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Nordic Union: Animalistic
Nordic Union: Animalistic
Melodic Metal Rock
4.5/5.0
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Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 04.08.2022 | Released: 12.08.2022
After a short four year hiatus, perhaps due to COVID, Swedish band Nordic Union makes their return. The band was created as a collaboration of Pretty Maids vocalist Ronnie Atkins and multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer Erik Martensson (Eclipse, W.E.T.). Both fellows have been busy with their own musical projects. Atkins, still battling lung cancer, with his solo projects; Eclipse dropped Wired in late September 2021.
Nordic Union
Nordic Union now arrives with their third long player, Animalistic. The core of the band remains Atkins and Martensson, but also includes guests from the Swedish music scene notably Fredrick Folkare from Unleashed and Dead Kosmonaut on guitar. Perhaps relatively unknown outside his native Sweden, guitarist Thomas Larrson adds solos to Scream, Riot, and Last Man Alive.
As expected, the album is another intersection of the musical backgrounds of the principal players. In this case Atkins melodic heavy metal dovetails with Martensson's AOR melodic hard rock. (Although, as with Wired, Eclipse keeps adding some metal groove.) So, mostly, a Nordic Union song is fast and heavy, roaring with riffs and upbeat tempo, yet also wrapped up in song melody, fine vocal harmony, and then sparked by epic guitar solos.
Not giving too much away about the songs, here area few personal favorites. For some straight up heavy metal rockers check out This Means War, On This Day I Fight, and Animalistic which, if it got any faster, could pass for power metal. Some songs are slightly dialed back like Last Man Alive and Riot wherein the name is a bit of a misnomer. Where AOR accessibility is injected, check out the closing track, King For A Day. (Great bass line, too.)
All considered, Nordic Union's Animalistic is another fine album from Ronnie Atkins and Erik Martensson: melodic heavy metal rock with plenty of heaviness, groove, and blazing guitar solos. Recommended.
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The Take Away
Nordic Union's Animalistic is another fine album from Ronnie Atkins and Erik Martensson: melodic heavy metal rock with plenty of heaviness, groove, and blazing guitar solos. Recommended.
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