MYLAND – Light Of A New Day (2011)

Italy, Milan based MYLAND have been off the map since the release of their superb ‘No Mans Land’ in 2008, though they have still been in touch playing local gigs and keeping their profile up.
The band has undergone several lineup changes, with only founding member drummer Paolo Morbini and guitarist Hox Martino remaining from ‘No Mans Land’ era.
New singer Franco Campanella is pretty different from the previous Steve Perry-influenced Guido Priori. His vocals has a more gravely, rough style.
If fact, Myland has changed their style a bit. The lush, melodic guitars now are more balanced with power chords and harder edged solos. But what has remained are the vocal harmonies, the keyboards and the outstanding drums of band founder Paul Morbini.

The ‘new’ Myland starts things off with “Living in the Magic” that does offer a fancy keyboard work, solid guitar chords and good background vocals.
“Love Hurts So Bad” is en earlier Journey influenced track with tempo changes and a pre-chorus section with interesting piano lines.
“Never Care for the Future” is a semi-midtempo melodic rocker with a lackluster run in its delivery and the band left on track layers of various musical instruments and voices.
“Flying Higher” is more straight-forward structurally, with a true melodic hard rock vibe, and the thumping bass adds a great touch. It benefits from having a bigger chorus and cohesive guitar/keyboard interplay.
A soft piano opens the ballad, “In Your Eyes”. One can picture lighters being held high overhead as this track is played live. It can be wondered, that if here, the higher vocals of original vocalist Priori might have better suited this track, as his voice would have soared high and above the music, as Campanella seems to be outside of his comfort zone in the higher octaves.

“Dancing In The Moonlight” is one of the highlights on the album. A contagious classic european melodic rock tune with a strong and easy to remember chorus. Very good layered vocals and parping keyboards.
Next, another great track.”Never Stop Screaming Rock” is pure melodic hard rock featuring a great rousing chorus, keyboards that fit right in, and power chords that drove this track forward. Very Good.
“Hey You” a has a more 90’s classic bluesy hard rock sound, and here is where singer Campanella sounds comfortable. Good guitar work and keyboard job. This track reminds me 21 Guns.

“Shattered Dreams” is another highlight, that’s because this is a pure modern AOR track, with a smooth vibe and excellent musicianship. In my opinion, the best arranged song of the CD.
“Fire Burns Desire” is the track that gets closest to ‘No Mans Land’, this is a very retro melodic rock / AOR with backing vocals set to the max.
The ballad “Wherever You Go” is another ballad, but this time more 21st century scandi oriented. It reminds you several Sweden recent bands. Campanella’s vocal style fits better into this kind of mellow-rock tunes.
For the finale “Stand Up Tonight”, Myland pick up the pace, but in doing so keep it melodic, pitched up and full. Big choruses are a good indicator as to the appeal of a song along with some rock solid guitar work from Martino and nifty keyboard solo.
Curiously, the cool melodic rocker title track “Light Of A New Day” is only available as a bonus on the japanese edition.

On “Light Of A New Day” the band has taken the risk to change the tested, successful style from the previous album to a bit more edged rock. But they still sound lush and very polished and the class musicianship / songwriting is still here all over the album.
Myland’s music is tuneful, brought to life with over the top, soaring choruses, with the instruments and voices all coming together beautifully by a proper production.
There’s much to enjoy on “Light Of A New Day”, a solid, representative, and entertaining AOR melodic hard rock in the current European tradition.

01 – Living in the magic
02 – Love hurts so bad
03 – Never care for the future
04 – Flying high
05 – In your eyes
06 – Dancing in the moonlight
07 – Never stop screaming rock
08 – Hey you
09 – Shattered dreams
10 – Fire Burn Desire
11 – Wherever you go
12 – Stand up tonight
13 – Light Of A New Day [Japan bonus] GEI IT HERE

Paolo Morbini – drums
Hox Martino – guitars
Davide Faccio – keyboards
Fabian Andrechen – bass
Franco Campanella – vocals

mylandmusic.com
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