Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Niva
Label: AOR Heaven Records
Release: 2014
Running time: 39:16
Rating: 3.5/5
After the golden years totally failed to pan out the way they should have, things have finally brightened up for Tony Niva, one of the most talented and overlooked singers in the Scandinavian take on melodic rock and AOR. Niva, who got their start back in the mid-eighties, rising from the ashes of the band Axia in Skövde, didn’t release their debut »No Capitulation« until 1994, and only for the Japanese market at that, and the following year the band fell apart. Until 2011 nothing much happened with Niva, apart from Tony singing on the Lion’s Share album »Entrance« in 2001. This top-notch vocalist, who before forming Niva had sung for a bunch of Swedish melodic rock bands of the eighties, including Zanity, Vanessa, Swedish Erotica, Malibu Band and Tracy Goes Crazy, finally teamed up in 2011 with two buddies, guitarist Roger Ljunggren and keyboardist Marcus Persson, and sent three demo tracks out to labels as a test, just to see whether there was still any interest in AOR music out there. Once again, only Japan bit, and Niva put out their second album »Gold From The Future« for the Japanese market only, again. But Tony never lost faith while pushing the band’s new record, and it finally paid off. The album got a European and American release too, and European melodic rock fans in particular gave it a great reception.
That threw the doors wide open at the German label AOR Heaven Records, where Niva’s third studio album »Magnitude« came out last year. It confirmed that Niva remain a byword for quality, and Tony and the gang got wings and a fresh burst of creative energy, so just a year later the fourth studio album, »Incremental IV«, was born.
In terms of expression, it doesn’t actually bring much new to the table compared to its predecessor, released only a year earlier. Tony Niva, the band’s main songwriter, still has an exceptional feel for squeezing the maximum melodic payoff out of a song, as well as for creating a great dynamic flow between verse and ultra-catchy chorus, one that wins you over instantly on first listen. »Incremental IV« is a textbook example of the musical brilliance of songwriting that the Scandinavian approach to melodic rock and AOR, with its (almost proverbial) perfectionism, can deliver. It’s an optimistic album. From the wake-up-call opener Don’t You Know, through the excellent mid-album pair Play the Game and the similarly built Lost And Found right after it, all the way to the dramatic closer Coming Back to You, which leans harder on the riffs. The consistency doesn’t let up. There are no dips in quality from track to track. Only the ballad Travel Back In Time comes off as a bit naive and predictable, but otherwise the album once again wisely embraces the predictability of AOR clichés, craftily repackaging them and serving them up to the masses in an even more enjoyable form. There are moments that strongly recall the typical songwriting formulas of eighties AOR. Only You is one example, where the riffs sort of tuck themselves away in the production and the synth blanket, straight out of the eighties sound playbook, »shoves« its way into an equal position alongside them. The band again craftily harmonizes the choruses with extra backing vocals, which of course delivers an enviable dose of pomp and bombast in the songs, with a mood-boosting kick in the chorus melodies.
Compared to the previous album, Niva keep sailing through proven waters on the new one, waters they know will meet with a warm welcome from melodic rock fans. That much is certain. »Incremental IV« isn’t an artistic step up from its predecessor. Instead, it’s Tony Niva cementing his status as one of the finest songwriters in the modern world of melodic rock and Scandinavian-flavored AOR. The years of perseverance and defiance finally paid off for Tony and the gang. Given the very short gap between the band’s last two albums, you can almost bet that ideas for a fifth one are already slowly piling up. There are plenty of ideas that have been gathering in the closet over the years, just waiting to be dusted off and breathed into life on record! Now Niva’s time has finally come, so they’ll surely be hammering away at the iron for as long as it stays red-hot.
Lineup
Tony Niva – vocals
Roger Ljunggren – guitar
Marcus Persson – keyboards
Jan Stal – bass
Bengan Andersson – drums
Production
Marcus Persson & Niva
Tracklist
1. Don’t You Know
2. Crush
3. Better Just Forgotten
4. Magnitude
5. The Reason Why
6. Travel Back In Time
7. Play The Game
8. Only You
9. Lost And Found
10. All By Myself
11. Coming Back To You
