{"id":21269,"date":"2014-08-17T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-17T00:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=21269"},"modified":"2014-08-17T12:21:26","modified_gmt":"2014-08-17T12:21:26","slug":"album-review-220-volt-walking-in-starlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-220-volt-walking-in-starlight\/","title":{"rendered":"220 VOLT – Walking In Starlight (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

220 VOLT
Walking In Starlight<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nAOR Heaven (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Beginning with a computerised buzz and then overcast by a sturdy, laid-back guitar, the new album from Swedish melodic hard rockers 220 Volt gets underway.<\/p>\n

For those of you previously unaware of these guys then you should be ashamed of yourself, because these boys have been in existence since 1979 and marched effortlessly through the 80s, releasing melodic metal gems such as Power Games<\/em> (1984) and Mind Over Muscle<\/em> (1985) before splitting in the early 90s.<\/p>\n

A number of band reunions have taken place since 2002, accompanied by a compilation album (Volume 1<\/em>, 2002), a live album (Made In Jamtland<\/em>, 2005) and an EP (Heavy Christmas<\/em>, 2009), but now 220 Volt are back with a full-length opus of new studio material.<\/p>\n

Walking In Starlight<\/em> is the much welcomed return for this much-admired quartet and boasts the talents of vocalist Anders Engberg, drummer Peter Hermansson and guitarists and founding members Thomas Drevin and Mats Karlsson.<\/p>\n

Musically, this new opus is not your average sugar-sweet batch of harmonies. Instead, 220 Volt adopts a harder edge which relies on a heavy, driving guitar sound which really comes to the fore with upbeat rockers such as \u2018System Overload\u2019, \u2018Broken Promises\u2019 and \u2018Through The Wastelands\u2019, which are all dense-sounding riff-heavy monsters.<\/p>\n

Of course, the band is extremely versatile within its sound. For instance, the opening title track boasts a joyous melody of ascending guitars which complement Engberg\u2019s soulful croon. Indeed, Anders has been a vital acquisition to the band, joining in 2012; his simple yet powerful style means that whichever path the band chooses, his tones sit comfortably. A prime example of this versatility becomes evident with the pounding \u2018Alive\u2019 which is one of the album\u2019s fastest, heaviest moments, and yet in contrast to this we\u2019re treated to the buoyant bop of \u2018Get Me Out\u2019 which features a sturdy bass-line. At the other end of the scale there\u2019s the funky, pop-edged strut of \u2018One Good Reason\u2019 coupled with the subtle closer \u2018Guiding Light\u2019, which showcases the band at its most evocative.<\/p>\n

Walking In Starlight<\/em> has so much to offer that one can literally become lost in the hard rockin\u2019 grooves which take this band to higher levels. While we know that the AOR genre can be easy on the ears, there are moments on this opus where the combo returns to its roots and comes dangerously close to being a full-on metal band.<\/p>\n

Forget the sugar; this is a fiery return to form, and Drevin and Karlsson have every reason to be proud as to how this machine has rolled on and evolved. Let\u2019s hope it won\u2019t be too long before 220 Volts hits us with another ace, because as modern rock albums go this is one of the best I\u2019ve heard for a number of years. Don\u2019t miss out on being struck by 220 Volt.<\/p>\n

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

220 VOLTWalking In Starlight AOR Heaven (2014)Rating: 8.5\/10 Beginning with a computerised buzz and then overcast by a sturdy, laid-back guitar, the new album from Swedish melodic hard rockers 220 Volt gets underway. For those of you previously unaware of these guys then you should be ashamed of yourself, because these boys have been in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1382,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-220-volt","category-album-ep-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21269","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=21269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21272,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21269\/revisions\/21272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}