220 Volt
Walking in Starlight

I had a vague recollection that the band 220 Volt hails from my neighbourhood, and sure enough after researching some internet encyclopaedia I saw that they are from Frösön, Östersund which is about 30 km from where I reside. It is not every day I get review copies of stuff from the neighbourhood if they still reside here that is, I have no idea if they do. Anyways, the location of the band isn’t really that important and neither is a lovely cover artwork which they have a nice night scene, most likely from Jämtland, perhaps Storsjön. It is a good photograph for sure. The band has apparently been quite successful in the past but it was a while (1997) since they released their latest album. So they are a bit older and perhaps wiser now, as well as using another singer. I must say that I do only know this band by name and as far as I can recall I cannot place any of their songs, I might have heard one or two of them some time but I don’t know.

I know that 220 Volt of today is a melodic rock/hardrock band with plenty of energy and variation in their music. They do venture into several different arms of the melodic rock music from Arena Rock to AOR, to classic rock music and some metal and everything in between. It is a varied yet coherent album which features a good singer with a voice perfectly suited for this album. It is also an excellent production painting a soundscape of a walk on the starlit surface of Storsjön, perhaps on a hunt for the legendary monster that is said to reside somewhere under the calm surface of that lake. But before I loose track of what I write, they do show their skills on thirteen tracks and one hour of music, strange thing is though that the hour this album plays for feels considerable shorter. Perhaps due to the depth in the songs.

Impressive album, I really like it. The songs are solid hit songs, the album is easily accessible yet has a strong longevity due to the variation and the depth in the songs. It is hard to fault this album on any aspect, sure there is always room for improvement but the album has no weaknesses. It has only very strong tracks some of which would clearly deserve airplay on the radio, but perhaps people remember the name and that might give them a bit of a boost in interest and sales. This album deserves to get some attention because it is really good.

So, clearly a recommended album. It is difficult to pick favourites in a list of thirteen strong tracks, songs that inspire and songs to enjoy. I really like the opening track which is the title track, Stranded, Get Me Out is a duo of great tracks and Burning Heart as well as System Overload are a pair of other tracks that I really like. Sure I could count them all and why not? But I guess I leave that to you, I really thing you ought to check this out if you are a fan of good music.

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