and their subsequent live performances (on Firefest, Sweden Rock etc.) were received more than enthusiastically. This encouraged Alien to seal their return with a new album Eternity\u2026<\/em> or, if to express it more precisely, to take their listeners back to the \u201880s.<\/p>\n

Facts are that every music genre evolves and changes \u2013 AOR-melodic rock being no exception to the rule. But with Eternity<\/em>, Alien managed to turn back time \u2013 at least for a little while \u2013 making an album which could have been recorded as well thirty years ago to the same stellar effect. From the keyboard-driven opener \u201cIn Love We Trust\u201d to the soaring acoustic ballad \u201cIn Truth\u201d, it\u2019s never too far from an original Alien sound one knows \u2013 which one missed for far too long. A handful of infectious, polished melodies, a few catchy keyboard hooks, fine lead guitar work and vocal harmonies \u2013 who could ask for more\u2026? Rocking to the groovy keyboard-driven mid-tempos such as \u201cLove Will Lead Me Home\u201d or \u201cWhat Goes Up\u201d, walking down the memory lane with the nostalgic pomp rock piece \u201cSummer Of Love\u201d or shedding a tear of emotion when the soaring ballad \u201cI Believe\u201d explodes with its massive chorus\u2026 song by song, you\u2019ll find yourself lost in the band\u2019s vintage fusion of melodic keyboard hooks and guitar-laden rock back-beat and re-discover it\u2019s much more to this than just a nostalgic impulse. <\/p>\n

The Swedish group enters 2010s with the very classy and solid release both in terms of music performance and songwriting. Another thing is that many bands, genre and period in time irrelevant, tried to bring back the magic of their first album, while just a few succeeded. Sounding as if they rolled straight out of 1988, Alien is definitely one of these who did. Their new material Eternity is a melodic rock masterpiece; full of dynamic keyboard and guitar duels framed in hooky melodies, it leaves a listener with a simple choice of either loving it or hating it, depending on how deep AOR\u2019s engraved into one\u2019s heart. It deserves to be placed between Signal\u2019s 1989 Loud And Clear<\/em> and Survivor\u2019s 1984 Vital Signs<\/em> in the record collection of every self-respecting AOR fan. Much recommended.<\/p>\n

Genre: AOR, Melodic Rock, Pomp Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nJim Jidhed \u2013 vocals
\nTony Borg \u2013 guitars
\nJimmy Wandroph \u2013 keyboards
\nKen Sandin – bass
\nToby Tarrach – drums<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1.\tIn Love We Trust
\n2.\tUnbroken
\n3.\tLove Will Lead Me Home
\n4.\tI Believe
\n5.\tSummer Of Love
\n6.\tWhat Goes Up
\n7.\tI’m A Fighter
\n8.\tWildheart
\n9.\tLiar, Liar
\n10.\tLook At Us Now
\n11.\tBurning Heart
\n12.\tIn Truth<\/p>\n

Label: AOR Heaven<\/p>\n

Website:
\nalientheband.com<\/a>
\nfacebook.com\/alientheband<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Columnist — Years before such hybrid genre-related terms as New Wave Of Swedish Sleaze Metal were coined, Scandinavia was a very fruitful land for a different genre to flourish. And no […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[9212,8939,9075,2317,9213,2901,8940],"class_list":{"0":"post-40075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-alien","9":"tag-aor","10":"tag-aor-heaven","11":"tag-cd-review","12":"tag-eternity","13":"tag-melodic-rock","14":"tag-pomp-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}