AOR

Label: AOR Heaven RecordsRelease date: October 31, 2020Production: Eric ModinAlbum length: 47.00 minGenre: Melodic Rock/AORRating: 8.5/10 If anyone can pull it off, it's the Swedes. Musically, nothing's standing in their way. That…

Label: Frontiers Music Srl.Release date: 9. 10. 2020Production: Jim PeterikAlbum length: 57.07 minGenre: AORRating: 9.5/10 Pride Of Lions is the musical project of Jim Peterik, the brilliant multi-instrumentalist, composer and…

Label: Frontiers Music Srl.Release date: 9. 10. 2020Production: Adam StewartAlbum length: 50.48 minGenre: Melodic Rock / AORRating: 7.0/10 The AOR and melodic rock revival is still kicking, and it doesn't come exclusively from the…

Label: Escape MusicRelease date: 9/18/2020Production: Brian AnthonyAlbum length: 48.28 minGenre: AOR/Hard RockRating: 8.0/10 Among AOR fans, Steve Overland is pretty much a sacred vocal icon. I don't know how many people in Slovenia…

Label: Frontiers Music Srl.Release date: September 4, 2020Production: Perfect PlanAlbum length: 55.19 minGenre: AORRating: 9.0/10 One thing's clear: AOR isn't going anywhere. It's an archaic genre that's been shoved underground and…

"Just one day after the release of the album “II”, the first day of the annual Frontiers Rock festival went down in Trezzo Sull' Adda, near Milan in Lombardy, and the first day's lineup also included Fortune, who were given 50 minutes to…

"An album without a single dip in quality and a love letter to the golden age of AOR. Catchy, and even in 2020 still tickling in all the right places."

"Beyond a dreadful cover that's unworthy of the high musical quality embodied by the otherwise excellent 'The Reality of Miralces,' Lionheart have hit their mark on every count."

"“Lions” is a new musical manifesto of exactly what the Tokyo Motor Fist debut put on the table. It brings no change, but it is once again a seriously bold and fun collision of the musical cross-section of Danger Danger and Trixter, with…

"“26 East: Volume 1” is a revelation for fans of classic Styx, and it adds yet another phenomenal solo studio album to DeYoung's collection of auteur perfectionism. It's bursting with drama-theater flair and pompous melodies, brilliant…

"With 'New World – New Eyes,' House Of Lords once again make their fans happy with a full-blooded record, and the lovers of this genre too, a genre that's pretty archaic in a lot of ways these days."

"With »V«, Grand Design remain the ultimate "party time" band. Fans of that radio-friendly 80s rock sound will gladly give this album their attention despite the constant flirting with the look and work of Def Leppard, and it should go down…

"Synchronized is another top-notch chapter from this long-running British AOR outfit. Fans of the British take on the genre will be thrilled, and for the revivalists (the younger crop of melodic rock bands) it'll once again serve as a handy…

"Let's wait for the new FM first, but I can already say with a straight face that »Ignition«, Newman's twelfth album in a row and, by the way, one of the best of their career, ranks among the top releases of the year in that archaic genre…

""Master Of Illusion" draws inspiration from the time-honored staples of AOR, hard rock and even glam metal, and the result is Ward's vision of melodic rock, which is also seriously sharp on the production side and satisfyingly…

" Experience, know-how, routine, seasoning, and a long twelve-year stretch of gathering solid songwriting ideas and solutions. All of it has added up once again in just the right place."

"The album's pile-up of radio hits (from the golden age of AOR) is once again seriously huge, just like the outrageous bombastic hunger The Night Flight Orchestra keep cultivating, "Aeromantic" included."

" Compared to his two previous solo studio albums, the new one, "Ten," is closer in musical identity and production to what Sweet does with Stryper, though it's a fully self-contained story and a fresh step forward on the colorful musical…

"If you're into melodic rock, the album »Rise« is going to be right up your alley. It's played, written and produced at an exceptionally high level, and the quality shows. With names this big behind Revolution Saints, you wouldn't have…

"»Radiocarbon« is the work of battle-hardened old tomcats who know exactly how a composition has to be built in the genre sphere they've been prowling for years, so it grabs you instantly and completely. Innate Swedish perfectionism and…

" It's all in one! A finished package! Essential and one of a kind, carved out of the unique Angel recipe. Yes. It's possible. Even in 2019. Another unexpected win at this year's "gathering of rock'n'roll dinosaurs."

"No Work Of Art album has ever sounded as hungrily revivalist and AOR-ish as "Exhibits". Despite the perfect sound-production and songwriting aesthetic it achieves, it could do with a touch more variety of ideas, and some organic liveliness…

"The new album is exactly what its two predecessors delivered. It keeps every one of their qualities. For the occasion, Moratti kept the same crew of musicians in the studio who already worked on »Transcendence«."

