Stephen Unlike other fellow Finnish melodic rockers, Brother Firetribe or Reckless Love to name a few, that built their music based on the 80s decade, Negative on the other hand, proud to have a modern musical structure that's influenced from the symphonic rock maestro, Queen, to the sleazy beast of Guns N' Roses, and also to the Finland's glam elder, Hanoi Rocks. This is truly a pleasant discovery for me as I never knew they've been around since 1997, but judging from many words around that "Neon" might be their best release, I guess I'm on the right track to start listening to them.

After one quick spin, I must say Negative really know how to weave some beautiful arrangement. The strength apparently lies on the evocative emotion that's brilliantly illustrated on many songs but still packed with some flaming rhythm and unweepy melodies. The album opener, "No One Can Save Me Tonight", is probably quite a patchy start, but "End of The Line" really stands out with a fresh modern-sounding melodic rock and strong chorus. "Love That I Lost" covered with bloodpumping drums and weirdly the song sounds like a collision between Linkin' Park and House of Lords, strange but beautiful. And then comes, "Blood On Blood", the anthem driven by powerful bass slap created a wonderful Verse and reached the climax with a sensational chorus, definitely the best track of the album.

Negative didn’t forget to throw in several mandatory ballads, a female crowd pleaser, "Believe" is actually good but try changing the fourth chord of the chorus with a minor and you can sing Radiohead's "Creep" to it. "Jealous Sky" is a safe-and-decent attempt while "Fucking Worthless" isn't bad at all from the musical point of view, but they definitely should have picked a better title. "Days I'm Living For" put them back on track, a kickin' ass uptempo melodic hard rock and the second best track of the album. "Since You've Been Gone" has the same quality and qualified to be my third fave.

One weak thing that's pretty crucial for me is you can rarely find a superb guitar solos. Yes I can spot some but still far from enough. Musicianship is okay, they still have a large room for improvement, but they're doing just good so far. The production is also nice, nothing to complain for. Overall, this is a very good modern melodic rock/glam metal release and if you're a fan of the genre, this is guaranteed to cast a big smile to your face.