Diamond Dawn
Overdrive

Diamond Dawn from Sweden are a new name on the AOR scene, a bright and shining start in the AOR heavens is what they are described as. Compromises are not enough for them it is said and that sounds good in theory but it never really works in reality as most of the time when that is said in press releases it means that the music ends up quite typical and unimaginative. But lets not make assumptions before time, one thing they do have is a good looking logotype which it would appear they have spent a lot of time on that look. So what about the music then? AOR or melodic rock is what they are talking about and that seems like it is the right description.

It is well produced as you would expect for a new melodic rock band and especially one from Sweden which is growing to be a real force to be reckoned with within the genre. The sound is quite typical for the genre with the catchy melodicness in the songs and then we have the catchy choruses and the singer that keeps to a bit higher pitches in his singing. One downside of the singer is that he sounds quite Swedish, the accent is a bit thick if we say so. The songs are also strange familiar for an album not heard before, I had an acquaintance riding with me in the car the other day and played this album on which he said he recognised the song Turn it Up and also the opening track Into Overdrive which is a tad strange as he is not really into that kind of music at all. The album itself is not really that varied either but more static in style with all songs being quite alike and overall I would say that it bears a bit of a feeling of déjà vu.

The album is quite good and the songs works quite well overall and it is an enjoyable album to listen to all in all with the tracks I just mentioned as the best one. And then I am out of nice things to say, there isn’t anything really wrong with the album but this sense of recognition despite never having heard it isn’t a positive thing. I don’t think that the necessity to write déjà vu in a review is a good thing, unless of course déjà vu was a song title which it isn’t on this album. So, despite the goodness of the album I still feel as though it is one that have been done better by the bands they have plagiarised so a good listen but honestly not really that much of value in a bigger sense as I will never ever listen to it again now that I have reviewed. One thing I came to think of when listening to this album was that they should have called themselves Xerox but I guess that they realised that it is a name that is copyrighted so it would have been problematic to use that name.

This leads me to draw the conclusion that this album will be something for the one who likes a lot of the same album in their album collections, it is also one that will most likely appeal to the fans of melodic rock as it is well made and well performed and nothing really wrong with it other than the feeling of déjà vu which usually means that they change something in the Matrix but if you listen to this album it would appear that it is destabilising into the point of crumbling into chaos. I think it sounds like they have all the tools to make something really good but they compromise too much (which they claim they don’t) and ends up sounding like something somewhere in the middle of the mainstream.

HHHHHHH