Recent Reviews

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

[ More Music Reviews ]


Reach: The Great Divide
Reach - The Great Divide CD Album Review

Reach: The Great Divide

Melodic Hard Rock/Metal
4.5/5.0

Website Facebook Twitter Instagram
Sun Hill Production
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 02.03.2018

And then there were three. Formed in 2012 as a four piece, Sweden's Reach hit the music scene with their 2105 debut, Reach Out For Rock. The album got a positive reception, giving them opportunities to tour Sweden, England, and Europe. They were also invited to play some important festivals including Hard Rock Hell and Frontiers Rock. In 2017, the band trimmed down to a power trio with founder and guitarist Ludvig Turner jumping behind the mic and adding a new bass player with longtime friend of the band Soufian Ma'Aoui (Houston, Palace). They return with their second studio album, The Great Divide, and it's a smoker.

Reach Band Photo

Reach

In their music, Reach straddles that wobbly fence between melodic hard rock and heavy metal. Is it melodic hard rock with a metal edge or melodic heavy metal with a hard rock groove? Two sides of the same coin, really. But with a power trio, what's always amazing is how large the sound can be. Reach packs a wallop. They can be hard and heavy, yet filling their tunes with harmony, melody, groove, sweet refrains, and killer solos. Turner is a vocal force of some reckoning. He sings clean and melodic, yet with strength and range. His voice is the fourth member of Reach.

All the songs within The Great Divide are consistently interesting and entertaining. Here's some highlights. For songs that turn more on melodic hard rock with AOR accessibility, listen for Running On Empty, Off The Edge, and the quite catchy The Great Divide. The latter two songs have subtle, yet notable, synth layers. A sharper rocker comes with You Say, which has some metal edge in the riffage, brisk drumming, and then a ripping solo. Nightmare finds Reach leaning more to heavy, steady, metal, and the timbre of the song has a creepy foreboding tone that fits the title and content. Alternatively, One Life has a lighter tone, offering a steady, yet rising, groove, and Turner showing his range.

Overall, with The Great Divide, Reach has delivered another entertaining album of melodic hard rock, infused with a metal edge, and dropped into an AOR wrapper. Easily recommended.



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.

The Bottom Line

With The Great Divide, Reach has delivered another entertaining album of melodic hard rock, infused with a metal edge, and dropped into an AOR wrapper. Easily recommended.

Find A Review

Alphabetical Index

a b c d e f g h i j
k l m n o p q r s t
u v w x y z #
New & Notable
Read the Cruzh: The Jungle Revolution Album Review

Three years have passed since Sweden's Cruzh dropped their second long-player, Tropical Thunder, also introducing their new singer, Alex Waghorn. Now the band returns with The Jungle Revolution ... [ Read More ]