Released by: Avenue of Allies
Release Date: June 10th, 2011
Genre: Melodic Rock/AOR
Links: http://www.alysonavenue.se
Line Up:
Arabella Vitanc – vocals
Niclas Olsson – keyboards
Thomas Löyskä – bass
Tony Rohtla – guitars
Fredrik Eriksson – drums
Former members or parttime-members:
Anette Olzon (now in Nightwish) – vocals
Christofer Dahlman – guitars
Patrick Svärd (now in Cloudscape) – guitars
Jarmo Piironen – guitars
Raimo Ahlberg – guitars
Roger Landin – drums
Tracklist:
1. Liar
2. Will I Make Love
3. Changes
4. Amazing Day
5.Don’t Know If Love Is Alive
6. Fallen
7. Into The Fire
8. I Will Be Waiting
9. I’ll Cry For You
10. Somewhere
11. Always Keep On Loving You
With the departure of their former lead singer Anette Olzon who left the band Alyson Avenue in 2007 to join the renown symphonic metal group Nightwish, the bands future was left in certain doubt as to who would replace her. The band mates went on and added Arabella Vitanc to the line up and to be up upfront she really does a solid job fronting the female lead vocals. I suppose that after Anette left the band it did grow more interest in the groups past material and this was explained as the band’s first two efforts were re-released for long time fans.
The band itself and mix master Chris Laney handled the production duties and we all know how big of an impact he has had already in the Hard Rock world in part of Europe working with some many cool bands that come out of there, especially Sweden like Crazy Lixx and H.E.A.T. Niclass Olssson (keyboards and background vocals) handles most of the writing on the record and it shows a more mature touch to each song.
I guess it pays to have some good known friends in the scene as the band has been around since 1989, on the new record “Changes” you have a host of guests spots on vocals as well, including the great Michael Bormann duet with Arabella on the ballad “Will I Make Love”. The title track feature an oomph in the back bone of their AOR sound, a little more traditional Scandinavia rocker like we are used to hearing from that part of the world. Mike Andersson of Cloudscape and Fullforce actually sings background vocals on half of the tracks on here adding a nice depth. The lead solo into “I Will Be Waiting” is sparkling, and the keyboards are pretty AOR 101 based; this track has a nice feel which translates to the rest of the record, Vitanc here hits some higher notes then on previous songs quite well.
A bit ordinary but is okay we pretty much know what to expect from the type of release that Avenue of Allies provides, solid pure hard rock/AOR and Melodic Rock intertwined together here. Some of the material reminds of older Treat. As to debate over the vocals I don’t see any I mean I think both Anette and Arabella are talented female vocalists in their own right, but the latter probably has less range but still fits the style of the band pretty well with the type of music they play. Pretty much on part with what you expect from a Melodic Rock/AOR group; solid nothing more.
Written by Denys
Ratings Deny 7/10
Sample of “Liar” from Changes below:
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