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Groundbreaker: Soul To Soul
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Groundbreaker: Soul To Soul

AOR Melodic Hard Rock
4.0/5.0

Songwriter, musician, and vocalist Steve Overland has been an ubiquitous and prolific presence in the field of AOR melodic rock for more than 40 years. Across his work with Wildfire, FM, The Ladder, Shadowman, his own project Overland, several smaller projects, and countless guest appearances, I suspect there hasn't been one year in the last 41 when Overland hasn't been performing. I doubt very much his intentions to slow down now. Steve Overland returns in 2021 to one of his newer projects, Groundbreaker and his second album Soul To Soul.

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Steve Overland

The album finds Overland once more within the confines of the Frontiers Music label and partnered with their equally ubiquitous talent producer and keyboard player Alessandro Del Vecchio. However, the remaining players have changed since 2018 self-titled debut. For this recording, the players include Sven Larsson (ex-Street Talk) on guitars, Nalley Pahlsson (ex-Vindictiv, Therion) on bass, and Herman Furin (Work of Art) on drums.

The focus of any project featuring Steve Overland is his songwriting skills and his soulful vocal performance. Both are in good standing with Soul To Soul. Of course, the musical context is AOR melodic hard rock perhaps with the nuance of being a bit heavier at times. You'll find this with songs like Soul To Soul, When Lightning Strikes, or Leap Of Faith. Alternatively, a few songs can be assertive in fast like the title track or It Don't Get Better Than This. Then the chick song Carrie does a little of both: subtle voice and synths quickly build to an arrangement both heavy and quick. Taking a cue from Eighties classic rock, some fine synths rise and define such songs as Standing On The Edge Of A Broken Dream, There's Now Tomorrow, and Wild World, another faster song that features on lead guitar.

All in all, the summary is simple: Groundbreaker's Soul To Soul is another fine album to feature vocalist and songwriter Steve Overland in his natural habitat: AOR melodic rock, yet a bit heavier at that. Easily recommended.



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The Take Away

Groundbreaker's Soul To Soul is another fine album to feature vocalist and songwriter Steve Overland in his natural habitat: AOR melodic rock, yet a bit heavier at that. Easily recommended.

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