Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release year: 2008
Production: Tony Harnell & Magnus Karlsson
Album length: 52.43 min
Genre: AOR / Melodic Rock
Starbreaker are the band that pleasantly surprised fans of old-school melodic hard rock with their self-titled 2005 debut. What really lit the fuse was the lineup itself: Tony Harnell on vocals, Magnus Karlsson on guitar and John Macaluso on drums.
Expectations were high after that release, and they shot up even more once Harnell left his home band TNT, hoping the project might grow into a proper band committed to regular studio releases.
Once again, Starbreaker serve up a album with top-notch production. The guitar riffing is a notch more cranked up, and the massive wall of sound built by Karlsson’s riff work takes the lead, acting as the main dynamo for the aggression and the big, soaring atmosphere. As we’ve come to expect from Karlsson’s songwriting approach, every track is paired with keyboards, typically loaded with those trademark Karlsson arrangements.
Most of the songs are played at a mid-tempo and follow each other in the usual melancholic, melodic hard rock template. Harnell once again proves what a monumental singer he is, and the songs get a distinct stamp from his touch.
Still, you can feel that most of the material for the new album came from Magnus Karlsson. Given the sheer number of projects and bands this guitarist is involved in at the same time, this time around 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” no longer manages to surprise or offer any freshness.
“Love’s Dying Wish” loses out precisely because it strongly recalls, for example, “Escape into the Sun” by Tony O’Hora (The Sweet, ex-Praying Mantis), an album Karlsson wrote in its entirety. That drags Starbreaker down to the level of the already “chewed over”, which goes 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. On that front too, Starbreaker lose some of their spark: on the debut you could feel Macaluso’s witty touches, which broke up the usual melodic hard rock template, at every turn. 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 gloomier atmosphere, and the melancholic melodies are pushed so hard in the choruses that the album sometimes really overdoes the pathos. Interestingly, the songs are so similar to one another within the template that this time there’s not even any point singling out standout moments in terms of quality.
Going forward, it would be advisable for the whole quartet to focus more on writing the songs together, rather than leaving all the work to Karlsson alone. Stylistically, the album can be a really pleasant surprise for someone who doesn’t know Magnus Karlsson’s approach, but put it under an analytical microscope and creatively it feels too routine, superficial and tried-and-tested this time. Even though, at the margins (read: on a “first listen”, assuming you don’t know M. Karlsson’s arrangement formula!), the album as a whole delivers an excellent level of production and a high degree of melodic tightness within the songs.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 7.5 / 10
Track list:
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
Lineup:
Tony Harnell – vocals
Magnus Karlsson – guitar
Jonni Lightfoot – bass
John Macaluso – drums
