Year : 2012
Style : Melodic Hard Rock , AOR
Country: Sweden
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 163 mb
Bio:
Sapphire Eyes is AOR band of songwriter and keyboard player Niclas Olsson, well known for his female fronted Melodic Rock band Alyson Avenue and lead singer Thomas Bursell. Back in 2004 the two Swedish musicians already worked together in the Melodic Hard Rock band Second Heat. For several years already Niclas had the idea for an AOR band with a male vocalist, it originally started when Alyson Avenue parted ways with vocalist Anette Olzon in 2006. But due to other projects, including the work on Alyson Avenue's comeback album "Changes" with their new vocalist Arabella Vitanc, released in the spring of 2011 through Avenue Of Allies, the work on the male fronted AOR album was put on hold.Over the years Niclas has written a lot of songs that didn't seem to be the right choice for Alyson Avenue, so he kept them up his sleeve until he was working on a suitable recording project.Sapphire Eyes is exactly the album Niclas was waiting for to dig out 10 AOR jewels from his song vault and to record them with a line-up of musical friends. Niclas and Thomas, who recorded the vocals for seven album tracks, are joined by two other male Swedish singers, Mikael Erlandsson (Last Autumn's Dream, Salute) took over the lead vocals on two songs and Mike Andersson (Cloudscape) handles the vocal duties on one tune. The female vocal touch is added by the two Alyson Avenue front ladies, past and present, with Anette Olzon and Arabella Vitanc recording backing vocals for two songs each.Guitar contributions on Sapphire Eyes come from Sven Larsson (Street Talk, Lionville), Rik Priem (Frozen Rain), Emil Knabe and part-time Alyson Avenue musician Christopher Dahlmann. With Mikey K Nilsson (Nasty Idols) on guitars and Göran Forssén on bass, two more current Alyson Avenue members followed the call to be part of Sapphire Eyes. The recording line-up is completed by bassists Thomas Löyskä, another Alyson Avenue alumni and Mats Stĺhl as well as Francesco Jovino (U.D.O., Hardline) on drums.The big sound of Sapphire Eyes has "Pure Classy Scandinavian AOR" written all over it. The songs are highly melodic with hooklines catchy as hell, the musicianship is of the highest order and the mix handled by Anders "Theo" Theander (Cloudscape, Urban Tale) finds the right balance between top notch vocal performances, guitar power, keyboard heaven and a solid rhythm back bone.
Album:
Sapphire Eyes is a new project from Alyson Avenue keyboard player Niclas Olsson and singer Thomas Bursell, with whom he worked with in Sweden's Second Heat. The self-titled debut fits squarely in the AOR melodic rock category, sounding much like Alyson Avenue but with male lead vocals.Olsson and Bursell are helped out by some other melodic rock heavyweights. On lead vocals, Bursell shares the mic with Mikael Erlandsson (Last Autumn's Dream, Salute) and Mike Andersson (Cloudscape). On backing vocals Sapphire Eyes has former Alyson Avenue singer Anette Olzon, now with Nightwish, and current singer Arabella Vitanc. The duo enlists several experienced players for some impressive guitar licks including Sven Larsson (Street Talk, Lionville) and Rik Priem (Frozen Rain).This self-titled debut delivers the goods. The songs straddle the line of wistful AOR and more melodic hard rock with strong melodies and vocal harmonies, big hooks in lyrics and arrangements and groovy guitar solos. Sapphire Eyes may even be heavier than Olsson's Alyson Avenue, but most every song has that AOR arena anthem feel. The highlight could be the rock ballad Can't Find the Words, with Mikael Erlandsson at most raspy and passionate best. Neither surprising or novel, this debut is solid and entertaining material, and exactly what you would expect from Olsson and Bursell (except the crappy album art work). Recommended.
Line Up:
Thomas Bursell - lead and backing vocals
Niclas Olsson - keyboards, backing vocals, drums on track 3
Mikael Erlandsson lead vocals on tracks 1, 6
Mike Andersson lead vocals on track 8
Anette Olzon special lead vocals on track 4, backing vocals on track 10
Arabella Vitanc background vocals on tracks 3, 9
Emil Knabe guitars on tracks 1, 9
Sven Larsson guitars on tracks 3, 5
Mikey K Nilsson guitars on tracks 2, 6, 7, 10, additional guitars on track 8
Rik Priem guitars on track 4, intro solo on track 2
Christofer Dahlman guitars on track 8
Thomas Loyska bass on tracks 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, clean guitars on tracks 2, 10
GAPran "G" Forssen bass on tracks 3, 5, 7, 9
Mats Stahl bass on track 6
Fransesco Jovino drums on all tracks except track 3
Anders "Theo" Theander Loops, percussion and FX
Tracklist:
01. You're My Wings
02. I Want You to See Me
03. Only Feel Love
04. This Love This Time
05. Change of Heart
06. Can't Find the Words
07. When Love Comes Alive
08. A Man the World Can Do Without
09. Someone Like You
10. Lay Down in My Arms
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
