Johan Kihlberg’s IMPERA – Scandinavium Alive (2023)
Johan Kihlberg’s IMPERA are releasing the new live CD “Scandinavium Alive” via Metalville Records. Ever since he heard “Kiss Alive” for the first time in 1975, Johan has been a huge fan of the famous masked band, and everything he did professionally later on, has always revolved around KISS somehow. For example, he worked for Polygram Records in the 80s and 90s and got to know the guys from Kiss during that time. At that time he was also asked to lead their fan club. Later, Johan Kihlberg toured with Vinnie Vincent and had some guest appearances with Bruce Kulick, who also played on the Impera debut “Legacy of Life” in 2012.
After the announcement that KISS would be coming to Europe for some shows in 2020, it was all too understandable that Johan Kihlberg immediately tried to get his band Impera to support him at a show in Sweden. And indeed, just one week later, they were confirmed as special guests at the Kiss show in Gothenburg.
But then Corona came and the concerts were put on hold. On 22.06.2022 the time had finally come and Johan Kilhberg’s Impera entered the stage of the sold-out Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg.
The result is the hot rocking “Scandinavium Alive”, a terrific, impressive crunchy live melodic hard rock album plenty of huge riffs, big drums and ‘stadium’ vocals. All sound polished in the best Scandinavian tradition.
Johan Kilhberg’s Impera does a clever thing here: a short album, including the best songs, with the bulk coming from ‘Spirit Of Alchemy’ and a few from the 2018 album ‘Age Of Discovery’.
The music makes clear that a well-rehearsed outfit took the stage as the whole performance sounds pretty tight and heavy, in the vein of that ‘Spirit Of Alchemy’ album, a fine sounding hard rock / metal album with crunching guitar work by Lars Chriss and outstanding singing by Jonny Lindkvist.
The hard n’ heavy opener ,,Nothing Will Last’’ (with orchestral parts) kicks of the proceedings in a convincing matter. The drums are upbeat and kicking, the guitars are cemented in melodic metal and Lindkvist just belts it out. Songs such as ,,In Heaven’’ and ,,When Souls Collide’’ sound incredible live.
All in all, a short but excellent set – and an impressive live recording.
Highly Recommended
1 – Nothing Will Last (Live)
2 – Lost Your Life To Rock ‘N’ Roll (Live)
3 – That’s The Way That Life Goes (Live)
4 – When Souls Collide (Live)
5 – All About You (Live)
6 – Fear (Live)
7 – In Heaven (Live)
guitar – Johan Kihlberg
guitar – Lars Chriss
vocals – Jonny Lindkvist
bass – Matt Vassfjord
drums – Magnus Ulfstedt
BUY
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