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X-Romance: Voices From The Past

Melodic Hard Rock/AOR

4.5/5.0

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AOR Heaven Records
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 29.05.2019 | Released: 24.05.2019

We'll start this review the way most every other review about X-Romance has probably started: with history supplied from promotional material. Once upon a time there was a Swedish rock band, Romance, formed in 1988 by Anders Ronnblom and Thomas Widmark. One day in 2015 Ronnblom found a box of old band recordings. Not wishing to waste good tunes, he quickly called up Widmark and they began re-recording the tunes. Romance was reborn as X-Romance complimented by additional musicians from the Stockholm environs. In light of the new "old" songs, their debut album is aptly titled Voices From The Past.

X-Romance

Needless to say, Voices Of The Past is something of a blast from the past. X-Romance plays straight up Eighties AOR melodic hard rock. The sextet's tunes turn upon twin guitar harmony and leads, solid beat and groove from a steady rhythm section, clean melodic vocal arrangements, and a dash of Toto-like synths for accent and embellishment. Additionally, the songs are swollen with strong melodies and catchy refrains. It's the same story from an old book, but X-Romance delivers some solid AOR guitar rock.

You'll hear that strong guitar presence across all songs, but they're quite dramatic within Over And Over, Temporary Love, and Lonely. The guitar presence reaches its glory with the closing instrumental Departure. You get a fine arena anthem with You And I, where the synths and guitars twist together. A ballad arrives with Somebody Out There. With Total Madness and Pushing On, X-Romance puts some nitro in their engine for some quick rockers. All said, with Voices From The Past, X-Romance delivers high quality and quite entertaining Eighties style AOR melodic hard rock. Easily recommended.

Stormhammer: Seven Seals

Modern Heavy/Power Metal

2.5/5.0

Once more Germany's Stormhammer is a band in search of musical meaning. It's more or less a schizophrenic search, perhaps a bipolar search. Are we a ... [ Read More ]

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

With Voices From The Past, X-Romance delivers high quality and quite entertaining Eighties style AOR melodic hard rock. Easily recommended.

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By far, Sweden's Eclipse is one of my favorite bands. Always consistent and always entertaining, Eclipse has been delivering their 21st century version of melodic metal rock since songwriter, producer ... [ Read More ]