Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: October 11, 2019
Production: Erik Mårtensson
Album length: 45.11 min
Genre: Melodic Rock
Rating: 8.0 / 10
Eclipse, the Swedish melodic rock storm, are an incredible institution. The flames in their hearts never die down. The fire of inspiration keeps driving the wagon relentlessly onward, with the exceptional Erik Mårtensson, who is not just the band’s superb vocalist but also its first and foremost visionary, multi-instrumentalist, main songwriter and producer. Over a relatively short stretch of whirlwind activity (and that goes especially for the two-year gaps between albums), the band keeps up a series of regular album releases with remarkable consistency, and on that basis Eclipse have gradually won over a solid crop of followers, and not just in Europe but well beyond. Considering that they belong to a style and draw inspiration from reheating a genre that is thoroughly archaic today, we can only talk about a very virtuous kind of revivalism, where you need a whole lot of luck for it to even catch fire.
Over the years Eclipse have won the world over with their vehemence and quality. Quality studio releases have carried them to stages in Japan, Australia and North America, with Europe always along for the ride, of course. They even opened shows for Scorpions and Aerosmith, and streams of their albums on digital platforms have passed several million, so their albums have also been shaking things up on the best-seller charts in some European countries. In Sweden, for instance, the previous album “Momentum” landed a spot among the twenty best-selling records.
Still, “Paradigm” is an album where Eclipse merely maintain the level of quality songwriting they’ve already reached, while not developing in any respect anymore. That’s why “Paradigm” can no longer surprise you in the slightest. The production is perfect again, with the guitars glaring right up front, which has always been a trademark of the band (especially since the album “Bleed”), and which has brought them close to elements of heavy metal more than once in their career. The new album doesn’t hide that in places either.
The musicality of the album is once again exceptional. The chorus refrains, as a rule, deliver the peaks in crafting contagious pomp theater. The crown for pomp inside the chorus melodies surely goes to Delirious. Definitely an album for devoted fans not just of Eclipse but of the wider circle of Scandinavian revival bands in general, who flirt with elements of glam metal and sleaze in their revivalism. When you run into a track like Blood Wants Blood, one of the sharper ones on the new album, associations with the songwriting approach of bands like CrashDiet are totally justified. We won’t beat around the bush here. Generally, though, the influence has to be sought elsewhere, while staying in Sweden. After all, ABBA is “to blame” for everything (I hope you take that remark as a big compliment to Eclipse). The album opens with the supremely bombastic, stormy Viva La Victoria, which with different production choices could make a nice starting point for some Sabaton song. A sharp, optimistically tuned track that absolutely “grabs you by the ears” right from the chorus. Interestingly, the following Mary Leigh doesn’t bring any particular departure in the shaping of its chorus, which is a mild minus for the album. All the more so because the two songs follow one another in the tracklist. The point above about the band’s stalled development is backed up by the rather clichéd (power-metal-ish, or mildly “Edguy-esque”) The Masquerade and Never Gonna Be Like You, with too many “sold” chorus tricks, but Eclipse absolutely redeem themselves with the rest of the album, which otherwise delivers a very high level of generally satisfying songwriting starting points, guaranteeing the required variety between the tracks. Guitarist Magnus Henriksson, the other half of the band’s striking tandem with Mårtensson, remains a big Gary Moore fan, slipping in a few harmonies of “Celtic”-sounding gusts, as in the somewhat darker Shelter Me and especially in the closing Take Me Home. United, with its acoustic intro and opening rhythm, fleetingly even recalls the Uriah Heep classic Lady In Black (only at the start), as the motif is very quickly filled by a distorted, jagged avalanche of electric guitar phrasing.
A new album that keeps up the creative and quality level of its predecessor “Momentum”. It is in effect a continuation of the band’s very bold and successful path, which with its presence, in the manner of modern production moves of course, is an important factor in keeping alive the memory of the archaic genres of the eighties. In short. If you’re sworn to absolutely dominant top-notch musicality that grabs you on first listen, then be sure to check out Eclipse as soon as possible, because their fans have had the new album “Paradigm” at home for ages already, and the new Eclipse disc has surely gotten stuck in their players.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Viva La Victoria
2. Mary Leigh
3. Blood Wants Blood
4. Shelter Me
5. United
6. Delirious
7. When The Winter Ends
8. .38 Or .44
9. Never Gonna Be Like You
10. The Masquerade
11. Take Me Home
Lineup:
Erik Mårtensson – vocals, guitar
Magnus Henriksson – guitar
Magnus Ulfstedt – bass
Philip Crusner – drums
