Acacia Avenue – ‘Chapter V’

(Pride & Joy Music)

It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years since the last Acacia Avenue album. Founder and main man Torben Enveoldsen has been very busy in the interim working with other bands and on solo material but I think like most hardcore Melodic Rock fans we’re all glad to have some new songs from this project. I know not everyone is a fan of projects which have multiple vocalists and guest musicians but when done right they can be very exciting and enjoyable. During the 2010’s I associated the name Acacia Avenue with solid, consistent and memorable albums and with ‘Chapter V’ the band carry on that tradition.

Projects like this can divide opinion, not everyone like’s multiple vocalists and guest musicians as they can all bring a different tone or style to their performances. Obviously sometimes this can make an album feel disjointed or less cohesive, but that’s not the case here. Envelodsen has created a very cohesive musical vision even with his co-writers and guest musicians adding their little bit of spice to the album.

This is a fantastic slice of guitar heavy melodic rock and the varied voices add a lot of light and dark to the feel of the various songs which I find quite interesting. I do veer more towards the smoother more melodic tracks, but the heavier, groove driven tracks will definitely hit the right notes with fans of this style.

They do a really interesting version of ‘Rainbow Child’ which I found myself quite captivated by, I was apprehensive at first because I love the Dan Reed original and didn’t like the idea of it been covered. I think they really honoured the original though and I think fans will appreciate it. Another highlight is ‘The Longest Time’ with Peter Sundell on vocals which unsurprisingly has a Grand Illusion feel to it.

‘Chapter V’ is not going to set the world on fire, not every record you hear needs to be for you to enjoy it. I think genre fans will lap this up and it will get played a lot by melodic rockers everywhere, it may not end up featured on peoples top ten lists at the end of the year, but it will provide a lot of entertainment to those who listen to it and for that reason alone I can recommend it to Melodic Rock die hards.

7/10

Essential Track – ‘All Of The Time’

Review by Woody