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ARCTIC RAIN
Unity

Frontiers (2023)
Rating: 7/10

Somewhat sickly sweet in spite of the cold and pallid cover design, Unity is one of those surprisingly uplifting hard rock records that drift by with all the classic AOR ingredients. I guess any record fronted by Tobias Jonsson is going to be a winner; his powerhouse Graham Bonnet-esque soothing tones sweep the listener up and the music plays along with such effortlessly and cosy aplomb.

Unity is the Swedish band’s second full-length album, and follow-up to 2020 debut The One. Opener ‘One World’ builds slowly, teasing the ears before the torrent of the infectious chorus emerges. Meanwhile, the title track lowers the tone to exist as a mid-paced and brooding slab built upon a juddering bass line.

As always with these sorts of albums you know that every song on offer is going to provide a steamroller of a chorus, but what I really enjoy about this opus is how hard some of the tracks are. Yes, you’ll always get the softer, padded segments but they exist in a sense to draw us in to those muscular bounds and uplifting choruses.

Arctic Rain knows how to tap into those familiar themes but inject their own metallic flavour into the pie. ‘Kings Of The Radio’ gallops with such an infectious and positive joy, but let’s not forget that killer axe work of Magnus Berglund even if the lyrics are a tad on the cheesy side. Of course, albums of this ilk feature a lot of reflective tracks, and again I refer to ‘Kings Of The Radio’ alongside ‘When We Were Young’, while slushy ballad ‘Believe’ will appeal to those of a cheesier disposition.

Unity is a record that is kind on the ears and one that is easy to like even with it’s all too familiar traits, but those thick riffs and climbing choruses certainly do it no harm.

Neil Arnold

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