As is my custom now, I have grouped together the releases of rock, hard rock and melodic metal albums released this time in the last two months. Always full of melodic gems to listen to on repeat, here are the 9 albums that caught my attention this time. April and May 2025 offered us some very good vintages in this style of music with, as we are now accustomed to, a good majority of bands from Nordic countries, but as a bonus, an album from a French band, proving that we can also make very good melodic hard rock in France:
We start with the Swedes of 'Captain Black Beard' who, after the very good 'Neon Sunrise' from 2022, released a new album in early April 2025. With 3 singles available on video, you have a preview: these are the bombs melodic 'When It's Over', 'A.I. Lover' and 'Read Your Mind'. Another great album that takes us back to the best of the 80s...
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Also hailing from the Nordic countries, the Finnish band 'Crow's Flight' released their second album, 'The Dark Horizon', on April 18th. Between hard rock and metal, there are 10 compositions releasing a beautiful energy that await you and the video of 'Road to Madness' gives you a little preview. 'Into The Night' opens the ball with a first very energetic scud with a refrain to sing along to. They have not forgotten the power ballad with 'Unspoken Words' which is truly magnificent. In short, there's nothing to throw away in this second album from 'Crow's Flight', which confirms all the good things we thought of them with their first album, 'The Storm'...
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You'd think that everything related to rock, hard rock, and melodic metal comes from the Nordic countries, because it's yet another band from Sweden that's in the spotlight, in this case. 'H.E.A.T', who are releasing their 8th album 'Welcome to the Future'. After 'Kenny Leckremo's' return to singing with the last album 'Force Majeure', the Swedes offer us 12 anthems to get you in shape for a whole day and the first three tracks have been the subject of a single and a video: 'Disaster', 'Bad Time For Love' and 'Running to You'. The rest is in the same vein and each composition could have been the subject of a single and we can emphasize that we are spoiled with many remarkable guitar solos. In the end, the Swedes from 'HE.A.T.' have delivered yet another album with unstoppable melodies that are a joy to listen to (and re-listen to)...
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Aside from Scandinavian bands, there are still some very good melodic rock and hard rock bands in other parts of the world, and the Canadians from Harem Scarem are among them. It's been five years since they released an album, and now they've done it with this new baby, 'Chasing Euphoria'. Like 'Captain Black Beard' and 'H.E.A.T', the promotion was done with three singles: 'Chasing Euphoria', 'Better The Devil You Know' and 'Reliving History'. In short, more addictive melodic lines to get your ears hooked on with this latest 'Harem Scarem', which shows that good melodic rock and hard rock can also be made beyond the Nordic countries...
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In this latest EP from 'Brother Firetribe', which contains seven tracks, four were already known because, after the very good 'Feel the Burn' from 2020, the Finns released singles that are part of this short album (see the video for 'Thunder Rising' here) to which we can add the new compositions 'Number One' and 'How Long Until Tomorrow', plus an acoustic live performance of 'Bring On The Rain' which was on the album 'Feel The Burn'. In short, this EP keeps us waiting until the next album release with more substance by taking us on a few compositions that smell of the 80s...
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We toughen things up a bit with 'Art Nation', which we enjoyed with 'Inception' released in 2023. While maintaining an immediate melodic approach, this latest baby from the Swedes is full of good energy and the first three compositions set the tone for the album with three well-tempered hard rock blasts. Each one has been the subject of a single and a video: these are 'Set Me Free', 'Thunderball' and 'Halo'. The fourth video available is 'Julia' which is a very beautiful power ballad allowing a well-deserved break. In short, this 'The Ascendance' adds an album full of memorable melodies to the releases of the Nordic bands of the last two months, and 'Art Nation' continues, after ten years of existence and five albums, to delight us with their energetic hard rock...
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This time we're going to Italy with 'Soul Seller', whom I discovered in 2016 with their album 'Matter Of Faith', and it took almost 10 years for them to do it again with 'Fight Against Time'. Three videos are available on the 'Burning Minds Music Group' label website with 'Fight Against Time', 'City Of Dragons' and 'I Can't Stand This Heartbeat Anymore'. These 3 singles show all the talent of this band who have evolved to offer us very good melodic rock. Varied, this 'Fight Against Time' is well filled with 13 compositions that alternate catchy and energetic atmospheres with more moderate mid-tempos or ballads but which all offer catchy melodic lines with choruses to sing along to. In short, 'Soul Seller' releases a very good album that competes with the best Italian bands of this genre, I'm thinking in particular of 'Lionville', 'Wheels Of Fire', 'Revolution Saints' or even 'Edge Of Forever'...
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With a career that began in the late 80s, 'Giant' is a veteran of melodic hard rock but hasn't released a number very important album, 'Stand And Deliver' being the seventh of the band. After several lineup changes, this latest opus takes us back to the atmospheres of the first albums with 11 melodic compositions as desired. From the original line-up, there remains the rhythm section with bassist 'Mike Brignardello' and drummer 'David Huff', the rest of the line being composed of 'Kent Hilli' on vocals ('Perfect Plan'), 'Jimmy Westerlund' on guitar ('One Desire') and the essential 'Alessandro Del Vecchio' also participates in the production but also by adding, here and there, some keyboard sections. The majority of the compositions offer us Very pleasant moderate AOR, and all the compositions could have been singles. The second half of the album is filled with melodic gems, with the beautiful ballads 'It Ain't Over Till It's Over' and 'Paradise Found' and the mid-tempos 'Stand And Deliver' and 'Time To Call It Love', not to mention the final track 'Pleasure Dome', over 6 minutes long, which is a hard rock must-have. In short, 'Giant', despite the limited number of albums released in the 2000s, is still there to deliver very good melodic rock albums that are a huge pleasure to listen to...
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I'm ending this column with a new band, 'Prost', which is a new project created in 2023 by guitarist and keyboardist 'Antoine Prost'. The Frenchman is surrounded by 'Manos Fatsis' on vocals, 'Greg Aubert' on bass and drummer 'Mats Ericsson' who is none other than the one from the Swedish band 'Degreed'. 'Believe Again' is therefore the first studio recording of this quartet which offers us very good melodic hard rock by immediately raising itself to the same level as the Nordic formations with compositions which smell good of the 80s. From the start, 'Lone Survivor' shows all the talent of this formation with a first melodic jewel and the rest is in the image of this first title, in very varied atmospheres, which go from well-tempered up-tempos ('Comfort Zone', 'Never Let You Go', 'Heart & Dreams' or even 'Road Of Tomorrow') to radiant and harmonious AOR ('Believe Again', 'Through The Night', 'Summer Days' or even 'Cold & Fire') and the final power ballad adds itself to the list of the best ballads of this style. In short, more good stuff with this new project 'Prost' which shows that melodic hard rock is not the exclusive preserve of Scandinavian countries...
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