CRY OF DAWN – Anthropocene

The Swedish melodic rockers known as Cry of Dawn, which is fronted by the talented Göran Edman, serves up eleven catchy and easily digestible tunes that harken back to the 80s and contain more than a cursory nod to AOR ala Journey. This sophomore album of theirs is a well-produced and pristine-sounding affair, and without being decidedly enthralling or a mandatory listen as such, it does manage to tick a lot of the right boxes as it is an enjoyable and pleasant piece of work to immerse oneself in. Keyboards figure prominently in the mix and add some nice atmospherics to the compositions, and several of the choruses throughout are proper earworms. Edman’s voice is strong and perfectly suited to this particular style of music, and although the LP does come across as somewhat predictable and formulaic in places, it undoubtedly has its merits with tracks such as ‘Swan Song of Our Love’, ‘Sign of the Times’, ‘Last of the Innocent’, and irresistible album opener ‘Devils Highway’ being the best of the bunch. Worth a handful of spins and streams but ultimately a little too derivative and lacking in musical identity to really make an impact.