PROUD – Second Act (2021)
After all these years (37!) Swedish outfit PROUD, founded as BURN in 1982, will release their second album “Second Act” this Friday via AOR Heaven Records.
Their debut “Fire Breaks The Dawn“ (1984) seems very distant, but the ’80s vibe & feeling are intact into this classic melodic hard rock band which sounds unmistakable Scandinavian, with a warm production design and lovely midtempo AOR arrangements Mixed & Mastered by Erik Mårtensson (ECLIPSE).
Just check out ear-candy winners like “Broken Dreams“, “Crying In The Night“ and “Dangerous“.
The band was founded in Landskrona, Sweden in 1982. The group changed their name over to PROUD and made an album – 1984’s ‘Fire Breaks the Dawn‘ – for EMI which was produced by Caj Högberg. This is a rare LP / CD nowadays and often elusive title making it an essential purchase when stumbling upon by fans of classic rock/metal of the 1980s. ‘Fire Breaks the Dawn‘ achieved success in Japan and parts of South America both.
In 2019, two of the original band members decided to make a new start. Songwriting and recording took place and soon a new record deal was signed with AOR Heaven.
The opening of ‘Sail Away’ is full of magic evocative of that ’80s melodic sound where the backing vocals bring to mind the first Seventh Key album. Then ‘Broken Dreams’ is a pure AOR song with a powerful chorus, and an album highlight.
We said ‘magic’ above, and that’s the title of third song which does some magic indeed, where the vocals shine alongside the melodic guitar / keys and a pulsating bass line.
‘Crying in the Night’ is very classic with vocalist Anders Magnell sounding a lot like John Elefante, ‘Dangerous’ rocks with big guitar chords and choruses very well done again… impossible not to love these guys.
And another winner arrives with ‘Higher’, a masterpiece of modern rock, a song that could take this band to the top if the radio still played good rock n’ roll music. 80’s where songs like this shone with their own light.
More good taste appears with the elegant ‘Hold On’, the light progressive ‘I’m Ready’ with its marvelous sound (grab headphones to listen that subtle keyboard in the background), and they end with the joyful ‘Fly like an Eagle’ which has everything you look for a melodic rock song: terrific verses, great chorus, classy guitar solo, etc.
You’ll love “Second Act”: this is one on the ‘more classy’ melodic rock albums of the year, and one of the best.
HIGHLY Recommended
01 – Sail Away
02 – Broken Dreams
03 – Magic
04 – Born for Your Love
05 – Crying in the Night
06 – Dangerous
07 – Higher
08 – Hold On
09 – I’m Ready
10 – Fly Like an Eagle
Anders Magnell – Vocals / Guitar
Roberth Horvath – Bass / Backing Vocals
Mats Christiansson – Drums / Backing Vocals
Richard Larsson – Keyboards
Pre Order
www.recordshopx.com/artist/proud/second_act/
