Eclipse
Paradigm
Frontiers Music srl
2019
Eclipse has for better or worse been going on for twenty years, with some seven releases up to now and their mainman Erik Mårtensson involved in illustrious projects like WET, Ammunition and others… you’d be hard pressed to find a hardest working & a hardest rocking singer, guitarist and producer guy. And like clockwork the Swedes deliver what’s expected from them without fail on “Paradigm”.
Familiar, but different enough the album has hit after hit, hitting you until you surrender completely.
The epic, rousing opener “Viva La Victoria” calls you to join their rocking revolution with immaculate epic licks and Martensson on fire behind the mic.
“Mary Leigh” is easy to fall for, but the whole Leigh famileigh must be in high demand in Sweden if Royal Republic’s “Anna Leigh” (Serious Leigh?) is anything to go by?!
“Blood Wants Blood” drops the speed and ups the drama a notch, working things out perfectly.
“Shelter Me” is the ballad you might have been waiting for, which goes full power ballad, as soon as the chorus hits.
“United” is a rousing call to unity, but it’s safe enough to assume it’s probably a fantasy… a glorious one at that, though, just like the song.
“Delirious” is pretty true to its name and it even has some bell like percussion thrown in there, not sure if they considered sticking some whistles too… Great suff.
“When the Winter Ends” is a power-ballad in a form that Eclipse have sort of patented, with sing-along parts aplenty… these guys are outdoing Europe at their own game… writing big choruses… well it’s good to see that at any time Sweden always has someone to “represent”.
“38 or 44” is an edgy, quick paced rocker that does break away from the huge sounding anthems a bit for a more direct approach. What it doesn’t change though is the luscious amounts of melody that Martensson gifts the song with…
“Never Gonna Be Like You” has you thinking that it’s going to be a ballad for a couple of measures, but quickly it breaks into a proper, stylized mid paced rocker, which attempts to get the album back to its usual Eclipse M.O., without having to try too hard as it’s titanic size chorus makes short work of it.
“The Masquerade”, despite being great in its own right somewhat disrupts the album from attaining momentum again with its mid-tempo stomp.
And the album arrives to a close with “Take Me Home” a very melodic and dramatic, almost epic song that might have made more sense earlier on or in the middle of the album, with its Jorn like harshness and pathos.
Overall, Eclipse have no issue impressing once more, only messing up the flow of the album somewhat, but really overstating that would be pedantic.
Definitely on par with what Eclipse has been doing in the last few years it’s probably only bested by only a couple of earlier efforts, in a career that still hasn’t produced any bad ones. I think impressive is the word…
Familiar, but different enough the album has hit after hit, hitting you until you surrender completely.
The epic, rousing opener “Viva La Victoria” calls you to join their rocking revolution with immaculate epic licks and Martensson on fire behind the mic.
“Mary Leigh” is easy to fall for, but the whole Leigh famileigh must be in high demand in Sweden if Royal Republic’s “Anna Leigh” (Serious Leigh?) is anything to go by?!
“Blood Wants Blood” drops the speed and ups the drama a notch, working things out perfectly.
“Shelter Me” is the ballad you might have been waiting for, which goes full power ballad, as soon as the chorus hits.
“United” is a rousing call to unity, but it’s safe enough to assume it’s probably a fantasy… a glorious one at that, though, just like the song.
“Delirious” is pretty true to its name and it even has some bell like percussion thrown in there, not sure if they considered sticking some whistles too… Great suff.
“When the Winter Ends” is a power-ballad in a form that Eclipse have sort of patented, with sing-along parts aplenty… these guys are outdoing Europe at their own game… writing big choruses… well it’s good to see that at any time Sweden always has someone to “represent”.
“38 or 44” is an edgy, quick paced rocker that does break away from the huge sounding anthems a bit for a more direct approach. What it doesn’t change though is the luscious amounts of melody that Martensson gifts the song with…
“Never Gonna Be Like You” has you thinking that it’s going to be a ballad for a couple of measures, but quickly it breaks into a proper, stylized mid paced rocker, which attempts to get the album back to its usual Eclipse M.O., without having to try too hard as it’s titanic size chorus makes short work of it.
“The Masquerade”, despite being great in its own right somewhat disrupts the album from attaining momentum again with its mid-tempo stomp.
And the album arrives to a close with “Take Me Home” a very melodic and dramatic, almost epic song that might have made more sense earlier on or in the middle of the album, with its Jorn like harshness and pathos.
Overall, Eclipse have no issue impressing once more, only messing up the flow of the album somewhat, but really overstating that would be pedantic.
Definitely on par with what Eclipse has been doing in the last few years it’s probably only bested by only a couple of earlier efforts, in a career that still hasn’t produced any bad ones. I think impressive is the word…