Kev Rowland It is strange to think this band have been around for more than 30 years now, with guitarists Mats Hallstensson and Anders Lundström there since the very beginning, and while this is the fifth album since Andreas Novak (vocals) and Martin Larsson (drums) joined there has been a new bassist since 2019’s ‘Radiocarbon’ with the arrival of Per Schelander. Only Larsson doesn’t provide backing vocals, and it is the arrangements which make this band stand out as they know how to provide good powering melodic rock yet always with those wonderful harmonies. Novak is a great singer, and the result is yet another fine example of a band who are at the top of their game. It is as if grunge never happened, while thrash, death and black metal are the nightmares you scare young children with. The Swedes continue to play as if Journey are the biggest band on the planet, and unlike some acts on the Frontiers label this is not a project, but a band grown from the ground up. Last year saw the 25th anniversary of their wonderful debut, ‘Lint’, but they refuse to just look back (although the special anniversary edition is well worth seeking out) as this is as fresh and exciting as the band were when they first came to my attention with that album back in ’97.

Some melodic rock bands concentrate on the former and forget the latter, meaning the music can have way too much sugar, yet HoS get the balance just right, maintaining an edge on the guitars while providing loads of hooks and songs which all sound as if they could be released as singles and do well in the charts. They provide drama when the time is right, as with the closing title track, and anthem after anthem, ensuring the melodic rock fan comes away fully satiated. They are undoubtedly one of my favourite bands from this genre as they continually deliver, album after album, and after three decades in the business show no sign whatsoever of slowing down.

Kev Rowland My wife often bemoans the fact I cannot remember names, birthdays, or even what she told me two minutes previously. But when it comes to music, my brain works better than any supercomputer, and when I saw this band name something clicked in the neural database, as I reviewed their debut album ‘Lint’ all the way back in 1997. At the time, the album made a huge impact on me (and many others), but I lost track of the band not long after that and was somewhat surprised to see they are still going and have now released a total of nine studio albums, as they had totally dropped off my radar. Guitarists Mats Hallstensson and Anders Lundström have been in the band since the very beginning, while this is the fourth album since Andreas Novak (vocals), Basse Blyberg (bass) and Martin Larsson (drums) joined the fold. It is as if nothing has changed, as here we have a band producing melodic hard rock of extremely high quality. Influences pop in and out, most notably Dan Reed Network, and there is even one number where they come across as a milder version of Disturbed, but HoS just keep doing what I remember them doing more than 20 years ago, namely one high quality melodic rock number packed with hooks and great vocals after another. It is polished class which the likes of grunge and extreme forms of metal tried to blast away, yet somehow, they are still here, strutting across the stage and producing an album which is sheer delight.

Harmonies abound, the guitars are just right, the production is solid with everything in just the right place, and one can only hope the move to Frontiers Music is one which is going to pay dividends. There is no doubt that the label is one of the finest in the world when it comes to this style of music, and to my ears House of Shakira perform at the very top level, so this is a match which is very welcome indeed. The band may never have really gone away, just dropped off my personal radar, but I am so very pleased indeed they are back! Awesome.

Time Signature Zodiac maniac...

Genre: hard rock

Slated as a melodic hard- rock band, Sweden's House of Shakira (don't worry - there is no relation to that awful pop singer) are considerably hard hitting.

Most tunes on the album are based around solid riffs (you know that right from the get go, from the initial bass line of the first track 'Brick Wall Falling'. True, there is a lot of melody on the release, which enters into AOR territory several times (and interestingly Andreas Novak sounds as "Trick of the Tail"-to-"Duke" era Phil Collins), and the Swedish rock quintet show that they are very good at writing catchy choruses. But there is also a metallic aspect to the release, and in several places do House of Shakira make use of elements strongly associated with the heavy metal music of the 80s (just check the rocker 'Midnight Hunger') - oh, yeah, and there are of course the obligatory ballads, which are not that bad, actually.

Not only are they good songwriters, they are also good musicians with the drums and bass being rock solid, while the guitar riffage is simple and effective and the guitar solos are blazing and feature shredding as well as feel.

The album is generally an uplifting one - you know the kind of music that makes you happy and makes you think of the bright and sunny days of summer (which is much needed in the cold winter time when the album is released).