Michael Bormann
Closer

Closer is the fifth album Michael Bormann releases under his own name, but he is a busy man having released many albums with many bands – being a hired gun for vocal duties does have the consequence of a very rich discography. Closer is the title of this album, and its cover reminds me of the one for the Gotthard album Firebirth. Michael Bormann is known as a great voice, at least in my mind and he was one of the founding members of Jaded Heart. So it wasn’t without some expectations I started the work with the review of this album.

Have you ever heard Jaded Heart? That is how this album sounds, like Jaded Heart. It is catchy melodic hardrock/metal with good drive and energy, very catchy. It is really well produced and there is a decent variation over the tracks with ballads and midtempo songs fused with the faster more catchy ones. A dozen tracks and 45 minutes of playing time is what we are getting with this album, I think the variation over these tracks is good enough to keep a listener interested for the entire duration. Michael sings brilliantly, his vocal performance is excellent as it usually is. I think that we can describe this as a very solid production.

It is a good album as well, the songs are very strong and catchy. Sure, one can argue that it isn’t a particularly fresh or unique album and that would be an argument with a lot of merit. Not much in terms of novelty that is but I still think it is a relatively fresh sounding album and with songs of such quality you cannot really complain too much about it. I think fans of the genre will definitely find this album worthwhile, I do as well. I have enjoyed this one a fair bit and I am sure that you might enjoy it as well.

The best track is the opening track I’m Not Your Entertainment is the best one on the album, not that the following tracks are bad but this is a really catchy and great song. There are a few memorable tracks on this album, one that I can really recommend to anyone enjoying melodic hardrock or the similar bands. Be sure to check it out.

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