JD MILLER – Afterglow (2019)
Swedes JD MILLER, now on album number three with “Afterglow”, really appear to be approaching the top of their game. Genre-wise, they purvey that excellent ‘heavy AOR’ so beloved of fellow Scandinavians Pretty Maids, with songs like the excellent ‘Light Your Fire’ sounding for all the world as if Maids’ throat Ronny Atkins might have had a hand in penning the melodies.
That’s rich praise, of course, but it’s a comparison the band are more than able to live up to.
Vocalist Peter Halldén is actually a little smoother on the ear than Atkins for the most part, but his ability to carry a tune with classy conviction is just as accomplished as the king of the Danes.
The album’s epic centrepiece, ‘In The Afterglow’, shows him at his best as the track ebbs and flows, swells and recedes through nearly nine minutes of finely wrought emotion. It’s mightily impressive stuff, let me tell you, glossily modern at it’s core yet brimful of Seventies classic rock style and panache.
The way the band builds in support of Elias Fröjd‘s solos is nothing short of masterful, with the band bringing an almost proggish sense of bombast to their melodic rock as the song wends it’s way to closure.
‘The Desire’ is another out and out highlight, built on a grinding piece of rifferama from Elias Frojd and a spine tingling chorus that mixes those ever-present shades of the Maids with a big and most welcome dollop of Treat in their prime. You’ll be hitching up the sleeves of your dust coat and kicking up your heels in your best cowboy boots as soon as you hear this little nugget, let me tell you…
After repeated exposure to “Afterglow I literally cannot finger one single chink in JD Miller’s songwriting armour.
Not every song on this record is a stone cold classic, of course, but even the ‘lesser’ material has much to recommend it. Classy tunesmithery for sure.
HIGHLY Recommended
01 – Inside a Dream
02 – Game Of Love
03 – Inception
04 – Icarus
05 – Light Your Fire
06 – In The Afterglow
07 – The Desire
08 – Burned Alive
09 – The Answer
10 – Devilstorm
11 – Auburn Skies
Peter Hallden – Vocals
Elias Frojd – Guitars
Chris David – Bass
Emil Eriksson – Drums
BUY IT
www.amazon.co.uk/Afterglow-Jd-Miller/dp/B07VDMLV87
