Rian - Out of the Darkness

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Well, how you can make an old form of music sound actual and alive is a question that many have. The answer is so simple: play it in the most honest form you can, without sounding like the past, using your identity to guide you. Forget clones that are trying to be like bands from the 60s, 70s and 80s, and do things on your own way. This is the way of the good works, and this is the way that the Swedish trio RIAN plays on the latest album, “Out of the Darkness”.

It’s like we are hearing the old and good days from the 80s, when happiness, parties, and all those and good stuff were our daily doses of joy. Of course you can find traces of bands like BON JOVI, FIREHOUSE, JOURNEY, TOTO, WARRANT, WINGER and all those excellent AOR/Glam Metal bands, but they play in a way that we can feel that they have an identity pulsing on their musical work. But along with fine hooks and melodic choruses, very good backing and a great amount of musical accessibility, the trio has a modern approach of their musical work. It’s amazing!

They worked with the producer Daniel Flores for one year on “Out of the Darkness”, and the result makes the efforts done really worthy. The sound quality is very good, except for some moments when the guitar riffs are in low tunes, but we can understand everything that they are playing without making great efforts. But it could be done with more clear tunes (some of them are more aggressive and rawer than the needed).

Eleven very good songs are waiting for us, with those catchy melodies that are easy to assimilate, but as their finest moments, the excellent melodic lines and fine vocals of “Out of the Darkness”, the great accessibility shown on “In a Dream” (very good work from bass guitar and drums) and on “Time of Your Life” (this one is elegant and filled with fine guitars, excellent keyboards parts and great chorus), the excellent backing vocals on “Out of My Mind”, the good guitar riffs and solos presented on “Hide Away” (with some nasty moments like Glam Metal bands as MOTLEY CRUE in some moments), and the Rock ‘n’ Roll wing presented on “Pain”. It’s a very good work, but we can see that RIAN has more to offer in the future. For now, “Out of the Darkness” is a very good work, indeed.

Originality: 8
Songwriting: 10
Memorability: 7
Production: 8