Dairenn
Recording Artist
Bad Habit
Atmosphere (2011)
AOR Heaven
Produced by: Hal Marabel
For the Genre: ***** (5/5)
Compared to the Era: ***** (5/5)
Summary: Hard and Heavy without Sacrificing the Melody.
So right off the bat, let me address a criticism I believe this album probably receives, which is that it comes off as a bit formulaic. “In the Heat of the Night,” “Break the Silence” and “Without You” all have a similar feel, but to me, different variations on the same theme, when that theme is totally awesome, is a great thing. On Atmosphere, I totally love what Marabel, Alpenborg and Lonnqvist came up with on this record. The mix is also pretty special—the bass is nice and deep, the drums are not the loudest but they have great presence, the vocals were produced with a lively, heroic sound and the guitars sounded absolutely ferocious.
While my focus is usually on the instrumentalists, I had to say that what commanded my attention was the vocals of Bax Fehling. The range and intensity is incredible on these tracks. Even better were the lyrics in songs like “Everytime You Cry,” and “Angel of Mine”—the lyrics with which everyone I think could relate at least one time in their life. “Angel of Mine” ended up being my personal favorite—getting non-stop spins in my car during my commute.
Some songs were not as good as those that I had mentioned—particularly, “I Wanna Be the One,” “I’ll Die for You” and especially “Catch Me When I Fall.” And at times, the synthesized backing vocals were a little too obvious and should have been replaced with real background singers. However, in spite of those issues, “Atmosphere” is a CD that I regard as in the Top 5 West Coast, Melodic/AOR Rock releases of 2011. That said, very little about the packaging is special enough that I would insist on the CD itself. Unless you wanted the lyrics on booklet like I did, you’ll do fine to buy the download from MusicBuyMail.eu
Atmosphere (2011)
AOR Heaven
Produced by: Hal Marabel
For the Genre: ***** (5/5)
Compared to the Era: ***** (5/5)
Summary: Hard and Heavy without Sacrificing the Melody.
So right off the bat, let me address a criticism I believe this album probably receives, which is that it comes off as a bit formulaic. “In the Heat of the Night,” “Break the Silence” and “Without You” all have a similar feel, but to me, different variations on the same theme, when that theme is totally awesome, is a great thing. On Atmosphere, I totally love what Marabel, Alpenborg and Lonnqvist came up with on this record. The mix is also pretty special—the bass is nice and deep, the drums are not the loudest but they have great presence, the vocals were produced with a lively, heroic sound and the guitars sounded absolutely ferocious.
While my focus is usually on the instrumentalists, I had to say that what commanded my attention was the vocals of Bax Fehling. The range and intensity is incredible on these tracks. Even better were the lyrics in songs like “Everytime You Cry,” and “Angel of Mine”—the lyrics with which everyone I think could relate at least one time in their life. “Angel of Mine” ended up being my personal favorite—getting non-stop spins in my car during my commute.
Some songs were not as good as those that I had mentioned—particularly, “I Wanna Be the One,” “I’ll Die for You” and especially “Catch Me When I Fall.” And at times, the synthesized backing vocals were a little too obvious and should have been replaced with real background singers. However, in spite of those issues, “Atmosphere” is a CD that I regard as in the Top 5 West Coast, Melodic/AOR Rock releases of 2011. That said, very little about the packaging is special enough that I would insist on the CD itself. Unless you wanted the lyrics on booklet like I did, you’ll do fine to buy the download from MusicBuyMail.eu
