ARTIC RAIN hails from
Sweden, and is well known for their melodic hard rock. Their new album “
The One” was released on 8/7/20. I haven’t found out much about them, but we’re going to learn more together. The album starts us off with “
Breakout”, and immediately it goes full throttle. A slide down the neck, and a quick palm muted riff into chords. The song reminds me of some old school hair band classic, but it's very good quality, a pretty decent solo, and an actually well written song. The final solo brings this song to a close, and it's good.
The next track “
Free My Mind” starts off with a nice melodic intro before progressing with distorted guitars. A song definitely made for radio, a nice tempo, and blended with melodic tones, as well as equal amounts of heavy distortion. Complemented with well sang lyrics, another great solo, and another solo closes this one out. The next track “
Friends” is another one with a hair band feel, but with a heavier melody. A really smooth flowing song, decent lyrics, and really good solos. If you're into this style rock these guys are definitely for you.
The forth song “
Give Me All Of Your Love” is the heaviest song so far with its strong power chords, lower octaves, pitch harmonics, and a fast solo. Not your typical love song, but a good one nonetheless, and definitely different from what we’ve heard so far. I’m going to skip to the sixth track
“Love Of My Life,” another hard love song. Much quicker tempo, heavier riffs, squeals, and decent solo. These guys bring it to these love songs, I’ve enjoyed this song the most. These guys do have a decent style, play well together, and the song structure is well done.
I going to close this review with the title track “
The One”. A really smooth song, maybe the most easy listening on the album. It starts off with a keyboard intro, as well as mostly throughout. It may have been the easiest song on the album, but they did throw in a good solo, pretty memorable chorus, and a good song.
Overall I thought the album was done very well. The production was good, the sound quality was great, the musicians are very talented. I appreciate bands like these putting it out there, and I can see them getting some radio play. I did enjoy the album, and I know you will too!
Songwriting: 9
Memorability: 9
Musicianship: 9
Production: 9