Grand Slam
A New Dawn

Swedish AOR for the second time this year, this time it is the debut album of a band called Grand Slam. They call their album a New Dawn and what strikes me first is how alike a band called Grand Illusion their logo is and Grand Something seems to be a Swedish thing when naming your melodic rock band. Thing is that going down the AOR route is a safe way to be liked, it is a great genre and most music of it is really good – but it is also a really cowardly way to go at least for most of the bands who just make generic AOR that sounds like most other stuff already released in the genre, most bands seems satisfied to just copy other bands.

And that seems to be true for these guys as well because it is generic AOR/Melodic rock and the three similar bands could have been three others as well, just make your melodic rock/AOR choices and they sound like them as well. Their singer is great, they have excellent production, their songs sound like they are copied – “isn’t this a cover?” I was continuously thinking while listening to this album. The songs are the typical selection of an album in this genre and I find myself wondering why so many bands are satisfied to just copy, why is it so hard to write something fresh and exciting these days? Grand Slam are for all of you (which is most of humanity) who fear change and fear the unknown, who wants everything to always remain the same – you who look at the past with rose tinted spectacles, they will not scare you with any surprising ideas.

No denying that this is a strong album, it has garnered some high ratings (like all AOR albums seems to do) from internet reviewers and I can see why it is catchy and you know the songs instantly because you have heard them before on many albums. There is a but though, as you know the songs at once you grow tired with the album fast and then you put it away looking for the next new musical thing and immediately you forget that you ever heard this band and this album. They are bound to be instantly forgotten and drowned in a musical mainstream that is ever growing and ever faster flowing. I found the album to be good and I am sure no one will hate this album but just like with the album I reviewed yesterday it is equally hard to see that anyone will love this album – maybe at first but not after hearing it a few times.

Maybe the video track Face is the most memorable of a good but also forgetful album, I think that Grand Slam will not really be remembered for this album a few months from now when a few hundred equally good and equally sounding albums have been released and celebrated by internet reviewers. In the end this is a fairly good album but it has nothing that will make it stand out from the rest, it is just another good AOR album and there are already millions of those.

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