Decidedly, 2020 is a prolific year in melodic hard-rock with this time another new album from the Spanish group 'Xtasy' which I discover with their 3rd album 'Eye of the Storm' and which formed in 2011 with the meeting of the singer 'Silvia Idoate' and the guitarist 'Jorge Olloqui'. For this new opus, they called on 'Erik Martensson' who officiates in a lot of melodic hard-rock bands and whom they had crossed during the tours with 'Eclipse' and 'Ammunition' and the Swede co-wroted and also did the mixing and mastering.
And the result is there : catchy and melodic compositions throughout the album with, thing is not custom in this genre, a singer with remarkable vocal talent who has a voice that lends itself well to energetic compositions of the group by starting with an effective 'Die Young', then the catchy 'Play With Fire' takes over with a magnificent refrain, followed by 'Eye of the Storm' which continues with a heady melody. The rest is just like this beginning and I will quote 'Perfect Strangers' with a chorus that goes directly into your head or even the entraining 'Nowhere to Run' and the only criticism that we could make to them, is not to have included quieter titles to vary the moods but we can still quote 'Welcome to My World', 'Crashing Down' and 'Silent Heroes' which are closer to mid-tempo.
In summary, this new album by the Spanishs of 'Xtasy' makes you want to dive into the previous ones because the 11 compositions are all excellent and could all be the subject of single and it is still an album to recommend to an audience that likes melodic rock, catchy and accessible at first listening... | |
