OSUKARU – Triumphant (2013)
* read comments, Oz speaks
For the last five years, Swedish guitarist Oz Osukaru has been tirelessly fighting to position his band at the top of the Melodic Rock / AOR field.
After two albums, several line-up changes (including different vocalists) and the aim to refine and polish the songwriting to achieve a unique sound resulted in OSUKARU’s brand new CD “Triumphant”.
This new Osukaru not only features a new singer in Fredrik Werner (who also plays guitar), there’s also a female singer – Cecilia Camuii – sharing the leads. Musically, the experiment in previous recordings adding sax lines to the mix has been accentuated, which works really well giving to Osukaru a different approach than the rest of the acts in this genre.
Talking about genres, “Triumphant” shows the band much more inclined to Melodic Rock than the characteristical AOR sound of Osukaru’s origins. Of course, there’s ever present keyboards and melodies strongly Scandi sounding like in “Heaven In Your Eyes” (one of the best tracks here) and even some Westcoast scent in “Cruise Control”, but this album mostly go for Melodic Rock.
The dynamic “Mafia Rules” is one of the hardest songs, while title track “Triumphant”, “I Won’t Let You Go” and specially “The Fire Burns On” are catchy melodic rockers, while “Never Play With Fire” is an original composition worked in a quite different way that you expect from this type of bands / genre. “Believe” is a cool ballad, with vocals shared between both singers, as on many tracks on this recording.
Oz Osukaru is a talented musician and a very generous person, as on “Triumphant” he gives to the rest of his crew a lot of room to develop these songs. Fredrik Werner isn’t only relegated to his vocal duties, he shares some lead guitars as well, and the sax Jens Björk can be heard all over (a really good musician), but this, ironically, leaves Oz guitar work too much buried in the mix on many tracks, subtracting punch to the overall delivery.
One of the problems with “Triumphant” is the lack of impact, few songs have that ‘instant’ kick essential in Melodic (Hard) Rock. Besides, and not a minor point, both singers are pretty weak in my opinion. Werner does his best on the more uptempo numbers, while Cecilia Camuii may look really gorgeous on stage, but vocally she rarely hits the mark.
I loved Osukaru previous works, but I am not sure if “Triumphant” is a step forward in this band’s career. As said, Oz is a skilled musician and a really cool guy, surely he will untiringly try to improve this flaws next time.
“Triumphant” has its moments, if you’re into Scandi Melodic Rock give it a listen.
01. Dawning (Intro)
02. Triumphant
03. Heaven in Your Eyes
04. Prisoner of the Night
05. Walk in Balance
06. Holding On to Memories
07. Cruise Control
08. Mafia Rules
09. I Won’t Let You Go
10. Never Play With Fire
11. Believe
12. The Fire Burns On
Oz Ozukaru: guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
Fredrik Werner: vocals, guitars, backing vocals
Cecilia Camuii: vocals, backing vocals
Jenz Björk: sax
Adrian Lopez: piano, keyboards
Ryan Cole: drums on tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7. 8, 11
Axel Ryberg: drums on tracks 4, 9, 10, 12
Erik Heikne: guest guitars on “Mafia Rules”
BUY IT !
If you buy the CD version; there’s 2 exclusive bonus tracks to enjoy:
www.musicbuymail.eu/index.php?i=38935
www.ginza.se/product/osukaru/triumphant/235192
cdon.se/musik/osukaru/triumphant-23985632
digital:
itunes.apple.com/se/album/triumphant/id670268757
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Nice songs, good choice to use the sax so much, but Cecilia is pretty out of place. I'll wait for your next album with songs written about the new singers and with a much better production (this one's a little too amateurish).
Cheers and good luck anyway!!!
Just ordered the cd at music buy mail, I want these bonus, love this band!
Sonny
@ Oz :
Hi there Oz. I knew you'll comment as you did on the previous Ozukaru albums posted here. You are one of the few musicians who understand how the music business work these days, that's why I stated you're a really cool man.
Talking about the album, if it's presented here, my readers know that is worth to investigate. There's really good songs, and as I said, you're a talented musician. Do not stop fighting to achieve your goal Oz, you have the strengths.
Regards, 0dayrox
Thank you for the review! Mostly, a good one! 🙂 This is not an excuse in any way, more a way to underline one of your statements!
The singer problem have really been an issue on all the albums and the reason why is because, as you said, we've changed singers for every release… so the currenty singer is singing songs written for the previous one. Therefore, and especially because each and every singer have had their own style, it's been hard to change the key and tone of the song to match the current voice. So, for the next release, all the songs will be written and/or arranged so they fit both Fredrik and Cecilia like a glove!
Why all the singers have left is because of various reasons, but both Cecilia and Fredrik will hang on to this ship and we will take what's good with this album and make it even better for the next.. and the bad will turn into badass! 😉
I know this review is connected with a free download but I seriously have no problem with it! Download the record and if you enjoy it and want to own it on CD – you know where to find me! 🙂
Peace!