Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Adrenaline Rush
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2014
Length: 42:55
Rating: 2.5/5
Adrenaline Rush is a band whose roots go back to 2012, when renowned producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Erik Martensson (W.E.T., Eclipse) and singer Taye Wanning joined creative forces and started writing music together. Taye handled the lyrics, too. Things were going splendidly, and the prospect of making and releasing a proper album was appearing on the horizon.
So Martensson, who knows the whole Swedish metal and rock scene inside out, set about hunting for the right people to build the backbone of a new band, one that could bring the material to life, meaning onto concert stages. That’s how Adrenaline Rush were born, with Taye Wanning front and center as the singer and Stockholm as home base. All of this happened with the green light from Frontiers Records, of course. And of course Erik Martensson played an integral part in all of it. Without him this band surely wouldn’t exist.
By May 2014 the band was reasonably well drilled, so it could make its debut at the Frontiers Rock festival, which Frontiers Records, the label Adrenaline Rush are signed to, put on near Milan.
Adrtenaline Rush don’t bring any seismic shocks when it comes to musical creativity. They stick to tried-and-tested clichés from the old school of eighties Scandinavian hard rock bands like Treat, Dalton, 220 Volt, Renegade and, of course, Europe. Those bands learned from Rainbow and Whitesnake, while also using their natural knack for grabbingly catchy melodies to build songs, many of which became rock evergreens. Adrenaline Rush have more or less adopted all of this and thrown in a dash of current sleaze rock, which their countrymen Crazy Lixx and/or Hardcore Superstar put to good use in their own work. One example from the debut by Adrenalin Rush is the song Girls Gone Wild, where Motley Crue’s footprint is stamped all over it.
The songs hold up. There’s nothing to fault. Except for the generic feel. The chorus hooks are full of pomp that catches fire on the very first listen. One of the more successful moments of this kind of songwriting is captured in the mid-tempo When We’re Gone. The songs are often suffused with the typical pathos of Scandinavian melancholy, balanced out by cheeky party-time moments. It’s clear anyway that the name Martensson stands behind the compositions. A song like Want It All could easily have found a home on any of the W.E.T. albums.
The album has one flaw. It feels like a label trick, serving up a success story that’s been pre-packaged and proven in advance. The bait meant to hook devoted melodic rock fans is »little sweet lollipop« Taye Wanning. Taye’s voice sounds doll-like, even slightly shrill, which gives the vocals a cheeky shine, but unfortunately her performance also exposes an annoying speech impediment (a lisp). There are a whopping 12 tracks, and over time the album gets tiring fast because the lead motifs sound so similar from song to song. The question is whether this band will last. We’ll see right away whether the crew has real songwriters, or whether Erik Martensson will always have to step in to help with arranging and composing in the future. As said. The album feels artificial and forced, so recycling tried-and-tested ideas from 25 years ago in new packaging neither ignites nor convinces.
Lineup
Tave Wanning – vocals
Ludvig Turner – guitar, backing vocals
Alexander Hagman – guitar, backing vocals
Soufian Ma’Aoui – bass, backing vocals
Marcus Johansson – drums
Production
Erik Mårtensson
Track list
01. Black n’ Blue
02. Change
03. Generation Left Behind
04. Girls Gone Wild
05. When We’re Gone
06. Want it All
07. Too Young to Die
08. Oh Yeah!
09. No No No
10. Playin’ to Win
11. Hit You Like A Rock
