Year : 2018
Style : Melodic Hard Rock , AOR
Country: Sweden
Audio : 320 kbps + 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 the realization of an ambition that has been knocking about in Alyson Avenue keyboardist Niclass Olsson’s head for several years; to form a male-fronted AOR band. Sapphire Eyes already pleased us four years ago with its self-titled debut, and now are back with second opus "Breath Of Ages" to be released tomorrow in its physical CD edition including a bonus track.This is classic AOR in the vein of Alyson Avenue spiced up with a good shot of melodic rock. That edge is supplied by some terrific, high-energy guitar work, backed up by rock-solid performances on drums and bass, as well as by some passionate vocals. All this makes for a nice contrast to the beautiful, silky-smooth AOR-sounds beneath, thanks to Olsson’s ivory skills. Add in some harmonies, lots of grab-you-by-the heart lyrics and some delicious ear-pleasing melodies, and you have an impressive collection of tracks on your hands.This really is high quality AOR; full of shimmering keys, guitars that punch and soar in equal measure, strident rhythms and those oh so delicious, honey-soaked vocal verses / choruses. Original Alyson Avenue female singer Anette Olzon (again with the band after a time with Nightwish) appears on the ballad 'I Won't Leave With A Lie', one of the highlights. But Sapphire Eyes excel on the full-on melodic rockers such as 'My Desire', the hooky 'Never Again', the Scandi keyboard-filled 'Chasing Dreams', the anthemic 'Maybe' and the quite rocking 'Into Paradise'. Do you need class AOR? Check the soaring 'One In A Million' (love the chorus), the wonderful keyboards / synths of 'Endless Hope', ore the elegant midtempo 'Wherever You Go' with its clean guitars and soaring verses. This really is a wondrous Melodic Rock flavoured AOR album that I can’t recommend highly enough. It therefore needs to be added to your already long list of must have purchases this year.
Line-Up:
Thomas Bursell (Lead and Background Vocals)
Niclas Olsson (Keyboards, Background Vocals, Drums)
Tracklist:
01. My Desire
02. I Don't Wanna Be Alone
03. Endless Hope
04. Never Again
05. I Won't Leave with a Lie
06. Chasing Dreams
07. Wherever You Go
08. Maybe
09. Into Paradise
10. One in a Million
11. I Won't Leave with a Lie (Rock Version) (Bonus Track)
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
