CIRCLE OF FRIENDS is the name given to the project put together by the editor of
Firefest magazine –
Bruce Mee – with what may be the only album from the assemblage,
“The Garden” which was released in late March of 2022. The title of the group comes from the friendship shared between the majority of the singers on the album with
Mee and the producer of the album,
Khalil Turk, of
Escape Music as the album is meant as a tribute to
Mee’s late mother.
Mee is most known as the editor of
Firefest magazine but also has had a great love for melodic rock and an organizer of live shows several years.
Mee grew up in the 70s and 80s and was taken to his first live show by his mother to see
Alvin Stardust in 1974. By 1978 his love turned to heaver pursuits when his brother gave him
RAINBOW’S “Rising” album and he began to turn away from bands like
ABBA and instead taking in the likes of
DIO, SURVIVOR, and
NIGHT RANGER.
His love of
ABBA remains, however with a cover of
“Knowing Me, Knowing You” on the
CIRCLE OF FRIENDS album. Though four of the thirteen tracks are covers, the other nine are original tracks written by Sweden’s
Mikael Rosengren and his co-writers – who has been part of
HEARTWIND, CONSTANCIA – while
Jaime Kyle – the “Goddess of Hard Rock - brings her own song
“Take My Love to Heart” . The plethora of other singers on the album are too many to name but a few notable voices are those of
Jeff Scott Soto,
Darby Mills,
Karen Fell of
TAO, and
Robin McAuley from
MSG. Several members of
HEARTWIND join such as
Steve Morris on guitar and keys with
Martin Hall and
Göran Engvall on guitar. Special guest
Joel Hoekstra on
WHITESNAKE also joins on guitar with a rhythm section provided by drummer
Josh Devine of
LEVARA and bassist
Wayne Banks of
SAXON. All this has been meticulously put together by producer
Khalil Turk of
Escape Music with mixing done by
Fredrik Folkare of
NORDIC UNION who also provided some guitar for the album.
As a love letter to the 80s melodic hard rock and heavy metal of yesteryear,
CIRCLE OF FRIENDS certainly delivers. I must say, from the outset, given the plethora of guest artists and a change in vocalist for every song, you may assume there is no cohesion to the album, but surprisingly, there seems a greater vision than even belies the fluidity and ease the listener is taken through the tracklist. With
DORO PESCH’s slow but powerful
“Little Piece of Heaven”, there are plenty of 80’s metal lead guitar lines flirting with the singer throughout, exploding into a sublime solo three quarters of the way in. It acts as a perfect opener for what is to come. Just two tracks later we’re treated to another power ballad-like number with
“Never Gonna Make Me Cry” but this time sung by a male
James Christian in gender changing version of the little-known
HEART banger. Most of the cover tracks are just the same, less known, but surprisingly powerful with
Robin Fleck’s version of
ABBA’s “Knowing Me, Knowing You”. The compositions by
Rosengren slot well and work easily alongside the covers. Except for the closing cover of
“Don’t Fear the Reaper” by
BLUE OYSTER CULT, this millennial would hardly have noticed a difference of a cover from an original.
Songwriting: 9
Musicianship: 10
Memorability: 7
Production: 8
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