Cry of Dawn: self-titled

Here’s the latest “group” from the Frontiers factory. Cry of Dawn is the latest AOR/melodic rock project to showcase the vocal talents of Goran Edman (ex-Street Talk, ex-Brazen Abbott, ex-Malmsteen). Edman is joined by guitarist Michael Palace (Palace, First Signal), keyoardist Soren Kronqvist (Crash the System, Find Me) and drummer Daniel Flores (Find Me, The Murder of My Sweet), and gets songwriting support from Frontiers regulars Steve Newman, Alessandro del Vecchio and Robert Sall.

Just reading that lineup will tell you exactly what to expect from the Cry of Dawn debut. This is ultra-smooth, ultra-polished AOR in the Journey/Survivor style that fits right alongside current Frontiers bands/projects like Palace, Find Me, Khymera and Sunstorm. It has huge melodies, lush keyboards and one of the smoothest, steadiest voices in melodic rock. It’s like a less quirky Street Talk, which is a good thing.

Even if you’ve grown somewhat tired of the endless, near-identical projects that the Frontiers label keeps serving up, it’s all but impossible not to like this album. Goran Edman sounds absolutely flawless here, and he’s been given some very, very good songs to work with. I don’t care how jaded you are, you’re going to air keyboard and sing along to songs like “Listen to Me,” “Tell It To My Heart” and “Hands Around My Heart.”

Cry of Dawn is smooth AOR done very well. It’s hard to get too emotionally involved in a project like this, knowing there may never be another Cry of Dawn album (and that a dozen other projects will soon take its place), but Edman and company make it awfully easily to enjoy it while it lasts. This is one of those albums that will win over fans of the classic Survivor/Journey/Toto AOR era as well as fans of the newer bands like Mecca, Work of Art, Find Me and Pride of Lions.

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