Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Treat
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2010
Length: 55:39
Rating: 5/5
If any record released this year gives us hope that melodic hard rock will ever make a comeback, it’s the new album “Coup De Grace” by Swedish veterans and scene returnees Treat. These guys hadn’t been on the rock map since 1992. Well, being away from the scene didn’t sour their feel for music one bit. With “Coup De Grace”, Treat remain first-rate forgers of the finest hard rock on European soil. Their countrymen and eighties rivals Europe, used to fame and commercial success, changed their style in the new era, which turned out to be a double-edged sword. Treat, who stayed completely unbothered by all that, went and made a proper, honest-to-goodness hard rock album with a modern 2010 sound, something the new Europe can only dream about today. The songwriting style is the same as in the eighties; the production, well, isn’t. It’s lively, with zero ironing out. Think of the latest albums by Swiss band Gotthard and things get a lot clearer. Traces of similarity between the two bands can occasionally be found in the approach to songwriting, too. Add Andreas’s recent collaborations with Gotthard, and this occasional sonic and stylistic resemblance isn’t so surprising anymore (even in the only ballad, an excellent one at that, A Life To Die For).
14 tracks, one of them an intro. So 13 proper songs. You’d be hard pressed, if you can find one at all, to spot a miss among them. Nope. “Coup De Grace” works at full power from the first second to the last. The long break brought a ton of ideas to the surface. They were used and combined with sly finesse. Everything is laid out in a perfect balance from song to song, which leads to the undeniable fact that this is the best hard rock 2010 has to offer. I’m talking about hard rock with a genuine bond to the time when it had only just crawled out of the cradle (the eighties).
Not that Treat never used Hammond sounds in the past (the album “Dreamhunter”), but in 2010 they lean on it more than ever. Picture a sturdy Gotthard digging deep into a hard rock groove led by energetic, lively guitar riffs. The War Is Over takes you straight there. We’ve got that familiar, positive-minded spirit the band has always been known for, carried over into the new era. The middle sections are spiced up beautifully with fantastic solos. What matters most, though, are the commanding chorus hooks that pull the best out of everything AOR rock has figured out. The richly dressed, atmospherically beefed-up vocal lines of those choruses, with their layered harmonies, pour oil on the fire of every listener’s irreversible intoxication with melodic perfection in hard rock. Swedish perfectionism, what can you do!
Treat don’t let up. All In keeps the momentum going with the under-the-skin contagious, venomous melodies of its chorus. The songs come with a clearly recognizable, ripping bass line that stamps its mark on the cosmetics of Treat’s erotic shimmer and salty edge in the new times. Papertiger or Roar next (the latter was born to be a single)? Take your pick. Every chorus is catchier than the last. This is an album you won’t get tired of any time soon, and it proves that Treat are like good old wine. “Coup De Grace” stands shoulder to shoulder with Treat’s glory days of the eighties, led by “Organized Crime” (1989) or “Dreamhunter” (1989). The bass line in Tangled Up is especially deep and ripping. In the verse of that song, Treat achieve a stunning atmospheric contrast between the tearing bass and crystal-clear vocals. Skies Of Mongolia boasts one of the most beautiful and dramatic choruses on the album. Breathtaking melodic perfection. Heaven Can Wait follows with a mildly Gotthard-ish riff. The album doesn’t buckle. The second half and the closing stretch keep up the same exceptional pomp and dynamics, thanks to remarkable variety paired with compact polish. In the intense closing stretch, it’s worth singling out We Own The Night, rounded off in the manner of Leppard’s “Hysteria” era, which already makes the fairer sex think of original sin from a mile away. Girls, watch out! Breathless drives the nail home. If I dig into the lyrics, it’s not hard to figure out they were written on the back of the feeling of a lived-through orgasm. So why hold back? Love is the part of life that drives us and keeps us on our feet. And Treat, more mature than ever, know that damn well. Masters from whom plenty of people can still learn today.
“Coup De Grace” belongs on the shortlist of candidates for album of 2010 in melodic hard rock. It has it all. The recognizable Treat charisma, firing on all cylinders. A striking vividness in the chosen compositions, a lively and dynamic production, and on top of that, it ideally showcases and capitalizes on the band’s innate knack for creating flammably seductive hard rock crushers with atmospheric peaks in melodically polished choruses, which practically compete over which one will grab your attention first. No highlights? Or rather, all of them. Every song is a highlight. A flawless album.
Line-up
Robert Ernlund – vocals
Anders “Gary” Wikström – guitar, backing vocals
Patrick Appelgren – keyboards, backing vocals
Nalle Pahlsson – bass guitar, backing vocals
Jamie Borger – drums, backing vocals
Production
Anders “Gary” Wikström & Patrick Appelgren
Track list
1. Prelude – Coup de Grace(2:30)
2. The War Is Over (4:02)
3. All In (4:16)
4. Paper Tiger (4:29)
5. Roar (4:30)
6. A Life To Die For (4:24)
7. Tangled Up (4:10)
8. Skies of Mongolia (3:54)
9. Heaven Can Wait (4:12)
10. I’m Not Runnin’ (3:29)
11. No Way Without You (4:12)
12. We Own The Night (4:37)
13. All For Love (3:51)
14. Breathless (4:25)
