A great album.
Sonic Divide's self-titled album is a bit of a revelation. Hailing from Adelaide, Australia, its classy production and strong vocals (reminiscent of Nickleback's Chad Kroeger) tick a lot of Classic Rock and AOR boxes.
Commencing with the upbeat 'So In Love', the power ballad 'Driven' is wisely selected to follow and demonstrates the range of the band. Retro synth layered and complete with truly supportive backing vocals, this is a top drawer affair and more than adequately underlined by a wailing melodic guitar solo full of tricks.
This is a very commercial sounding album and could well make a dent in worldwide markets, the choruses are consistently strong and the question and answer approach of songs such as 'When The Morning Comes' is successful.
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Although, SD's sweet spot is the ballad, the band does Rock it up and the guitarist (notably on 'Too Much') provides a fair bit of Metal mayhem and blends well with the upfront keyboard sound of the band.
Sonic Divide leaves its most adventurous song to the end with 'Horizon'; throwing in a moody introduction and a wah-wah guitar playing along with vocals of the verse and chorus. This leads to a long solo, starting off in a meandering way before building up to support the final chorus and closing off a strong song and for that matter a great album.
Rob McKenzie