Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: April 8, 2022
Production: Peter Mansson & Anders ”Gary” Wikström
Album length: 55.23 min
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 9.5/10
Treat are Scandinavian hard rock legends today. “The Endgame” is the ninth album from the band, formed way back in 1981, and the fourth since their 2006 reactivation, when they signed with the Italian label Frontiers Music Srl. With Treat you always knew what to expect. And what you expect is what you get. Always. That’s how it’ll stay. Even after “The Endgame”. Which means the band has once again delivered a killer new studio album packed with hypnotic hard rock assaults, bursting with musical hunger – or more precisely, with a triumphant charge of bombast and pomp.
So, after a long hiatus between 1993 and 2006, Treat returned to the scene in 2010 with the splendid “Coup De Grace”, which was followed six years later by the equally superb, every bit as good “Ghost Of Graceland”. Just two years after that came “Tunguska” – RockLine review, which kept all the greatness of both predecessors.
“The Endgame” was once again produced by the band’s loyal companion Peter Mansson, who shaped the sound of the previous three studio albums as well. Clearly, Treat are very happy with Mansson’s touch. So it only makes sense that they stick to their proven winning formula in 2022, too, as the superb “The Endgame” lands among us.
It’s all here: Robert Ernlund’s striking, unmistakable vocals, the ravenous guitar rhetoric of the solo-savvy, whirlwind Anders Wikström, which once again slyly decorates every track on the album, and the glaring, contrasty rhythmic punch, led by the penetrating, booming bass of returnee Nalle Påhlsson. What definitely gives the album its distinct stamp of pomp are, again, the highly compatible layers of ‘rustling’ synths, along with lines that sound closer to a traditional Hammond organ, plus the smart weaving in of assorted keyboard bits, which only boosts the dramatic, theatrical build-up in individual songs. A big part in that also goes to the multi-part vocal harmonies, where Treat are proverbial masters.
Treat once again polished the album down to the last detail. In keeping with their innate Scandinavian perfectionism. Experience, talent, mileage and huge inspiration, which over the past four years – the time the band needed for the new album – scattered a sackful of fresh ideas, form the foundation for a garrison of twelve brilliantly finished and detailed hard rock anthems. They practically compete with each other for your attention. Just as one song grabs you, the next one is already here, grabbing at least as hard, if not even more arrogantly. The album’s tremendous momentum, which intensifies from track to track (especially in the run of the ‘trio’ Sinbiosis, Home Of The Brave and Both Ends Burning), isn’t dented even by the punchy ballad My Parade, planted right in the middle. There’s no shortage of anthemic, triumphant melodies, which is something of a trademark of Treat’s musical output. Undeniably in that league: the opening ‘storm’ of Freudian Slip, followed by Rabbit Hole, with one of the most striking guitar phrases, then Jesus From Hollywood (a beat backed by a ‘cowbell’), plus Home of The Brave, or Caroline Reaper, … And there’s To The End Of Love, one of the best songs on the whole album, which carries the record to its dramatic peak right at the end. Once again, it’s entirely up to the listener to pick their favorites of this musical ravenousness.
So the new album holds up to at least the same quality as the previous three, among which Coud De Grace has a special place, but “The Endgame” stands right beside it more than proudly. Fans of the band will be more than thrilled, and it’ll especially click with everyone who bets on the rich legacy of Scandinavian hard rock, where Treat come from. “The Endgame” is an album that devoted fans will gladly wake up with and go to bed with for a long, long time. With their ninth studio album, Treat prove once again that they remain grandmasters of their musical rhetoric, or in other words, of the best that the Scandinavian school of hard rock tradition can deliver.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Freudian Slip
2. Rabbit Hole
3. Sinbiosis
4. Home Of The Brave
5. Both Ends Burning
6. My Parade
7. Wake Me When It’s Over
8. Jesus From Hollywood
9. Magic
10. Carolina Reaper
11. Dark To Light
12. To The End Of Love
Line-up:
Robert Ernlund – vocals
Anders ”Gary” Wikström – guitar, backing vocals
Jamie Borger – drums, percussion
Nalle Påhlsson – bass guitar, backing vocals
Patrick Appelgren – keyboards, backing vocals
