Not today mistaken for the 80's AOR favourites from Middlesbrough, this muscular-sounding, Swedish foursome set their compass at just the same decade. Dirty-cut trad metal with a tasty angle at early days Maiden is made more impressive with this outfit's single guitar take, as befitted a lot of the genre's primal acts.

 

'Carry On', a massively catchy triple-step charger, is hugely steeped in the Di'anno era of said influence, and is one of 10 servings of incendiary soloing to be heard by guitarist Thomas Berg. Along together with old world speed like 'We Come Alive' and fist-in-the-air gallopers including 'A Light In The Dark' and 'Love Into Hate' there are also more melodic rock rated efforts such as 'Hear The Call', 'Ain't Over Til It's Over' and 'Don't Fear The Fire' available to the same enjoyment. Jacob Sandberg's sheer old school range rakes the whole lot into one bale along with the brisk guitar lines by Thomas and at only 37 minutes there are no tatty bits hanging out.

 

Despite struggling not to feel like having heard something elsewhere in at least 9 of these 10 tracks, Black Rose shall in turn struggle to disappoint with this effort. Dynamic, while also diverse in the way that they carve from all corners, Sweden's latest proud export - amongst countless many - yield forth a disc that will be difficult to stop spinning for quite some time, but that's what happens when they're only this long.

 

A light in the dark that should have never been switched off to start.