Michael Kratz
Tafkatno

Label: Art of Melody Music/Burning Minds Group
Three similar bands: Chicago/Toto/Kandis

Rating: HHHHHHH (4/7)
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm
Tracks
01. Too Close to the Edge
02. The Highway
03. A Way to the Future
04. Without Your Love
05. You’re the One
06. Let’s Do Something Good
07. Someday
08. Everlasting Love
09. 10 minutes (00.37 / 00.47)
10. How Can A Man
11. Broken Souls (Bonus Track)


Band:
Michael Kratz - Vocals, Guitars & Drums
Kasper Viinberg - Backing Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Percussion & Drums


Discography:
Cross That Line (2012)
Rock That Line (EP 2017)
Live Your Life (2018)
de-electrified (EP 2019)


Guests / Characters :
Janey Clewer - Backing Vocals
Davide Gilardino - Backing Vocals
Torben Lysholm - Backing Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards & Bass
Christian Warburg - Guitars
Bruce Gaitsch - Guitars
Luca Carlomagno - Guitars
Mikkel Risum - Bass
Kenneth Bremer - Cardboard Box


Info:
Produced by Kasper Viinberg, except track 10 produced by Torben Lysholm
Mixed by Torben Lysholm with Kasper Viinberg
Mastered by Torben Lysholm
Recorded at Kawer Studio, Snake Rock, Mindfeels Studio, Frantid Studio, DK&KOMO studio
Cover artwork concept and development by Michael Kratz
Booklet graphics by Aeglos Art

Released 2021-09-04
Reviewed 2021-10-08

Links:
michaelkratz.net
youtube
art of melody


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Tafkatno, at least he gives the album an amusing and different name, but does that mean the same for the content of the album? It is Dane Michael Kratz who gives us his third album, a guy known as drummer for the band Kandis but who also has a couple of solo efforts, like this one. It doesn’t look amazing. But it has gotten quite a few spins anyway as you can never judge the book by its cover, even though it is more often the case that the cover tells you exactly what you get – so how about this one?

Melodic rock, westcoast is a word often used to describe the kind of music we get here. Eleven tracks are on offer, and it starts out with a pretty generic song of the style, and it is quite representative of the album in general. It contains the expected ballads and more hit-oriented songs, the surprises are quite few. It is largely a generic melodic rock/hard-rock album with catchy choruses, polished production and most things you can expect from something within that genre. The variation is decent and offers no surprises, the playing time is sensible and not too long.

There are some excellence on this album, How Can a Man at the end of the album is really great and catchy, and tracks three and four are also worth mentioning. But besides this trio there isn’t much that makes me stop and take notice, most of the album just pass by. I notice the highlights I have mentioned but otherwise I am not really caring about what Kratz has to offer. And I kind of doubt that it is an album that will make much of an impression, I believe it would be more ideas needed to achieve that.

Sure it is a decent album when you look at it all, there are even some greatness, but it isn’t really an album that makes an impression. It doesn’t really stand out from the flocks of other similar stuff, Kratz plays it safe and therefore he will probably fail to impress on a larger scale. If it is worth your while? I guess the answer is both yes and no, it depends on how you like to look at things, but if you prefer the melodic rock/AOR/westcoast style it is certainly worth looking at as it presses the right buttons to be a good offering in that genre.

HHHHHHH