CHRISTIAN LILJEGREN: Melodic Passion
Released earlier this year Christian Liljegren’s first actual solo album (by his own reckoning) entitled Melodic Passion is a fantastic amalgam of 70s & 80s inspired hard rock and heavy metal. This could definitely be in the conversation for best album of 2021.
With influences such as early Rainbow, Deep Purple, Dio, Accept just hanging on the sleeve for all to see Christian pays homage to what has gone before musically while providing lyrical content that is uplifting and brings light to dark places. The quality here is amazing and deserves to be appreciated by all.
From pure hard rock metal tracks such as “Salute For The King” or “The Rock” to the Scorpions inspired ballad “This is My Love Song” Liljegren has offered up a knock out of a release. Just spin “The Victory” and watch the smoke billow out of your speakers, a heavy montage of melody, vocal prowess and guitar wizardry courtesy of Stephen Carlson.
The lyrics here are exactly what you would expect from Christian, direct uplifting and point to the One True and Living God. Jesus is elevated here make no mistake about that. Hooks are a plenty here as they burrow into your brain and demand that you simply hit repeat on your music player of choice.
A Hammond organ is what opens “Dead or Alive” when the song moves into a shuffle beat that harkens back to something from the early 70s. But don’t think this isn’t heavy; this is old school heavy with lots of energy and dynamics. Displaying an amazing appreciation of Uriah Heep, Thin Lizzy and The Sweet (by Christians own admission) DOA makes me wish this had been written back then instead of 2021. I would have had that many more years to enjoy it!
Many will say why he didn’t write “new material” why just rehash what has gone before. Honestly if that is your opinion you are entitled to it, but you’d be wrong. This is new art created to show the appreciation of what has gone on before and adding the 2021 sheen to it. There is a fine line between homage and parody and Liljegren is clearly in homage and appreciation.
The instruments are very organic sounding without the extreme over production of many releases. With Mastering from CJ Grimmark everything is well defined and spaced appropriately in the mix. The songs are world class material with the appropriate touches and enhancements that bring this release to a satisfying conclusion.
Christian Liljegren’s first official solo album Melodic Passion, after nearly 50 prior releases, is a tour de force of melodic hard rock and heavy metal. This may not be the flavor of the month but I don’t care, this is a release that will stand the test of time.
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