TREAT – The Endgame

With their spirited take on all things melodic hard rock, the Swedish act known as Treat is undoubtedly one of the better and most entertaining musical encounters from those shores when it comes to the aforementioned genre. On their latest LP, the infectious vocal melodies and strong hooks are still at the center of things. There is a lot to like about this 12-track effort; the rhythm section provides power and crunch, the keyboards add an atmospheric backdrop to the proceedings, and the guitars are fucking massive and the riffs catchy as hell. Its main flaw is lack of consistency as it loses it momentum roughly midway through where a few filler tracks rear their heads (namely “My Parade” and “Wake Me When It’s Over”), but one can easily overlook that when such killer cuts as “Sinbiosis”, “Both Ends Burning” and the two epics that close out the album (“Dark to Light” and “To the End of Love”) are present too. There is a lot of good, arena-sized stuff for you to enjoy here, and the whole thing is wrapped in a big-sounding production.