Label: AOR Heaven Records
Release date: May 28, 2021
Production: Thomas “Plec” Johansson
Album length: 44:49 min
Genre: Heavy Metal/Melodic Metal
Rating: 8.5/10
Proud are a Swedish band with an interesting backstory. The story starts deep in the eighties, when Proud got going in 1982, first under the name Burn, soon switching to Masquerada, before settling on Proud in 1984 and, you won’t believe this, putting out their one and only album, “Fire Breakes The Dawn”, on EMI Records, a label that also had Iron Maiden under its wing, among others. Proud were a five-piece back then, with two guitarists in the lineup, and the band’s kick-start was certainly fueled by the boom of classic metal in the wake of the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement. That’s exactly how the debut sounds, and when it came out in 1984 it badly missed the train, because in the background a new genre monster called thrash metal was already slowly knocking on the door. It wouldn’t be a surprise if someone declared “Fire Breaks The Dawn” the biggest “underground” heavy metal album ever released, even though it came out on EMI. Obscure, raw, unpolished production, but with an internalized feel from five talented guys for injecting musicality, plus angry, wicked guitar “gnawing” led by a deeply obscure vocal. A sound like off a demo tape. Cult stuff, for the biggest connoisseurs of old-school metal.
A solid 36 years later, the band returns to the scene with a second album, aptly titled “Second Act”. Proud have rebuilt themselves as a trio. Two original members from the eighties are on board: bassist Bobby Horvath and singer Anders Magnell, who has now taken over the guitars as well. “Second Act” offers little of what you can hear on the debut. The band has kept its strong sense of musicality, but the arrangements are drastically different. The album actually feels very AOR. That said, Proud definitely didn’t go to extremes with it. They’ve held on to a noisier production with emphasized guitar phrasing, which is joined by more concrete keyboard lines, including the sound of organs. A touch of neo-classicism also comes through more, the kind that tends to cling to Scandinavian acts, in hard rock and heavy metal alike. That element is perhaps the only thing that keeps some link to the eighties, while Anders’ vocals are far more mature and come across far more polished and defined. It’s worth pointing out that the production of the new album is light-years away from the obscure, yet more than promising, rumble of the debut.
Thanks to the production pedigree of Thomas Plec Johansson, the band has kept a heavier character. They haven’t reached for extremes in chasing bombast and pomp, and they’ve held on to a pinch of darkness that accompanies the energetic vibe of the songs and the album as a whole. Over the years, Proud have also started to “think slower”. All the songs are aimed at a mid-tempo pace. No ballads. But the musical payoff is downright fascinating. It grabs you instantly. Especially the chorus melodies, which will appeal first to fans of melodic rock and AOR, although you could call the album a kind of melodic metal hybrid. Unbelievably catchy and likable, though. The drama and theater are gripping and ever-present. In the song Hold On it hits its (probable) peak.
The tracks compete with each other over which one can pack in more gripping musicality. The build from verse to pre-chorus (optional) and chorus is cleverly crafted and keeps up a highly vibrant, moody theater. The guitar solos are definitely not that fast or furious, and there’s no rapid-fire note shooting either. Magnell, who justifies his vocal role on the album with an excellent performance, is first and foremost a singer. His soloing is very restrained. In the mid-eight passages he sometimes even prefers to modulate and slot in a completely new melody, rather than keeping the lead phrase and placing a solo over it. There are lots of neo-classical guitar flourishes and harmonies, backed up by keyboard lines. Swedish attention to detail and polish. A Scandinavian dedication without equal. Multiple guitar lines are layered on, and the album has an exceptionally full sound. It’s infectious. Very infectious. And at the same time constantly melancholic and musical. The songwriting approach, or the recipe for putting the songs together, stays very similar throughout, with no major deviations between tracks. What draws you in is their well-crafted structure, with a polished character and a pleasing interplay of ideas. With excellent, live-sounding production, it speaks with real swagger. There’s no dip in quality from song to song. The occasional contour of Hammond organ sound gives some tracks even a faint whiff of seventies hard rock (Born For Your Love), or right after it, Crying For The Night. Then there are moments that, with different production and arrangement levers, could have spoken in the manner of AOR music (Higher).
So with “Second Act”, 37 years on, Proud are a very different band from what they were in the eighties. But that’s what years of maturing bring. In the end, only quality counts, and there’s plenty of it here. The band is back, then. As for gigs, if there’s ever a chance of them, they’ll still have to grow into a five-piece now and then, or they definitely won’t be able to pull off the material from the studio debut live.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Sail Away
2. Broken Dreams
3. Magic
4. Born For Your Love
5. Crying In The Night
6. Dangerous
7. Higher
8. Hold On
9. I’m Ready
10. Fly Like An Eagle
Lineup:
Anders Magnell – vocals, guitar, backing vocals
Roberth Horvath – bass guitar, backing vocals
Mats Christiansson – drums, backing vocals
Guest musician:
Richard Larsson – keyboards
