Released by: Black Lodge
Release Date: Out Now!
Genre: Album Oriented Rock
Links: https://www.rouletteswe.se/
Line-up:
Hansi Fellbrink – bass
Mats Nelin – drums
Magnus Nelin – guitar
Thomas Lundgren – vocals
Tracklist:
Never Enough
Keep On Dreaming
Soldiers Of Love
We Can Make It
Secret Room
Better Day
Turn It Around
The Only Way
Another Night
Right By Your Side
Everything happens for a reason. That’s a tired old trope drug out by people all the time, whether they believe in predestination or not. I use it quite a bit, and though I don’t follow the concept that everything in life is already mapped out I do believe in karma and that despite our best efforts sometimes what we want doesn’t happen when we want it. The great philosopher Mick Jagger opined, “You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you find you get what you need.” I am also a firm believer of this too. Hopefully Sweden’s Roulette believes in it too. It’s hard to believe that they came to fruition in 1985, yet their first full length album is out in 2019. When they first hit the scene they showed great potential and were on a good trajectory to “make it” (whatever that means,) but then sort of moved on to other things. Thankfully after a nice collection of demos and other songs released in 2008 entitled Better Late Than Never, the band decided to finally break down and record an album of new material.
Now is a brilliant AOR album that shows the band still in top form. It is super melodic as any good AOR album is supposed to be, with ultra-catchy tracks that play on in your head even after the album has stopped. Tracks like “The Only Way,” “We Can Make It,” “Keep On Dreaming,” and “Secret Room” pound for pound stand up to some of the greats of this style. Thomas Lundgren has a fantastic voice that very much compliments the songs. Musically you’ve got great guitar work from Magnus Neilin and a wonderful rhythm section from Mats Nelin on drums and Hansi Fellbrink on bass. The harmony vocals are on point too. It is simply a brilliant album created by brilliant musicians.
I hope that now that Roulette has finally unleashed their debut album that they will continue to create new music for many years to come. Now demonstrates that Roulette have something more to offer than your average melodic band and with their skills having had all of these years to become perfect, there is no telling what the future holds for them. Hopefully worldwide success isn’t too far away for them.
Ratings: 9/10
Written by: Chris Martin
My Global Mind – Senior Staff Writer
Chris Martin is a US based writer for My Global Mind, with an interest in hard rock and heavy metal in all its forms. A heavy contributor to the site, his work largely covers album and gig reviews.