Eclipse: Paradigm (Frontiers, 2019)

For the better part of a decade, a new release from Sweden’s melodic rock sensation Eclipse has been a drop everything, stop the presses kind of event. That’s exactly what we have with the arrival of the band’s brand-new album Paradigm. It’s the band’s seventh full-length album, and it immediately solves the “best melodic rock album of 2019” question.

Eclipse released a few singles from Paradigm over the last couple of months, and those songs – “United,” “Viva La Victoria” and “Mary Leigh” – by themselves had more staying power than the whole of 2017’s already excellent Monumentum. Fortunately the whole album is every bit as strong as those early singles. This is prime Eclipse, up there with Armageddonize and potentially rivaling Bleed And Scream (time, and repeated spins, will tell on that score). The songwriting on Paradigm perfectly distills everything great about Eclipse – the electrifying melodies, the arena rock choruses, the pure energy – and Erik Martensson sounds completely energeized and inspired here.

Aside from the singles mentioned earlier (which rule), Paradigm is just loaded with great songs. The melody and slow build to the chorus on “Blood Wants Blood” is perfect, and “Shelter Me” is fantastic as a ballad, and like “About To Break” from Bleed And Scream you can almost see it working as a country hit. “38 Or 44” has serious rocking hooks, and as melodic as it is, “The Masquerade” is essentially a metal song. Really though, you’re not going to find a less than excellent song anywhere on this album.

Eclipse knocked it out of the park once again. At this point they’re arguably the best melodic rock band out of Sweden, which pretty much makes them the best melodic rock band in the world by default. Eclipse fans don’t need anyone to tell them to get their hands on this album immediately, but I’ll do it anyway. If you’re already a fan, you’re going to love Paradigm. It doesn’t get much better than this.