2021: an overview

Melodic Hard Rock

Melodic hard rock is still dominated by Scandinavian bands. W.e.t., Eclipse and Creye came up with almost flawless albums. Strangely still unsigned Nestor joined the club with a great debut album, while Ronnie Atkins, Crazy Lixx and Wig Wam all released very listenable solo CD’s. Leverage and Seventh Crystal also came up with albums that definitely deserve attention.

Non-Scandinavian highlights include the ever dependable Robin McAuley and Brazilian newcomers Spektra. Lee Aaron came up with a varied album that ranks among her best and Chez Kane‘s debut also catapulted us right back to the great female fronted bands of the 80’s.

AOR

Tim‘s brilliant album is basically the 1983 unreleased successor of the semi classic second Trillion album, that luckily was dug up by MelodicRock Records.… Read the rest

West Coast, some recent albums

West Coast has been described as well-crafted, soft-focused music mainly made and played in California. Or: California soft rock with some jazz elements thrown in. Also labeled as Yacht Rock, it’s relaxing and perfectly for a lazy sunday morning. Because most of it doesn’t qualify as melodic rock we cover it only marginally on this website.

West Coast was especially popular from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. You can find out more about relevant artists and albums in this detailed Encyclopedia of West Coast Music. Or listening to this top 100 songs.

Most music that becomes a genre never really disappears. That’s also true for West Coast. There are still quite a few bands making West Coast music. Here we present some of them.… Read the rest