Band : Bad Habit
Album title : Above And Beyond
Label : AOR Heaven
Distributor : Rough Trade
Release date : 23/01/2009
Release : CD

In addition to the info comprised in the review of this Malmö based swedish band’s previous album [hear-say] (posted 22/12/2005) I can now tell you that this band debuted with the 1987 6-track mini-album Young And Innocent on the Swedish branch of major label CBS, and their 1989 full-length debut After Hours (which included a version of Boston’s “More Than A Feeling”) came through Virgin! At the beginning of the ‘90s – what with the upstart of Thrash Metal and Grunge – the band took some time off [individual members occupying themselves with other projects: drummer Jaime Salazar and singer Bax Fehling formed Bonehead; various members of the band toured as covers act Jetset Baby; guitarist/ keyboardist Hal Marabel (real name Johnston) producing Project Lee and joining Bai Bang for a while], and returned in 1995 with the Megarock released second full-length album Revolution (the debut with the band for new guitarist Sven Cirnski). It saw the band go for a more heavy type of AOR. Being torn about what musical direction to take tor their follow-up Adult Orientation, the band took 3 years to release that classic AOR album. The band then again split, to return in 2005. In between, Cirnski also recorded with Snake Charmer and Raise Cain, and contributed to Blakk Totem alongside Salazar…whom joined Progressive Rock act The Flower Kings and Power Metal band Timeless Miracle. Marabel meantime got together with Arena.

Now either the band had negociated for a one-album deal with Frontiers at the time of their [hear-say] album, or they’ve been dropped by the label. Anyway, Bad Habit is now on the roster of the second-best label in the genre, seen on a global level…so things ain’t even that bad for the band (they signed mid June, having sent out a 4-track demo at the beginning of that month)! For your introduction to their somewhat less heavy new album (when compared to [hear-say] that is, meaning there’s more melodic songs…say semi-ballads…on thís album), the band posted samples of six of the 13 songs off the album at myspace.com/badhabitvip…but there’s even one móre in the “music” section of their own website badhabitvip.com (ànd a good deal of video clips – 11 in total, one being for this album’s opening track “I Don’t Want You” – in the “video” section, plus a studio report from the album’s recordings, a 2005 “coffee break”, and producer Jonas Reingold working on the [hear-say] album!).

During the recordings (from mid August to mid October) the band also prepared the shoot of videos for album opener “I Don’t Want You” (as an example of the more melodic side of the band) and the album title track (definitely a more Rockin’ tune). At the font page of the band’s own website you have a link to view the first one, “II Don’t Want You”! Although no live dates are posted yet, the band doés ask you to vote to get them onto the Sweden Rock festival…so they will at least be doing sóme live promotion of the album. Whether fans will be able to see the band outside Sweden, remains to be seen!

90/100

Tony.