COLORSTONE – Steam (2014)

* CD press, no cuts

Swedes from Malmö COLORSTONE will release their second album “Steam” tomorrow, February 1, 2014.
The band was already featured on this blog two years ago on occasion of their debut CD, and recently two singles from the new record on our 0DAYROX Advanced Releases 2014 VOL.1 & 2.
The musicians involved in Colorstone are veterans from the international melodic rock scene having recorded on over 50 albums with various artists and covering many genres, like guitarist Fredrik Bergengren which was one of the founder members of AOR act Time Gallery releasing two very good albums during the nineties.
So if you are new to Colorstone, expect high quality musicianship here.

As their debut record, “Steam” is inspired in the Classic Melodic Hard Rock style of the ’80s / ’90s, wrapped by a modern melodious sound and updated production.
Bergengren clearly is the musical director, as these 10 tracks are mostly groovy guitar driven tunes with a strong and bouncy rhythm section. Johan Dahlström’s vocals are clear and intense, sometimes rough, sometimes melodic, with a wide range reaching high notes when needed.
As you can see in the line-up, all the guys contribute backing vocals creating a sustained layer of harmonies making the choruses prominent and thick.

Colorstone not only has a new bass player in Samir Dounas, they now gone from a quartet to a quintet with the addition of Tommy Falk on keyboards, achieving as band a more compact and diverse output.
The album open with the first two already presented singles “Never Too Late” and “Gotto Groove”, the first one of the most modern sounding tracks on the CD, the other, as the title says, plenty of groovy riffs recalling Nuno Bettencourt’s Extreme.

They turn things to midtempo with the melodic “Like A Whisper” featuring nicely arranged vocal harmonies,
“Breakdown” pick up the pace in nineties hard rock style, while “September Rain” goes for an Americanized sound including keyboards in the background.
There’s catchy main melodies on the modern Scandi melodic rockers “Fighting For A Cause” and one of my favorites; “Best Of Me”, bringing to mind Swedes Bad Habit.
“Stone Temple” is the ballad, only acoustic guitars and lots of harmony vocals for an uplifting tune, whilst “When I’m Gone” and “Don’t Just Dream About It” completes the record returning to groovy hard rock, the latter much more melodic rock oriented thanks to the dreamy chorus and keyboard fills.

“Steam” is a another solid album from Colorstone, a band of skilled music player and songwriters.
You can hear stylings from the classic Scandi scene from twenty-five years ago but Bergengren and his bandmates are focused to provide an overall updated sound to their music. This is helped by the separated, modern production.

“Steam” will be presented tomorrow in a release party at a Swedish venue. At the moment the physical CD it’s only available at the link provided below so you have to wait a couple of weeks to purchase it on regular stores.
Recommended stuff.

01 – Never Too Late
02 – Gotto Groove
03 – Like A Whisper
04 – Breakdown
05 – September Rain
06 – Fighting For A Cause
07 – Don’t Just Dream About It
08 – Stone Temple
09 – Best Of Me
10 – When I’m Gone

Johan Dahlström (ex Silver Mountain) – Lead & Backing Vocals
Fredrik Bergengren (ex Time Gallery) – Guitars, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Olle Nilsson (ex Tricky Track) – Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Samir Dounas (ex Pierce) – Bass, Backing Vocals
Tommy Falk (Pete Sandberg Band) – Keyboards, Backing Vocals

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