Finally the full-length album from the Swedish/American AOR band Osukaru sees the light of day. It’s been a long journey for guitarist Oz Osukaru to get this album released. They released two EP´s called Never Too Late (2011) and GBG2LA (2010) earlier and had some problems with line-up changes, but now it seems like they have gathered all the pieces for this album. For this album the production sounds really good and the new singer Chris Tiann has a good voice and sometimes reminds of ex-H.e.a.t singer Kenny Leckermo (but not as strong and powerful).
The album has 10 songs with a running time around 37 minutes and that’s the only thing I have to complain about. Highway To The Stars is a great AOR-song with dut-dut keyboards and it’s filled with layers of melodies and I love the keyboards that lies in the background and the chorus is stunning. Hot Blooded Woman is a bluesy hardrock song with similarities to FM meets Tyketto, OK song, but I think it’s the weakest on the album.
City Lights is a fantastic AOR-song with a strong melodies and a damn catchy chorus with lovely keyboards. A song that reminds of H.e.a.t’s debut. Till The End Of Time is a nice AOR-ballad with good harmonies where Alien´s debut comes in mind. Never Too Late is a mid-tempo rocker that could have been on the debut album and the keyboards plays a big roll again, I like it a lot.
On Tear It Down Oz gets to shine out with crunchy guitars that can be heard all over this song and this song rocks nice with a strong chorus. Promised Land is an awesome AOR-rocker with fantastic keyboards and hooklines that runs out to a catchy chorus with powerful harmonies, best song of the album AOR by the book. After many years of waiting, I must say that the wait has been worth because Oz and his band has come up with a strong piece of work.
This is a fantastic album filled with slice of catchy AOR/melodic rock in the veins of H.e.a.t, Tyketto and Alias.
