{"id":44275,"date":"2014-08-16T15:12:30","date_gmt":"2014-08-16T20:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=44275"},"modified":"2014-08-16T15:13:05","modified_gmt":"2014-08-16T20:13:05","slug":"niva-incremental-iv-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/niva-incremental-iv-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"NIVA | Incremental IV<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"nivaPut your acid-washed denim jacket and your favorite worn-out Foreigner tee on \u2026 and don\u2019t forget to comb back your hair, as it\u2019s going to be a long but worthy trip thirty years back. The tour guides are, this time, the Swedish act NIVA, whose new album Incremental IV<\/em> is due to be released in late August via AOR Heaven. And no matter how down-to-earth and skeptical you are as a listener \u2013 with this particular release you could have been easily tricked into believing it\u2019s a long-forgotten unreleased material of some AOR act or other who sadly never made it in the \u201880s and was lost into the mists of time. If used by the label or the band\u2019s representatives, this kind of wicked promotional campaign might have really worked, as the majority of this album literally sets the \u201880s on a listener\u2019s home-built time machine. <\/p>\n

The first tracks on the album \u2013 \u201cDon\u2019t You Know,\u201d \u201cCrush,\u201d \u201cBetter Just Forgotten\u201d \u2013 pretty much define the album\u2019s content, delivering an expected portion of saccharine late \u201880s AOR\/melodic rock with all its richness of tinkly keyboards, loud guitars and wonderful vocal harmonies. If looking for an apt comparison, these songs can be safely put next to the Blue Tears or Hot Boy endeavors, all of them infectiously catchy and irresistibly melodic. \u201cMagnitude\u201d sounds slightly heavier, followed-up by \u201cThe Reason Why\u201d that may remind you of more contemporary, late \u201890s\/early \u201800s melodic rock style pursued by the likes of Crystal Blue or Arti Tisi.<\/p>\n

\u201cTravel Back In Time\u201d stands for two things; this kind of travel from the listener\u2019s point of view being halfway through at this very point and the track itself as an obligatory ballad. This well-crafted, majestic track with emotionally laden vocals is certain to leave you bleary-eyed and sobbing, either for the lost love you\u2019ve had or the glorious days when every rock band must have had at least a dozen ballads like this in their repertoire. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlay The Game\u201d has NIVA returning to keyboard-laden, dynamic pomp rock they\u2019re undoubtedly the best at, sterling guitar parts complemented by Tony Niva\u2019s incredibly high-pitched and melodic vocals. \u201cLost And Found\u201d continues in the same feisty yet catchy manner, with more mellow and saccharine mid-tempo \u201cOnly You\u201d in between. <\/p>\n

Next is a soaring, nostalgia-driven ballad \u201cAll By Myself\u201d preceding the album\u2019s grand finale \u201cComing Back To You.\u201d Enriched with some feisty guitar work, this one\u2019s perhaps the most contemporary-sounding track on the entire record, but still not much of an oddity music-wise.<\/p>\n

One thing that has to be said about NIVA\u2019s Incremental IV<\/em> is that the album is one of the best \u201880s records that were neither conceived nor released in the \u201880s. If the band members had possessed the physical ability to travel in time, they could have gone thirty years back to have their album competing with the classic Journey or Foreigner opuses. It\u2019s as certain as the fact that their music continues to please the contemporary fans of the genre, even if melodic rock itself is not a mainstream fad these days. So, if Tony Niva and his gang\u2019s previous endeavors are something you\u2019ll familiar with, you\u2019ll love this one as well. But if they aren\u2019t and you still have a soft spot for immaculate vocal harmonies, brilliant melodies and well-crafted instrumental parts, you should definitely check Incremental IV out. It\u2019s Scandi AOR\/Melodic Rock at its very best.<\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nTony Niva \u2013 Vocals
\nRoger Ljunggren \u2013 Guitars
\nMarcus Persson \u2013 Keyboards
\nJan Stal \u2013 Bass
\nBengan Andersson – Drums<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1.\tDon\u2019t You Know
\n2.\tCrush
\n3.\tBetter Just Forgotten
\n4.\tMagnitude
\n5.\tThe Reason Why
\n6.\tTravel Back In Time
\n7.\tPlay The Game
\n8.\tOnly You
\n9.\tLost And Found
\n10.\tAll By Myself
\n11.\tComing Back To You<\/p>\n

Label: AOR Heaven<\/p>\n

Website:
\nhttp:\/\/www.niva.se<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nivasweden<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Senior Columnist — Put your acid-washed denim jacket and your favorite worn-out Foreigner tee on \u2026 and don\u2019t forget to comb back your hair, as it\u2019s going to be a long […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":44276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[9075,2317,9851,2901,9850],"class_list":{"0":"post-44275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-aor-heaven","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-incremental-iv","11":"tag-melodic-rock","12":"tag-niva"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44275","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=44275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}