New Music Review : Care Of Night - Love Equals War : Dangerdog Music Reviews : CD Album Music Review : Craig Hartranft

April 2024

War Grave: War Grave EP
Six By Six: Beyond Shadowland
Vanden Plas: The Empyrean Equation Of The Long Lost Things
Praying Mantis: Defiance
King Zebra: Between The Shadows
About Us: Take A Piece
Blue Oyster Cult: Ghost Stories

March 2024

Cruzh: The Jungle Revolution
Whom Gods Destroy: Insanium
The Prog Collective: Dark Encounters
Lords Of Black: Mechanics Of Predacity
Lipz: Changing The Melody
The End Machine: The Quantum Phase
Stargate: Escaping The Illusion
Turbulence: Binary Dream
Sonata Arctica: Clear Cold Beyond
D'Luna: Monster
Big Big Train: The Likes Of Us
Benjamin Croft: We Are Here To Help

February 2024

Traveler: Prequel To Madness
Lionheart: The Grace Of A Dragonfly
Honeymoon Suite: Alive
Durbin: Screaming Steel
Smoking Snakes: Danger Zone
Revolution Saints: Against The Winds
Striker: Ultrapower
Show N Tell: The Ritual Has Begun
Robert Hart: Circus Life

January 2024

Corvus: Immortals
Caligula's Horse: Charcoal Grace
Grand: Second To None
Neal Morse: The Restoration - Joseph - Part Two
The Rods: Rattle The Cage
Gotus: Gotus
Metalite: Expedition One
Cobrakill: Serpent's Kiss
Jack Russell & Tracii Guns: Medusa
Jim Peterik & World Stage: Roots & Shoots Vol. 1
The Grandmaster: Black Sun

[ More Music Reviews ]

Care Of Night: Love Equals War

Melodic Hard Rock/AOR

4.0/5.0

Facebook
AOR Heaven Records
Released: 23.11.2018
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 13.11.2018

And we thought they might be a flash in the pan, a one album wonder. The last we heard from Sweden's Care Of Night was 2015's Connected, an album that found favor among AOR fans in the European theater. Now the Swedes return with a new guitarist, Viktor Ostrom Berg, and their second effort, Love Equals War.

Care Of Night

As Mets baseball manager Yogi Berra once said, "It's deja vu all over again." For Care Of Night it's a return to form and a return to classic Eighties-style melodic hard rock in an AOR wrapper. Basically, the band has the essentials nailed: tight guitar riffs tuned to song melody and vocal harmony, an effective layer of synths for atmosphere and embellishment, strong and soaring guitar solos, and equally strong melodic vocals, all wrapped up in the rhythm and groove of AOR accessibility. Both the band and songs are tightly woven and eager to please your listening ears.

For the songs you get those that lean more towards rambunctious hard rock like Love Equals War, Hit, and the riff rockers Your Perfection and Ivory Tower, which fools you at first with a synth start. But Care Of Night works some more musical tricks with She Leads You On and Cold As My Heart. Both have light piano starts only to kick into some heaviness as they develop. Conversely, We Will Find A Way rips into some lead guitar and the same guitar line powers the song. For Please Don't Leave, Care Of Night mixes song strong rock with moments of tenderness, with one notable point in the middle where the music bows to the vocals. Throughout, efficient and roaring guitar solos abound. You can't do without those in AOR.

Suffice to say, with Love Equals War, Sweden's Care Of Night once more finds themselves on a sound foundation of classic AOR melodic hard rock. Simply Eighties ear candy revisited. Recommended.

Holter: Vlad The Impaler

Heavy/Power Metal

3.5/5.0

Heavy metal and horror go together like Democrats (Socialists, if you're in Europe) and big government. So it's no surprise that former Wig Wam guitarist Trond Holter ... [ Read More ]

CraigHartranft.net - New fiction, crime fiction by Craig Hartranft

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.