Sweden's own Tommy Denander is synonymous with Radioactive. This is mainly Tommy's project featuring some top-notch singers like Fergie Frederiksen, Steve
Overland from
FM and fellow countrymen Matti
Alfonzetti plus Mikael Erlandsson. The Rhythm section is skilled consisting of Marcel Jacob (Talisman) and Tony Franklin on bass. Pat Thern bangs the drums.
Tommy Denander is a great guitar player. He always plays melodic focusing on the song itself. He also plays keyboards, which are used cleverly on the record. The tracks are not smothered in keyboard - the keyboard rather adds another layer to the massive sound.
My main objective against the album is that, the listener cannot be kept attentive throughout the record. The album seems to fade out half-ways.
Favorites include the splashing melodic
Lies Feed on Lies with some amazing vocals from Steve
Overland. The song has a special emotion and edge to it that makes it a standout track. The ensemble between keyboard and a crunchy guitar on
Demon is excellent.
Demon features Fergie Frederiksen's characteristic vocals, which are stunning and perfect for this style.
Other memorable tracks are Geir Ronning's full vocals on
Don't Give up Love. His deep David Coverdale vocals add dept to the mid tempo rocker. After listening to Mikael Erlandsson's solo album I was a bit surprised, when I heard him Rock big time on
I Should have know better. His wide vocal range suits all styles like Pop,
AOR and on this record he has been chosen for the up-tempo tracks like
Fire Within.
Another pleasant vocal surprise is Kimmo Blom from Urban Tale. He provides vocals to
Not That Innocent, which has one of the best choruses and guitar solos on the whole record.
In general this is a solid melodic Hard Rock record. The best tracks are the first 5 and after that I have trouble staying focused. Dull songs like
Souls on Fire and
Until I Change Your Heart sound too regular and furthermore I have never been a fan of drum programming, which Tommy makes use of on some tracks like
Over You.
The use of multiple singers varies the record. The fixing point is Tommy Denander's great playing, which is all over the album. Sometimes you have to listen carefully to catch all the finer points in his playing, because of the bombastic sound.
Written by
Michael Sunday, May 11, 2003
Show all reviews by MichaelRatingsMichael: 6/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
This article has been shown 2870 times. Go to the
complete list.
