2016: an overview in 25 releases

We lost far too many musicians in 2016.

But 2016 is also to be remembered for some great albums. We present 25 of them in the categories melodic hard rock, AOR, classic rock, hard rock, blues rock, southern rock.

Melodic Hard Rock

Vega Who We Are CD Album Review

British Vega released their fourth CD in 2016, Who We Are. It’s probably the best melodic hard rock album of the year. Almost perfect in every respect (review). Melodicrock.nl rating: 94/100.

 

Master of the universe | Palace CD | LargePalace‘s debut Master Of The Universe offers excellent melodic rock with a lot of keyboards. A band to keep an eye on in the years to come (short review). Melodicrock.nl rating: 91/100.

 

Treat

Treat‘s second album after their comeback, Ghost Of Graceland, is more proof for the fact that the band is one of the best melodic hard rock band around in 2016 (review).… Read the rest

Interesting new albums (August 2016)

Last month some interesting Scandinavian albums saw the light of day.

Three fine melodic hard rock debut albums

Palace

Fans of 1980s style AOR can’t go wrong with Palace‘s debut album Master Of The Universe (review 1, 2, 3 & 4). Swedish quality, with excellent keyboards and guitar interplay and adventurous songs, at least within the limits of the genre. Production and vocals could’ve been even better and the refrain of No Exit gets pretty annoying once you realize the repetitive character of it, but hey, this is just a debut. The more you listen to it the more you’ll get convinced that this album could have a lasting significance. Melodicrock.nl rating: 91/100.

Cruzh

Cruzh is another new Swedish band that comes up with a debut that’s very interesting for AOR fans (review 1, 2, 3 & 4).… Read the rest