The BIG DEAL – Electrified (2025) *HQ*
Melodic hard rockers The BIG DEAL will release the new studio album ”Electrified”, set for release on January 17th, 2025, via Frontiers Music. If you like your modern melodic hard rock with big vocals, plenty of keyboard and guitar solos, two great female vocalists intertwining in harmony, you’ll love this album.
Part of success of ”Electrified’ comes from the strong songwriting: The BIG DEAL collaborated for the first time with great artists such as Anders Wikstrom (TREAT) and Jona Tee (H.E.A.T), who helped to compose some songs.
Musically, there are all sorts of influences in here: pretty much every European Melodic Hard Rock act of the past 30 or so years can probably be found within these tracks if one delves deep enough. However, that shouldn’t be taken as a negative thing because there are also a few other rather more unexpected influences cropping up in here too.
For example, along with some very sharp riffing, recent single ‘Fairy of White’ also has a stunning keyboard solo that could have come straight off Rainbow’s classic Rising album. In fact, it’s the plethora of keyboard solos that actually means that The Big Deal are providing something a little out of the ordinary in the world of European AOR / melodic Hard Rock. The interplay between Nevena Brankovic’s keyboards and the guitars of Srdjan Brankovic is breathtakingly good.
On this album, the songwriting has been bolstered by Treat’s Anders Wikstrom and H.E.A.T’s Jona Tee and they have certainly helped the band to add some extra layers to their writing. Of particular interest is the addition of some slightly more Progressive elements into the band’s sound. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a few Euro Melodic Rock anthems here (the quite brilliant ‘Survivor’, ‘Like a Fire [Electrified]’ and ‘Don’t Talk About Love’ being prime examples), but other tracks, such as ‘Fairy in White’ and ‘Broken Wings’ have a bit more chordal complexity in the structures and that, along with the fabulously fluid lead guitar and keyboard interplay lifts the quality of this album and gives it a bit of an edge in the crowded Melodic Rock marketplace.
We certainly can’t complain about the melodic content: the whole album is chock-full of magnificent vocal and instrumental hooks that have just enough immediacy to grab the attention, but also have the potential for longevity – not always something that can be said of this kind of music where the initial joy of the hookline wears off after a few listens.
The other thing that we really like about this album is that the band really are not afraid to put the pedal to the metal on some proper banging uptempo tracks such as the frantic ‘Burning Up’ which has a thunderous guitar riff that alternates between furious chugging and mighty power chords, accompanied by swirling keys and absolutely colossal vocal hooks. Top that off with more of that classy guitar and keyboard interplay (more shades of Rising-era Rainbow here) and you have a sure-fire winner.
Even the more overtly AOR tracks such as ‘Coming Along’ and ‘They Defied’ are pretty uptempo. I’d imagine that these songs would be awesome live as the energy level is pretty full-on throughout, with drummer Marko Milojevic and bassist Nikola Mijic driving things along in quite spectacular fashion and providing the perfect bedrock for the Brankovics and Ana Nikolic to work their magic over.
Talking of ‘They Defied’, although much of the track is proper banging AOR, at the end, it throws in a proper curveball with a Progressive Metal style riff, odd time signature and some very cool drumming. Very nice indeed!
It’s difficult to pick a favourite track off the album such is the quality of what’s on offer here.
The band have certainly evolved from the debut CD. The Big Deal are definitely developing their own sound and are using their influences quite brilliantly in order to do so.
Fans of female-fronted European Melodic Hard Rock should absolutely check this album. It’s an absolute cracker. Uptempo, high-energy, Progressive-tinged, extremely melodic, anthemic, with excellent vocals, keys and guitars, there’s pretty much nothing here to dislike.
What better way to start off a new hard-rocking year in 2025?! Awesome stuff.
1. Survivor
2. Like A Fire (Electrified)
3. Fairy Of White
4. Better Than Hell
5. Broken Wings
6. Don’t Talk About Love
7. Burning Up
8. Coming Along
9. They Defied
10. More Than A Man
11. Break Down The Walls
12. Dare To Dream
Srdjan Brankovic – guitars, bass
Nevena Brankovic – vocals, keyboards
Ana Nikolic – vocals
Marko Milojevic – drums
Nikola Mijic – bass
Pre order:
www.amazon.co.uk/ELECTRIFIED-Big-Deal/dp/B0DNMTNCG5
