Tuesday, September 25, 2018

REVIEW :SAPPHIRE EYES - Breath Of Ages (Sweden, 2018)

SAPPHIRE EYES is an AOR/Melodic Rock band that made a huge impact to the melodic rock press and fans in 2012 with its self-tilted opus. Nowadays, Sapphire Eyes is back with the long awaited second release which is entitled "Breath Of Ages".


As in the debut, the same here, songwriter and keyboard player Niclas Olsson achieved to gather some well-known musicians such as Kimmo Blom (Urban Tale, Heartplay, Leverage), Anette Olzon (Alyson Avenue, ex-Nightwish), Mike Andersson (Cloudscape, Fullforce) and Sven Larsson (Street Talk, Raintimes, Lionville) just to name a few to help him to create another solid opus. 

The rest of the band, except Niclas Olsson (keyboards, songwriting, production), consists of Fredrik Eriksson (drums), Mikey K Nilsson (guitars), Emil Knabe (guitars) and Christer Engholm(bass). 

The opening tune of "My Desire" is a track that will 'put us' immediately into Sapphire Eyes' world; a world full of beautiful melodies, clever arrangements, superb harmonic lines and strong performances that will make each and every single fan of this genre very very proud. In "I Don't Wanna Be Alone", "Endless Hope" and "Never Again", the band delivers some excellent tunes of pure AOR bliss at its highest order. At this point, I have to add that the new singer, Kimmo Blom, is doin' a hell of a job with the vocals. Next, we have a so emotional song such as "I Won't Leave With A Lie" is; a so heartfull and beautiful ballad that also includes Anette Olzon on duet vocals. The up-tempo tune of "Chasing Dreams" and the edgier ultra AOR anthem of "Into Paradise" are both melodelisious!!!!!!  

One of the best AOR/Melodic Rock albums of 2018, no doubt 'bout that! An album that every fan of the classic AOR sound will fell in love with. If you like bands such as Lionville, Work Of Art, Street Talk and Raintimes or you just love the mid 80's AOR sound, then Sapphire Eyes' newest effort is THE album for you!!! 

Rating : 9,5/10

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