OSUKARU – GBG2LA (2010)

OSUKARU was founded in late 2009 by the former EYE and KATANA guitarist Oz Osukaru and the awarded American drummer Ryan Coyle, this band quickly found its place in the reborn AOR scene.
The idea was to deliver high class harmonic Scandi AOR for the true dreamers out there.

Along the way Oz was reunited with his former Katana band mates; Johan Bernspång with an A-class vocal register aswell as guitarist Tobias Karlsson with more of a metal edge to his sound.
As the last piece of the puzzle, a very young, beautiful and new talent named Emma Lee joined the band on bass.

This Swedish / American AOR outfit delivers pure ’80s music with strong melodies and catchy hooklines.
After a short intro, “Driven By Love” opens the album up with great keys and a catchy chorus.
“Change Of Heart” is a nice mid-tempo rocker with strong melodies, and reminds of ALIEN.

“Tell Me You’ll Stay” is a fantastic AOR song where TYKETTO meets ALIEN with riffantastic guitars, wonderful keyboards and a damn catchy chorus. Best song of the album and is AOR by numbers for sure.
On “Out Of Touch” the vocals sound a bit stranger and I don’t know if they had recorded them that way, anyway, the chorus is fantastic with great hooklines.
The last song “It Was Meant To Be” is a duet with a female singer and Johan, this is a great soundtrack AOR-ballad with classy background vocals in the chorus.

OSUKARU’s debut album is good, classic rockin’ AOR.
Oz Osukaru delivers nice riffs and Bernspång vocals are cool.
Sadly, the disc it’s way to short (almost an EP) with a running time just under 30 minutes and includes one intro and one instrumental song.
Of Course, they aren’t in the same league as H.e.a.t, Bad Habit or Alien yet, but there’s definitely potential and hopefully the next album will take them even higher.

Limited Edition to 1000 copies
(also available as digital download)

01 – GBG2LA
02 – Driven By Love
03 – Change Of Heart
04 – Believe
05 – Tell Me You’ll Stay
06 – Out Of Touch
07 – Dedicacion
08 – It Was Meant To Be

Oz Osukaru: Guitars, Keyboards, Bkg Vocals
Johan Bernspång: Lead Vocals
Tobias Karlsson: Guitars
Emma Lee: Bass, Bkg Vocals
Ryan Coyle: Drums

http://www.myspace.com/osukarutheband
IF YOU LIKE IT, BUY IT !