Rian: Out of the Darkness (MelodicRock)

The MelodicRock label has been serving up great reissue after great reissue this year, but they also introduced some promising new talent. Case in point: Rian. The Swedish three-piece made their debut earlier this year with the Daniel Flores-produced Out of the Darkness.

I don’t know what it is about young Swedish bands and their ability to tap into the late ’80s and early ’90s melodic rock sound so effectively, but Rian sounds like they spent a lot of time listening to Giant, Dokken, Winger and FM before recording Out of the Darkness. Singer/guitarist Richard Andermyr has a strong, steady vocal style that’s somewhere between Jimmy Harnen and Dan Huff, and his guitar work is rock-solid as well. His melodic leads and tasteful solos are evocative of that ’80s AOR era. The huge backing vocals on the choruses are also one of the album’s strengths.

Out of the Darkness has pretty much everything you’d look for in an old school melodic rock album. Yeah, there are super-polished ballads, but there are also great rock anthems like “In a Dream” and “In the Night” that have just the right hard rocking punch. Mid-tempo songs like “Time of Your Life” and “Burn the Love” are fantastic too, recalling Alias and early Dare. The guitar work, prominent keyboards, vocals and production are all spot-on. Rian makes one hell of a first impression with Out of the Darkness. This is an album that’s sure to please fans of more recent melodic rock acts like Palace, One Desire and Cruzh as well as the classic artists like Giant, Dare, Winger and Von Groove. They are definitely worth checking out.