Sometimes it feels as if half of Sweden were raised on Journey and Survivor and in AOR terms have chosen to keep the dream alive (to borrow a phrase from an old Now & Then Records sampler) with their own punchy melodic rock bands.  For those who’ve enjoyed the melodic rock and AOR over several decades, quite understandably, many of these bands have felt somewhat “second division” (and most of those in turn have seemingly signed to Escape Music).  There have, however, been a couple of bands whose early works could stand proudly against releases from AOR’s eighties heyday.  Both Work Of Art and Wigelius have wowed genre buffs with their near perfect records between 2010 and 2012; joining them in the early part of 2013 is Gothenberg’s Diamond Dawn, whose debut release ‘Overdrive’ is rather splendid.

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