SEVI – The Battle Never Ends (2016)
“The Battle Never Ends” is the second studio album by SEVI, a Bulgarian rocking band fronted by Svetlana “Sevi” Bliznakova, but while there’s the faintest whiff of the European mainland about her vocals, you’d be hard pushed to identify the homeland of this female fronted rock band by sound alone.
Formed in January 2010 by singer and songwriter Sevi Bliznakova and Rally Velinov (songwriter, bass), ten other players have passed through the band’s ranks before the line-up featured on “The Battle Never Ends” – their sophomore release.
Their 2012 debut won radio play and plaudits, as far from the band’s ‘hometown’ of Sofia as Brazil, Chicago and the UK, and the band peddle a familiar formula of hitting female fronted hard rock with melody.
This particular genre hasn’t moved forward a great deal in 25 years although production advances have ramped up the overall sound. Sevi certainly fits the bill vocally and visually, individually and collectively, so really it’s down to the material which is a mixture of hard rock and commercial Rock&pop.
The band describe their music as ‘heart rock, because of the emotional content of their songs’. Indeed some tracks are pretty soulful while others hard hitting, providing a nice balance.
All the eleven tracks are rather pleasing to these ears with Svetlana singing being the main attraction, ranging from the catchy and awesomely titled hard rocker ‘Screw You, Honey’ to the American rock radio friendly ‘Crazy’ or the uptempo funky rocker ‘Bitter Taste’.
The slightly AOR sounding ‘Destiny’ is one of the highlights to me, and the peachy ‘Not A Crime’ on which Sevi really stands out from the crowd.
Sevi may come from Bulgaria but for sure they sound like a first rate international band. “The Battle Never Ends” delivers 11 carefully crafted songs with a world-wide appeal. Sevi Bliznakova’s powerhouse vocals are well suited to this style of music, and the band / musicians involved are really good.
A word also for the production: for a self-produced album, it’s exemplary.
Strongly Recommended.
01 – Don’t Hesitate
02 – Screw You, Honey
03 – One Time Thing
04 – Bitter Of Taste
05 – Crazy
06 – Supernatural
07 – Goodbye
08 – Destiny
09 – On My Own
10 – Not A Crime
11 – The Battle Never Ends
Svetlana “Sevi” Bliznakova – vocals
Ivan Angelov – guitar
Dessy Markova – keyboards
Rally Velinov – bass
Pavlin Ivanov – drums
BUY IT !
seviband.com/en/audio/the-battle-never-ends/
.
