The world is full of Melodic Rock or so it seems at the moment and over the last few years a fair chunk of it to these ears at least is starting to sound remarkably similar stylistically. I reckon that there are at least five streams of Melodic Rock out there are the moment that are as distinctive as they are commonplace but I’ll pick that thought up elsewhere. Acacia Avenue is the main project of Torben Enevoldsen, who has already released three albums under Acacia Avenue moniker, and now returns with the fourth album ‘Worlds Apart’.
Acacia Avenue is what I would class as Melodic Hard Rock and the album begins with the rocking guitar-driven ‘Stand Up and Shout’ (not a Dio cover) featuring vocals by Michael Bastholm Dahl,who has a little of Klaus Meine in his delivery. Other vocalists this time round include: Peter Sundell, Dagfinn Joensen, Torben Lysholm, Nicklas Sonne and of course Michael Bastholm Dahl.
From there things move fast and changes are seamless: Grand Illusion’s Peter Sundell takes over for the lighter Melodic Rock of the title track, before we’re Hard Rocking again with Nicklas Sonne on ‘Out of Control’ then comes another contrast with Enevoldsen himself taking on ‘Fly Away’ the closest to AOR we get here.
In truth the switching between Harder Rock and more Melodic fare works well and we ramp and amp it up nicely for ‘Mine All Mine’ my favourite here and a real hard rocking treat. We keep that thought with ