Kev Rowland Black Rose was formed in 1990 in Fagersta, Sweden, and released their debut album ‘Fortune Favours The Brave’ in 1984 and appear to have been playing and releasing bits and pieces ever since; but this is their first album since 2004. Interestingly they released a demo of covers in 2008 and I note that one of these is the classic “I’ll Be Waiting” by Talisman, yet I only realised this after I had already decided that Talisman were a band that they reminded me of. Maybe I got it right this time. This is an album that is packed full of hooks along with some nice nuances and fills on the guitars so that it isn’t all based solely on the vocals to keep the interest. This is all about well-crafted tunes, along with some great solos to boot. In other words this is classic hard rock, and there is more than a hint of Joe Lynn Turner-era Rainbow about them as well.

There are loads of songs that could be radio hits, with loads of anthems where the listener soon joins in on the chorus. I can imagine that most of the songs on the album will soon be crowd favourites, with the title cut being very much a case in point. This is yet another great melodic hard rock album from a band that many will not have heard of but are definitely worthy of investigation. For more details visit way.to/black_rose