Have you missed some good old Scandi AOR? Well then you don’t have to look any future because The Magnificent will take care of that. This is a new project with Finnish producer/guitarist Torsti Spoof (Leverage) and Norwegian singer Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus) and they have recorded an awesome album filled with pure 80s Scandi AOR with big hooklines, outstanding arrangements and brilliant catchy choruses. Do I have to mention that the keyboards are all over this album and brilliant riffs throughout the whole album.
If you take a spoon of Brother Firetribe and Europe (Out Of This World) and mix it with touches of Treat, Alien, H.e.a.t, Fate and Skagarack, you get a magnificent sound. Cheated By Love could have been on the debut album of Alien with melodies running all over this song and the chorus get hold of you right away, stunning stuff. Are you up for some keyboard heaven then check out Memories that has pompish keyboards through this song in a perfect way and the chorus is nothing but brilliant, it has traces of a heavier Work Of Art.
Angel is a stunning ballad with a powerful chorus with strong background vocals, a strong candidate for best ballad of the year. Then there are a couple of songs that has similarities to Brother Firetribe such as Satin & Lace, Bullets and Smoke & Fire with a huge bombastic sound with tons of keyboards, fantastic riffs, catchy choruses and prime time arrangements. I hope there are some classy songs left for the next Brother Firetribe album.
The ultra catchy Love’s On The Line is pure magic with melodies all over the song and an AOR-chorus by numbers. Tired Of Dreaming is together with Bullet the songs of the album. This is pure AOR-heaven with a huge sound and the chorus is a killer, I think the guys in H.e.a.t would have been proud to have written this one.
It’s not strange that this album sounds so damn good with song writing contributions from Pekka Heino (Brother Firetribe), Tomppa Nikulainen (Brother Firetribe), Tuomas Herkimer (Leverage), Mats Haugen (Circus Maximus) and Kimmo Blom (Urban Tale). Michael Eriksen sings outstanding and sometimes he reminds of Jim Jidhed in places and that’s not a bad thing. The Magnificent has delivered an amazing AOR album with a top-notch production and not one single song fails from the frame.
