Nordic Union - Nordic Union

Published January 25 2016

*=Staff's pick	The War Has Begun Hypocrisy* Wide Awake* Every Heartbeat When Death Is Calling* 21 Guns Falling* The Other Side Point Of No Return True Love Awaits You Go

Genre	Melodic Hard Rock	Ronnie Atkins	Vocals
Tracks	11	Erik Mårtensson	Guitar
Running time	42 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Frontiers Music	Erik Mårtensson	Bass
Release	January 29, 2016	Magnus Ulfstedt	Drums
Country	Sweden/Denmark	Erik Mårtensson	Keyboard
Producer	Erik Mårtensson
Similar artists	---

Additional guitar solos by Thomas Larsson, Fredrik Folkare and Magnus Henriksson.

It comes as no surprise to anyone anymore that Frontiers Music puts together projects in great numbers that comprise musicians from different bands or that the musicians themselves converge to put out the material on that specific label. These projects don't always come out in best way possible as far as I'm concerned, but the end result of Nordic Union's inaugural effort nevertheless shows that this newly constructed combination is a really successful one.

This Danish/Swedish collaboration between Pretty Maids' singer Ronnie Atkins and two Eclipse members, guitarist/singer Erik Mårtensson and bass player and former drummer Magnus Ulfstedt (plays the drums on this record), is indeed a well-directed musical experience. I think that the music in this project combines the boys' main bands in a fascinating way and if you're familiar with both bands, you can decidedly hear how they, with a little bit of emphasis placed on Eclipse, are able to balance this record between what they've accomplished before.

Nordic Union is a great example of confident melodic hard rock with extraordinary choruses. The songs have a great flow almost all throughout the record and Mårtensson's songwriting skills can today no longer be questioned. I think that the ballad True Love Awaits You is an unnecessary feature though, because it's undeniably the album's weakest song. It seems like this individual track basically is put on the album just for the sake of having a ballad on it.

Apart from that little mishap, this release has nothing but a very nice outcome. Some people might say that this music is somewhat predictable overall, but in this particular case I couldn't care less, because these guys are indeed able to come out with great melodies, both musically and vocally, and that's in the end pretty much all that matters to me regarding this type of music.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	5	7	8	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Tobbe