Diamond Dawn - Overdrive

Diamond Dawn is a newcomer from Sweden that was formed in 2011. Right after, they released a demo for the song “Standing As One” and Frontiers finally added them to its roster. It’s to wonder how fast and easily they got what other bands are still tryin’ to attain even after being around for a decade or more. These guys did it all well and they are to be commended for that.
 
“Overdrive” is a “nostalgic” pure melodic rock/AOR album… taking its inspiration from the 80s when this kind of music was so much popular and used to rule the airwaves. Bits from Survivor, Journey, Europe, Andy Taylor, Alien, Treat, Skagarack, 220 Volt but also from newer ones like W.E.T., Eclipse, H.E.A.T., Work of Art and so forth can be found on this work. The nice thing is that the guys have filtered all these influences under their personal angle and are presenting their own music proposition. They just do not “copy-paste” as most of the bands are doing nowadays.
 
The production is excellent, the hooks are catchy, the melodies are beautiful and the ideas are there, just making this album attractively wonderful for all the melodic rock/AOR lovers. Certainly, I would prefer it to last around 40 minutes than 51 that it does now. In that way, the band could have avoided a couple of so-so tracks. But that won’t bother you in the very end as this CD flows nicely as a whole.
 
The most important thing that Diamond Dawn achieved with their debut album is that they placed themselves in the melodic rock/AOR Swedish league among H.E.AT., Dynazty, Work of Art, Eclipse and so on. What other bands achieved after 2-3 releases, these guys brought it about with their first album. That ain’t easy at all to accomplish. I’ve been keeping an eye at the Swedish hard rock scene for years now and I can say that Diamond Dawn is a very promising band. If they take advantage of every opportunity they get, then they can be one of the hottest melodic/AOR bands which are coming from Sweden in the next years.