THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA – Skyline Whispers (2015)

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Founded by Björn Strid (Soilwork), David Andersson (Soilwork) and Sharlee D’ Angelo (Arch Enemy), THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA surprised us with their great debut CD three years ago, presented here on the blog.
Despite its members Metal origins, The Night Flight Orchestra is a pure classic rock project which has a new album entitled “Skyline Whispers” that will be released on June 9th, 2015, via Coroner Records.

The goal here is to reclaim the late ’70s / early ’80s sense for classic melody, the forgotten recipe to a timeless song.
There’s many tributes in the way the songs are composed, arranged and executed, taking the curves very nice with a hard rockin’ swing. Björn has a great voice, and here he really blossom, no growl, just a voice that is incredibly powerful and plenty of colors.
“Sail On” opens in full late seventies fashion with vintage Hammond organs, a blasting bass line, candy-floss pianos and traditional hard rock guitars. A racing mix of Thin Lizzy, Wishbone Ash and Deep Purple all together.

Then “Living for the Nighttime” is just infectious. A Kiss guitar riff circa Dynasty over a a melody that will have you bobbing your head and tapping your feet. This has summer time jam all over it.
There’s more like this yet more early ’80s L.A. injected “I Ain’t Old, I Ain’t Young”, almost AOR in its foundation.
Björn’s vocals really shine on the ELO sounding “Stiletto” that really balances between the guitar, the catchy keyboards and the bouncy rhythm section.

“Lady Jade” is inspired by some seventies hard rock psych, “All the Ladies” is driven by a breezy, poppy melody, while “Demon Princess” returns to a mysterious hard rock groove.
“The Heather Reports” ends the album via a true ‘tour de force’ blending hard rock, progressive, jazz rock, some Santana-like fusion, etc, all into a stupendous jam.

At this point, The Night Flight Orchestra is much more than a side project for these metallers. If you are new to them, there’s not a single heavy metal riff or song structure here on their new album “Skyline Whispers”.
Call it Classic Rock if you want, but the guys mix much more than traditional hard rock here; there’s disco, psych, R&B, pop and as said, a Californian touch very close to late seventies AOR / FM rock.
All is done with an extreme professionalism, attention to detail, and cleverly produced / mixed sounding retro yet powerful and up-to-date.
Don’t miss this one: very, very interesting.

01 – Sail On
02 – Living for the Nighttime
03 – Stiletto
04 – Owaranai Palisades
05 – Lady Jade
06 – I Ain’t Old, I Ain’t Young
07 – All the Ladies
08 – Spanish Ghosts
09 – Demon Princess
10 – Skyline Whispers
11 – Roads Less Traveled
12 – The Heather Reports

Björn “Speed” Strid – Vocals (Soilwork, ex-Coldseed)
David Andersson – Guitars (Mean Streak, Soilwork)
Richard Larsson – Keyboards
Sharlee D’Angelo – Bass (Mercyful Fate)
Jonas Källsbäck – Drums (Mean Streak, ex-Axia)

BUY IT !
www.amazon.com/Skyline-Whispers-Night-Flight-Orchestra
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