BAD HABIT – Atmosphere (2011)

After last year’s ‘Best Of’ titled “Timeless”, BAD HABIT returns with their 10th full studio album “Atmosphere”.

This easily may be the best album from this band ever… and I think one of the best 2011 releases already. What a great start of the year.

Bax Fehling : ” It’s all about ‘striking a chord…’ both musically and emotionally. It’s about connecting with listener at more than one level. It’s about delivering powerful melodic rock that inspires people, and that triggers positive feelings, thoughts and actions…

This has been the Bad Habit approach for many years and continues to be so with our new album Atmosphere “

“Atmosphere” opens with “In The Heat Of The Night”, a song which is for Bad Habit standards quite heavy guitar orientated and gives you a glimpse of the great songs that will tickle your ears for the almost next 48 minutes.

Highlights come thick and fast with the bright guitars and thumping beat of “Words Are Not Enough”, or the sultry melodies of “Angel Of Mine” illustrating the breadth of styles that Bad Habit can bring under the same umbrella with a slick, and skilled ease.

Fehling is a great vocalist whose voice emits emotion with every note and the gritty edge that he has found over the last few Bad Habit releases adds to his voice’s appeal.

His best work is found on the wonderful mix of tempos that is “Fantasy”, while the band are in top form on power ballad “Save Me”.

“I Wanna Be The One” is the best track from the band working as a whole, and on “I’ll Die For You” the riff and song structure shows the group’s modern side.

“Atmosphere” is a perfectly balanced album.

From the counting down intro of “In The Heat Of The Night” till the very last note of the last song “Without You” the CD is from an unbelievable high level.

It has just enough crunchy guitar in the songs and just enough keyboards without making them soft or poppy.

Singer Bax Fehling has done an outstanding job on the vocals but I think that the most credits must go to the other founding member of Bad Habit: mister do-it-all Hal Marabel. He has produced the album, wrote or co-wrote the songs, played the guitar and filled-in the keyboard parts.

Jonas Reingold mix job is excellent and the group of a few outside songwriters invited to join the creative process turned out to be a fruitful collaboration adding a new dimension to this disc.

BAD HABIT proved with “Atmosphere” that now they really belong into the big melodic rock league.

01 – In The Heat Of The Night

02 – Words Are Not Enough

03 – Every Time You Cry

04 – I Wanna Be The One

05 – I’ll Die For You

06 – Angel Of Mine

07 – Fantasy

08 – We Are One

09 – Only Time Will Tell

10 – Break The Sillence

11 – Save Me

12 – Catch Me When I Fall

13 – Without You

Bax Fehling : vocals

Hal Marabel : guitars, keyboards

Partik Sodergren : bass

Jaime Salazar : drums

Sven Cirnski : lead guitars

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