Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: February 11, 2022
Production: degreed
Album length: 40:54 min
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 8.5/10
degreed (the band name is actually written with a lowercase “d”, at their own insistence) are back on the scene with their sixth studio album. Are you ready, as the title demands? It’s staggering, when you work your way through the barely 41 minutes of material on the new record, to realize how enormously these Swedes have grown as songwriters and producers in a relatively short span of ten-odd years. Their debut “Life, Love, Loss” came out in 2010, and the band has matured with every release. That trend continues with »Are You Ready«.
Even the predecessor »Lost Generation« was a near-perfect piece of work. Proof that degreed have become a well-known presence on the modern melodic rock and hard rock scene came with the 2020 standalone single »The World We Know«, which, among others, the British magazine Classic Rock picked as its track of the week on its website.
Vocalist Robin Eriksson put out a solo studio album last year under the alias Robin Red (RockLine review), which doesn’t skimp on quality either. In short, degreed are at the peak of their creative powers. At a sort of zenith. Compared to the previous record, the eleven tracks come across as a whole that’s more wound-up, noisier and faster, with the general feeling that it unleashes more snarling, high-octane distortion, punchier rock attitude and a higher dose of decibels. There’s not a single ballad on the new album – on the last one, »Lost Generation«, there were three. The band lines up one wrecking ball after another on »Are You Ready«, which is why the album feels sharper and bolder. The production is excellent. It’s alive, the guitar phrases crunch brilliantly and dominate the available space in the soundscape. A cannon-like, even granite-solid rhythm section stands in contrast to the massive wall of sound from the guitars, delivering a brilliant balance and penetrating depth, and the crown on top is Eriksson’s brilliant vocal performance, which grabs your attention throughout. The mix of musicality and strongly electrified phrasing, plus excellent guitar soloing in the ‘mid-eight’ passages, occasionally nods to their countrymen Treat in its musicality and in the way the moods unfold. It’s a package that can catch the ears of H.E.A.T. fans on one side and Eclipse devotees on the other (the track We Will Win), though degreed have managed to bring their own character and recognizable voice to it. There’s also a hint of inspiration from Def Leppard (the track Radio). Feed The Lie is a venomous, bristling, dark smasher, comparable to the sharpness of the likes of Pretty Maids.
The new album feels like degreed’s most mature work to date. That feeling is reinforced by the fact that the previous album »Lost Generation« was split into four separate themes, held together by a loose concept and colored ‘softer’ (loads of ballads). The ideas, the arranging, the added samples, the combining of elements that build atmosphere and the bombastic drama theater itself – contrasting keyboard ornaments in dialogue with the guitar phrasing, bombastic melodies harmonized in the choruses – all of it sounds more mature for the new degreed than ever before.
»Are You Ready« is a seriously polished album, and when you start it up with the opener, the electrified, adrenaline-charged assault Into The Fire, you know ten more extremely refined and well-rounded compositions follow, a brilliant fusion of ultra-musical catchiness and rock punch. So far, definitely the most convincing release of degreed’s career.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Into The Fire
2. Higher
3. Feed The Lie
4. Radio
5. Are You Ready
6. Burning
7. Falling Down
8. Lost In Paradise
9. Turn Back
10. We Will Win
11. Desire
Lineup:
Robin Eriksson – vocals
Mats Eriksson – guitar
Mikael Blanc – bass
Daniel Johansson – drums
