If it wasn’t for Jeff Scott Soto, I probably would’ve never heard of this band. Jeff isn’t in Eclipse, but he is in a band called W.E.T. which had members from Talisman, Work of Art and Eclipse. Through that connection, I went down the rabbit hole of Eclipse and lead singer Erik Martensson who was in W.E.T. Funny enough, he was the guitarist in W.E.T. and not the singer (well, with the exception of a few songs). And now I am a huge fan of Eclipse as a result of diving in to that said rabbit hole.
I have a number of their albums, but finally got a hold of their 2021 album called ‘Wired’. It was released on October 8, 2021, at least in Japan it was that date as that is the edition I have in my collection. ‘Wired’ was the band’s 9th studio album and has Erik Martensson on vocals, Magnus Henriksson on guitar, Philip Crusner on drums and Victor Crusner on bass. In Japan, the album was released on Avalon Records, but elsewhere around the world, it was on Frontiers Records. If you aren’t familiar with them, Eclipse are a melodic hard rock band out of Sweden and they understand how to deliver heavy rock anthems with gang vocal choruses, ripping solos and catchy, yet simple, lyrics.
The album opens with the incredible “Roses on Your Grave” and what a banger it is. A heavy track with a huge gang style chorus and a catchy hook. If that wasn’t enough, we get “Dying Breed” which might even be bigger with even more layers of vocals. Then with “Saturday Night (Hallelujah)” you get their Bon Jovi / Loverboy style weekend song. If three rocking tracks weren’t enough to open the album, why not have four with “Run for Cover”. A darker, more somber track, yet still rocks hard and heavy.
They slow things down with “Carved in Stone”, well sort of. It is a ballad and has an acoustic opening, but the back half is all power. A nice reminder that we need to live life to the fullest before our names are carved on to our headstone. I miss ballads like this one, we don’t get enough of them anymore. Then we are back to the rockers with the metal styled “Twilight”. More big choruses, more gang vocals and more heavy drums and guitars.
We can’t have only one ballad, we need two and “Poison Inside My Heart” is the next great power ballad. A little more dramatic than “Carve in Stone”, but equally as good. “Bite the Bullet” has some great opening guitar riffs that are as heavy as they come. Another rock anthem at heart. With “We Didn’t Come to Lose”, the band takes the rock anthem to the stadium anthem level. A high energy, inspirational track that would bring you to your feet ready to fight until the end.
“Things We Love” starts out and you think we will get another ballad, but don’t fret…it is another catchy, hook-laden track. Erik’s vocals soar to new heights. The final song on the album (before Japanese Bonus Track) is one of the best songs on the album and that is “Dead Inside”. What a way to end the album. This is pure melodic magic and I’ll say it again, huge gang style vocals, raging guitars and Erik’s voice…it don’t get better than this. The Japanese Edition ends with the Original version of “Carved in Stone” which basically means it is all acoustic and just as good as the album track (if not better).
If I had anything negative to say about this album it would be the simple, repetitive lyrics and the lack of variety of songs as they are all have the huge choruses, gang vocals and all around 3-4 minutes. With that being said, these are also the albums strengths as you really don’t care about any of those things as the songs are catchy as hell, great guitar work, lots of hooks and before you know it, the song is done and on to the next rocker. The ballads are also great and placed to help you take a breath. It all works so perfectly. I find this to be one of their best…not sure where I’d place it in their catalog, but it is amazing. My Overall Score is a 4.5 out of 5.0 Songs and you need to give this one a stream…then go buy it!!
Ok, one more great track to hear…
