{"id":16034,"date":"2013-11-29T00:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-11-29T00:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=16034"},"modified":"2014-01-02T21:36:16","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T21:36:16","slug":"album-review-angelica-thrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-angelica-thrive\/","title":{"rendered":"ANGELICA – Thrive (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANGELICA
Thrive<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nFrontiers (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Murder Of My Sweet frontwoman Angelica Rylin expands her repertoire with Thrive<\/em>, her debut album as a solo artist. Citing influences such as Robin Beck and Ann Wilson, Swedish singer Angelica embraces her AOR side here, allowing her voice to soar and roar through the album\u2019s 12 tracks. <\/p>\n

The album includes a number of guest appearances including Jesper Str\u00f6mblad (ex-In Flames \/ The Resistance) and Matt Guillory (James LaBrie), as well as songwriting and co-writing credits from the likes of Magnus Karlssson, Harry Hess, and more. In a way, this is like the Place Vendome albums because much of the \u201cFrontiers Family\u201d all sort of come together to bring Thrive<\/em> to life. <\/p>\n

What you get here is exactly what you\u2019d hope to hear if you enjoy the above names. This is pop-edged, thickly produced, melodic hard rock. We already knew that Angelica had a powerful voice, but in this context she really takes it over the top. This musical context allows her voice to explode on the choruses in particular. \u2018To Your Rescue\u2019 and the album\u2019s first single, \u2018Breaking My Heart\u2019, are great examples of this. The driving, keyboard-laden anthem \u2018I Am Strong\u2019 is another excellent example. She really just lets loose throughout these songs, sounding far more rocker chic than she does in the more haunting The Murder Of My Sweet material. <\/p>\n

There is a lot of material here that isn\u2019t overtly rockin\u2019, but keeps a mid-tempo pace that makes it perfect fodder for rock radio. \u2018This Kiss Is Just For You\u2019, \u2018Rain On My Parade\u2019 and \u2018Take Me To Your Heart\u2019 all fully embrace the classic AOR sound that bands like Harem Scarem, 80s Heart, Giant, Alias and Hardline are \/ were so damn good at. <\/p>\n

If you are a fan of emotionally charged ballads, Angelica has your back as well. While there aren\u2019t as many ballads as you\u2019d expect, there are a couple. \u2018Can\u2019t Stop Love\u2019 feels like an early Giant song, featuring a desperate, broken-hearted vocal claiming victory over it all with the big chorus goodness that AOR fans love. It\u2019s really strong and escapes a lot of the usual cheesiness lyrically, aside from the title. \u2018Losers In Paradise\u2019 is its less explosive counterpart that, unfortunately, feels like it\u2019s going nowhere. <\/p>\n

Overall, this is a very strong album. If you don\u2019t like that pristinely produced, every-note-is-perfect, smooth AOR sound then this won\u2019t win you over. There is a surprising amount of focus on the guitars though and the touch of modern sounding synths that smatter the album keep it from sounding dated. I really dig Thrive<\/em>. Angelica is a powerhouse vocalist that really gets to be a powerhouse on this one.<\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANGELICAThrive Frontiers (2013)Rating: 8\/10 The Murder Of My Sweet frontwoman Angelica Rylin expands her repertoire with Thrive, her debut album as a solo artist. Citing influences such as Robin Beck and Ann Wilson, Swedish singer Angelica embraces her AOR side here, allowing her voice to soar and roar through the album\u2019s 12 tracks. The album […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,863],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-angelica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16034"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16037,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034\/revisions\/16037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}