Time Signature Metal never sleeps...

Genre: hard rock / melodic metal

"Money Never Sleeps" offers solid melodic hard rock with a metallic edge. The guitar sound is actually quite heavy, considering the commercial and melodic nature of the music on this album. Although we are more in the metallic hard rock camp than the pure metal camp, I actually like this release quite a lot, I found.

Most of the choruses are extremely catchy and really beg for the listener to sing along. The music itself, while not terribly original, is listener-friendly and has a certain punch to it and is generally uplifting. The opening track "All Because of Me", though, is a more melancholic hard rock track, while "Anything you Want" is a boring piano ballad. While most of the tracks are good, my favorites being "All Because of Me", the boogie rocker "Money Never Sleeps", and the melodic hard rocker "What About Us", the album does tend to become a bit monotonous in the long run.

I think that Covered Call are probably inspired by the likes of AC/DC, Guns 'n' Roses, White Lion, Pretty Maids, Thin Lizzy and The Rolling Stones, and I think they manage to make some solid rock music out of those influences.

Recommended to fans of hard rock and melodic metal.

Stephen A comical character with cold sweat on his forehead seeing a major plunge of the stock market is the front cover of a Swedish melodic rock project, Covered Call, which was started by drummer Ronny Svanströmer and guitarist Joel Carlsson. What makes it interesting is the addition of the talented singer, Thomas Vikström, who's also fronting Therion. Covered Call's music is in the same league as The Poodles, Rockarma, Bon Jovi, or White Lion. Rooted heavily in 80s hard rock with a sensible touch of melodies, "Money Never Sleeps" is a record lush of joyful vibes and enthralling vocal harmonies, I don't think you can even find a lot of minor chords inside, every little thing sounded euphoric.

The best thing of this album is when you roll on from the very first track to the bottom, you just can't seem to find anything bad inside. If I have to pick the strongest tracks, my fingers will be pointed at "Til The End", the tight verse and brilliant anthemic chorus is untouchable; the nicely done cover of Mr.Big's "Shine"; "Nothing At All" with a thick scent of early White Lion; and the last two tracks, "What About Us" and "Let's Make It Real". The mandatory ballad, "Anything You Want", is somewhat likeable as well, an emotional piece of vocal/piano that also reminded me of Stryper's style at "My Love I'll Always Show".

Thomas Vikström is a real deal, he definitely has the beautiful pipes, I remember a memorable song, "Undercover Love" from his old band, Talk of The Town, back in 1988, a great song, and a great album it is, you wouldn't expect him singing in a band like this if you recognized him from Candlemass or Therion. Something troubling is probably the lack of variety in the arrangement, the vibe is too similar, and there's an eminent danger of this record started wearing thin after repetitive listening. However, like I've mentioned before, and I'm gonna mention it again, Covered Call's debut offered a very solid and strong songwriting and deserved a big praise. I really expect them to continue releasing albums, hopefully in a year or two, I can see a sequel in an even better shape.