【Pls look at the top comment first】In recent years, a group of Swedish musicians created a superb album entitled "Voices From The Past". This is a terrific record released in 2019 by German label AOR Heaven. From the theme that the album conveys, they aim to make the past sounds alive and let the old time revive. They are X-Romance, a precious melodic rock band, dreaming of the golden era of 1980s.

The glorious 1980s is the best of the best era for melodic rock, which is rooted deeply from numerous 1980s dreamers' hearts. If you want to have a 1980s dream, let music turn back time to hear voices from the past. If music can bring a sense of nostalgia today, that is what a group of romantic musicians dream of. After 30 years, Romance came back for melodic rock.

X-Romance consists of six members, featuring duo guitars and keyboards. Before X-Romance was formed, four members once performed in other bands. The founding year can be dated back to 2015 as X-Romance was originally a melodic rock project, but the history of the band's predecessor started long long time ago.

X-Romance is two co-founders 1980s dream that they picked up with this album. Bassist Anders La Ronnblom and keyboardist Thomas Widmark, two dedicators of X-Romance, have made their dream come true. Turn back time to the late 1980s, the predecessor of X-Romance was called "Romance", a short-lived melodic hard rock band formed in 1987 but spilt up in 1989 with only four singles released on EP in 1988. Romance was the band where Anders La Ronnblom and Thomas Widmark played.

In the 1980s, there was the hard/melodic rock explosion with a great deal of rock legends coming out. In Sweden, rock legends hit the Europe and even the world in a prolific records market. Until today, melodic rock from Sweden still influences global music industry deeply with numerous great tunes by legendary artists.

The truth is that not all the artists can become worldwide legends. Some of them stand out like Europe, Alien, Dalton, Glory etc., leaving the monumental works while more of them were hidden for various reasons, facing the changeable music world, that is why so many Swedish young rockers had to break off their dreams like Romance and more.

Since the noughties onwards, melodic rock has graudally begun to revive as epic musical works have come out in succession. In the past years in Sweden, epic albums never fade away, which still stand out in Europe and hit the global melodic rock world. Among these fresh sounds in the past years, this album from X-Romance is highly recommended.

Amazingly, X-Romance and Perfect Plan come from the same hometown, Örnsköldsvik. From X-Romance's facebook page, Anders La Ronnblom and Kent Hilli are good friends. Great musicians always love to have close communication together. For whoever loves Perfect Plan's ultra brilliant musical works, this album "Voices From The Past" from X-Romance can become a new desirable choice to satisfy the need of every persistent heart, following the everlasting Nordic melodic hard rock sounds all the way.

This ballad "You And I" perfectly matches the band's "Romance" theme. Musically, the album is combined hard rock with aor, which I usually call "solid aor" like Perfect Plan as rocking tunes with flaming vibe drive the full-length album, but these tunes truly bless for ears with hooks one after another. When the opening track "Lonely" kicks in, I seem to know why they want to entitle the album "Voices From The Past", because they did their best to make music sound close to the golden past tunes. Almost each song was created along the music route of 1980s past sounds with some fresh modern elements added, enriching this feast on melodic rock journey.

Besides, "Bad Connection" and "Over And Over" are two solid aor masterpieces, featuring the arrangements close to Perfect Plan and triggering every flaming heart to rock. "Total Madness" is another highlight from the album for me, conveying 1980s melodic hard rock vibe, which seems to tell everybody those gloriuous days never die.

Let "Straight Through Your Heart", "Temporary Love" and "Pushing On" light up the passion on 1980s dream and arouse the rocking sense of nostalgia. Then enjoy another romantic ballad "Somebody Out There" and let the music heal your soul. Though X-Romance didn't release a single separately taken from the album, each song can be considered as a hit single.

Scandinavian sounds in melodic rock are clean, bright and layered, especially the everlasting Swedish sounds, which include magic keys, splendid guitar works espeically the bands with duo guitars and fantastic backing vocals. Swedish sounds are so welcome that make delicate ears have eager desire for.
#MelodicRock #aor #X-Romance #AndersLARönnblom #ThomasWidmark

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