Recent Reviews

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

[ More Music Reviews ]


Arctic Rain: The One
Arctic Rain - The One Album Art

Arctic Rain: The One

Melodic Hard Rock
4.5/5.0

Facebook Instagram
Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 29.07.2020 | Released: 07.08.2020

Arriving from Sweden, Arctic Rain is new band featuring songwriter and keyboard player Pete Alpenborg, who has worked with many familiar rock acts such as Revolution Saints, House Of Lords, Issa, All 41, and many more. Besides Alpenborg, the original core of the band includes guitarist Magnus Berglund and singer Tobias Jonsson. In 2018, the band produced and than shopped a demo recording to various labels. Frontiers Music signed them, and now Arctic Rain introduces their debut album, The One.

Arctic Rain - Click For Larger Image

Arctic Rain

Citing influences like Whitesnake, Mr Big, Foreigner, Talisman, Def Leppard, and Journey, among many others, Arctic Rain delivers classic melodic hard rock ala The Eighties. With a keyboard player as the principal songwriter, I expected their music to be heavily synth centered. But not so much. Certainly, you'll find some fine piano lines, but mostly the keys seem as accent or embellishment. If anything, with the guitar riffage, they make every Arctic Rain song more dense.

To these ears, the main and most impressive musical element was Berglund's sharp riffs and abundant and fiery guitar lines. And I mean abundant. All the songs have the traditional major solo, but many songs are laced with several shorter lines. Examples include Lost, Free My Mind, Friends, or Love Of My Life. With this in mind I would revise my description of the Arctic Rain sound to guitar-centric melodic hard rock, perhaps adding also a metal edge.

After these thing, the next notable music element is simply the lead vocals and vocal arrangements. Tobias Jonsson has a powerful voice, singing clean, strong, and with little strain in his range. More importantly his voice follows the melody and harmony of any song with ease and aplomb. Excellent examples are found with Lost, Lift Me Up, The One, Night After Night, or the speedy riff rocker, Breakout.

All things considered, Arctic Rain and their debut album The One delivers some fine and entertaining guitar-forward classic melodic rock. If you're a fan of the same, you will want to get this album. 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

Arctic Rain and their debut album The One delivers some fine and entertaining guitar-forward classic melodic rock. If you're a fan of the same, you will want to get this album. 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 Atlantic: Another World Album Review

We have to dig deep, three decades, to find the origins of Atlantic, a project of songwriter, musician, and producer Simon Harrison (then Stranger, Wisht). Initially thought to be a one-off recording, Harrison ... [ Read More ]

From The Archives
Read the The Defiants: Drive Album Review

Where does the time go? The Defiants' last album Zokusho dropped four years. That was pre-pandemic, and the last four years have been a blur for many of us. As we know, The Defiants features past and present ... [ Read More ]