| CD REVIEW Elevener |
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Band : Elevener This Melodic Rock/ AOR project (can one really speak of a "band" when only two people are concerned) was started in 2005 by lifelong friends Johan Bergquist and Andreas Brodén, who had played together in numerous bands during the mid and late '80s and then moved on to pursue new musical adventures. Bergquist, who is not only a gifted singer but also an accomplished keyboard and bass player, developed his love for Prog Rock during the '90s, starting off by being the lead singer/ keyboardist for Swedish act Scenario for five years. As a keyboardist, he appeared on the 2002 Hammerfall album Crimson Thunder. That same year he also participated to Hammerfall guitarist Stefan Elmgren's Full Strike, and joined Swedish Metal/ Hard Rock act M.ill.ion (who have since released Kingsize in 2004, and just recently added Thrill Of The Chase to their discography) as their permanent keyboardist. During the '90s drummer Brodén travelled to the US and returned as a slick Soul and Funk guitarist, and continued to earn his stripes doing studio sessions and playing clubs in Stockholm. At the begining of the new millenium, the two found each other again, and found out that their musical tastes had come full circle to the Melodic Rock and AOR they had grown up with. Every now and then, they would get together (they live some 470 kms from each other, the one in Stockholm, the other in Göteberg) to compose new songs in that genre, making music sounding as if the '90s never happened at all! Then, in 2005, they decided to make things more serious, and started up the Elevener project with Bergquist singing, and playing all bass and keyboards, and Brodén playing both guitars and drums. Eventually, they finished their recording the 11 songs sangs which were to become the project's debut album, and soon after signed a deal for the release of the album by the same company that had released the last M.ill.ion album. The material now, is simply astonishingly good. As mentioned on the band's MySpace page, the influences were the likes of FM, Magnum, Journey, Survivor, Saga, Yes, Airplay, and Toto, and the boys sound like a perfect blend of all that! Bergquist is a truly great singer, and thanks to several harmonic backings (done by himself, possibly) and the keyboard-driven Hard Rock remeniscences to the aforementioned bands are not far away! In fact, if you're a fan of either of those, you can simply buy the album without any doubt of having done a miss-buy! If you need some reasuring before actually buying, check out the three songs the guys posted at myspace.com/eleveneragain. I'm sure a short visit will strengthen my recommendation! Personally, I've grown fonder and fonder of these guys with every listening session I gave the album (and since I've had the promo copy since halfway June, I've been able to give the CD quite a few spins indeed). So fond indeed that, since my editor-in-chief confiscates all Melodic Rock releases for his own collection, I'm strongly considering buying a regular version of the album once it becomes available in the record stores (can't be talking about an essencial AOR/ Melodic Rock album without backing up the talk with some serious action, now can we?). 98/100 Tony. |