»II« is a brilliant follow-up to the cult debut. From the first spin, when it kicks off with the excellent Don't Say You Love Me, it grabs you by the ears and won't let go. If it had come out (to exaggerate) in 1986, that verdict wouldn't…

" Put on "Winds Of Change" and you'll wish the eighties had never ended. Better still, for a good 55 minutes, you're right back in them. "

"So what we've got here is an incredibly strong, emotional and masterfully composed piece of work, the final artistic statement from Tony Mills, a perfect vocalist whose far too early departure leaves a very real hole in the modern melodic…

"»Attitude« is, and we say this with zero modesty, already one of the highlights of 2019 for AOR/melodic rock albums! "

»Life« is a quality new album from Hardline, packed with righteous rock slaps in the face, with three average ballads wedged in between. That doesn't take away from the essence of the record, which is its credibility.

"»Dysphoria« takes the Starbreaker project to a completely new level of expression and character. Strikingly fresh in both production and style. Given the consistency and quality of this new effort, it would be wonderful if the project ever…

"Toby Hitchcock is back with an album that's exactly what you need if you've been missing a new record from Pride Of Lions for a good while now."

"The material used on the Devil's Hand debut must be a leftover stash of songwriting for a possible new Seveth Key album, which has been nowhere to be seen for ages now, years in fact."

"»Untold Stories« is considered one of the best hard rock releases of 2018, or AOR too, if you like. With it, Airirace bridge the influential seventies with incredible juiciness, add a nostalgic AOR flirt from the eighties, and fuse the two…

"So this album is aimed at listeners who keep up with what Revolution Saints and the new (and old) Hardline are doing, and who feel at home with the golden era of AOR (Journey, Bad English). »Set the World on Fire« is a really nice album.…

The often-overlooked "Silent Nation", which boasted excellent production from Payne, was in many ways not your typical Asia album, and that's exactly what remains one of its biggest draws today.

»Victory« is also going to go down a treat with fans of classic AOR sound, decently "reheated," "translated," and "repackaged" for new times. That said, White Widdow have started repeating themselves, and at this rate they'll have a hard…

"“Groundbreaker” is easiest to describe as a kind of Work Of Art album, but with the FM singer on vocals."

release date: September 14, 2018 label: Frontiers Music Srl. album length: 52:25 production: Peter Mansson & Anders Wikström rating: 9.5 / 10 Treat are long-lived Swedish hard rockers, a band with the track record of Europe's…

"Unlike the other bands, Night Ranger also didn't use any canned backing vocal tracks. They're bursting with energy! And that's a really good sign, because the new studio album »High Road« is about to hit the scene, and let's hope a…

"Stryper lived up to their headliner billing, despite the stellar Pretty Maids and Eclipse ahead of them, who for many were the highlight of the second day's festival sets."

"Foreigner, Europe and FM are bands that each have their own path and identity, and every one of them managed to add its own little piece to the mosaic of yet another unforgettable concert experience tonight."

"With their Trieste show, Harem Scarem showed off the magic of live AOR perfection, built on top-notch technical chops and real chemistry on stage."

Location: Faak Am See (Faaker See) / Harley Davidson Bikers Week / AustriaConcert date: Friday, September 6, 2013 This year's edition of the bikers' week at Faaker See, by the village of Faak Am See near Villach, kicked off the…

"When a band hammers out one hit after another and the crowd is heated up so much that an incredible energy bond is flowing between them and the stage, a gig like that flies by at breakneck speed"

"An album that clearly hints it'll pass the test of time with ease. We waited 27 years for it. Times have changed, so only listeners who lived out their "teenage" years in the mid-eighties will really cherish it."

"Where the melody and energy of Survivor, Pride Of Lions, and the solo work of Jim Peterik or Jimi Jamison live, the inspiration for "Mercury's Down" lives too. "

"Since Journey don't have as many hits in Europe as Foreigner, and given their tamer stage dynamics and less fiery crowd interaction, this time Foreigner stole the show from them by a hair!"

Location: Graz / Orpheum Teater / AustriaDate: 04/28/2010 The supergroup Asia was born in the eighties as a conglomerate of four outstanding musicians from kindred musical philosophies, rooted mainly in progressive rock. They'd all…

"The lights dimmed at Alcatraz, a venue that vaguely recalls Ljubljana's Kino Šiška, except the floor isn't stepped. The intro? Want a double vision? You got it. Double Vision it is. Of course, if you're in Milan at Alcatraz at that hour.…

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…

Location: Bratislava / Divadlo Arena / SlovakiaDate: 05/31/2008 Fortified with some noble Slovak hop liquor and Slovak sausages, we found ourselves face to face with the band at exactly 8:00 PM at the Divadlo Arena theater, a venue…

Label: Frontiers Music Srl. Release year: 2005 Production: Fabrizio Grossi Album length: 52.27 min. Genre: AOR / Melodic Rock Starbreaker is an international project made up of superb musicians. I'll say it right off the bat: this…