{"id":21401,"date":"2014-09-01T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T00:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=21401"},"modified":"2014-09-01T16:41:11","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T16:41:11","slug":"album-review-grand-design-thrill-of-the-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-grand-design-thrill-of-the-night\/","title":{"rendered":"GRAND DESIGN – Thrill Of The Night (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

GRAND DESIGN
Thrill Of The Night<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nAOR Heaven (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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With former Zello vocalist Pelle Saether at the helm, Swedish melodic rockers Grand Design unleash their third opus upon our expectant souls. For the follow-up to 2011\u2019s Idolizer<\/em> Saether is joined by Dennis Vestman (Steel Attack) and Janne Stark (Overdrive, Constancia, Locomotive Breath) on guitars, Mats Vassfjord (Chris Laney Band, Scaar) on bass, and drummer Magnus Ulfstedt (Eclipse, Talisman, Lion\u2019s Share).<\/p>\n

Thrill Of The Night<\/em> features ten tracks which should be right up the neon-lit streets of anyone with a fetish for 80s-styled pomp, tease and glorious Technicolor.<\/p>\n

Anthems abound on this crisp, golden opus that strategically marries Saether\u2019s high rise vocals, which somehow have the ability to make him sound like a pristine teenager primed for the limelight. Couple these effortless tones with those driving melodic guitars and a percussive attack that aches with subtlety and shine respectively, and you\u2019ve got another well-polished contemporary AOR record which is more than happy to breeze with nostalgia, but also glimmer with its summery, sugary harmonies.<\/p>\n

Right from the off it\u2019s clear that these guys know how to dig out huge, infectious melodies and fuse them with joyous lyrics and uptempo chimes. And what better way to introduce the new album than via the triumphant qualities of \u2018U Got Me Good\u2019, which is just a sumptuous lump of pop-tinged hard rock featuring a cool, sassy guitar lick and those bubblegum rock vocals.<\/p>\n

And it just continues as the band marches on throwing out sweet melody after sweet melody; from the sturdy, fist-pounding anthem that is \u2018Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Heart Attack\u2019 to the more subtle rush of \u2018The Rush Is Gone\u2019, with its ever-flowing harmonies where Saether\u2019s vocals simply soar high above the reflective sway. Meanwhile, melodic rock icon Erik M\u00e5rtensson (Eclipse) joins in the fun, co-writing the riotous \u2018Who\u2019s Gonna Rawk You Right\u2019 and the tremendous \u2018You\u2019re The Only One\u2019. But if its sugar-coated ballads you\u2019re after, then look no further than the smouldering \u2018When The Greatest Love Of All Kicks In\u2019; a truly monumental track that can be found in the dictionary under the word \u201cepic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thrill Of The Night<\/em> is such a masterful album, combining hard-edged rock numbers, such as the engaging gallop of \u201910 Outta 10\u2019, with some truly wonderful elements of beauty and pomp, hinting at Def Leppard in its ability to fuse delicacy with sturdiness. Boy, have there been some cracking melodic rock releases in 2014 and Grand Design\u2019s latest is another sweet remedy for the soul.<\/p>\n

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

GRAND DESIGNThrill Of The Night AOR Heaven (2014)Rating: 8\/10 With former Zello vocalist Pelle Saether at the helm, Swedish melodic rockers Grand Design unleash their third opus upon our expectant souls. For the follow-up to 2011\u2019s Idolizer Saether is joined by Dennis Vestman (Steel Attack) and Janne Stark (Overdrive, Constancia, Locomotive Breath) on guitars, Mats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-grand-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21401","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=21401"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21405,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21401\/revisions\/21405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}