You can’t really go far past the Bon Jovi comparisons on this release from Sweden’s Cruzh. This album indeed has a lot of the hallmarks shared long ago by those New Jersey natives – especially if you’re a fan of that very first album. It’s also good to see Frontiers pick up another new band especially as at the moment it seems to be investing in any US Rock band who graced the 1980’s.
From the almost too sweet ‘In And Out of Love’ (not the Jovi song) Cruzh make no bones about the inspiration for their sound. This is sheer AOR, melodic as hell and heavy on the harmonies. It’s damned good if you like that sort of thing but at times you feel a little more ‘grunt’ might open their sound up to a wider audience.
The Journey-like ‘First Cruzh’ is one of the ones that stuck in our head most and longest but there are a lot more of similar quality – On the heavier side ‘Aim For the Head’ is sumptuous Melodic Rock with that little more fuel in the tank before it mellows out; ‘Hard to Get’ is similar in weight and one of the very best here – it rely captures something some of the other songs loose through a little too much polish.
On the lighter side they do equally well from the light west Coast AOR of ballad ‘Stay’ to ‘Anything For You’ with its simple piano and vocal and subtle vocals. Be warned though the album is rather ballad heavy and after a while you do hanker for the harder stuff.
‘Survive’ at the moment is our maybe favourite along with ‘Aim For the Head; and ‘Hard to Get’ – it’s a nice slab of Def Leppardish arena Rock that makes you hope the guys tilt a little more in that direction next time. That being said if you wanted to pick a band that has plenty of potential these guys are it. A great debut.
