Artist: Starbreaker
Label: Frontiers Records
Released: 2008
Length: 52.43
Rating: 2.5/5
Starbreaker are a band that pleasantly surprised fans of old-school melodic hard rock with their self-titled debut in 2005. What really lit the fuse was the combination of players in the band: Tony Harnell on vocals, Magnus Karlsson on guitar and John Macaluso on drums.
Expectations were high after that release, and they only grew once Harnell left his home band TNT, hoping the project might grow into a band committed to regular studio releases.
This time around, too, Starbreaker deliver an album that’s superbly produced. The guitar riffing is a notch more cranked up, and the massive wall of sound created by Karlsson’s riff work takes center stage and is the main dynamo injecting aggression and a big atmosphere. As we’ve come to expect from Karlsson’s approach to songwriting, all the tracks are blended with keyboards that are typically loaded with his trademark arrangements.
Most of the songs are played at a mid-tempo and follow one another in the typical melancholic, melodic hard rock template. Harnell once again proves what a towering singer he is, and the songs get a distinctive stamp from his touch.
Still, you can tell that most of the material on the new album came from Magnus Karlsson. Given the numerous projects and bands this guitarist is involved in at the same time, that hurts “Love’s Dying Wish” more than it helps, because Karlsson’s songwriting approach is getting far too predictable and routine. As a result, “Love’s Dying Wish” can no longer surprise you or offer any freshness.
“Love’s Dying Wish” loses out precisely because it strongly recalls, say, the album “Escape into the Sun” by Tony O’Hora (The Sweet, ex-Praying Mantis), which Karlsson wrote entirely for him. That drags Starbreaker down to the level of the already “chewed over”, which runs against the goal of building on the otherwise excellent debut “Starbreaker”. Especially when you’ve got a drummer as versatile as John Macaluso in the band. Here too Starbreaker lose their spark, since Macaluso’s witty touches, which broke up the otherwise standard melodic hard rock template, were there at every step on the debut. This time John’s work is far more boxed in and just goes along with keeping the songs “compact”.
The new album boasts a much darker atmosphere, and the melancholic melodies are so heavily favored in the choruses that the album actually overdoes the pathos at times. Interestingly, the songs fit the template and sound so much like one another that this time there’s no point singling out standout moments in terms of quality.
Going forward, it would be advisable for the whole quartet to focus more on putting the songs together instead of leaving all the work to Karlsson alone. Stylistically, the album can really be a big, pleasant surprise for someone who doesn’t know Magnus Karlsson’s approach, but put it under an analytical microscope and creatively it comes across as too routine, superficial and tried-and-tested this time. Even though, in a marginal sense (read: on a “first listen” and assuming you don’t know M. Karlsson’s arranging principles!), the album as a whole achieves an excellent level of production and high melodic compactness within the songs.
Lineup
Tony Harnell – vocals
Magnus Karlsson – guitar
Jonni Lightfoot – bass
John Macaluso – drums
Production
Tony Harnell & Magnus Karlsson
Tracklist
1. End Of Alone
2. Evaporate
3. Love’s Dying Wish
4. Unknown Superstar
5. Hide
6. Building A Wall
7. Beautiful Disaster
8. Live Your Life
9. Hello, Are You Listening?
10. Changes Me
11. The Day Belongs To Us
12. This Close
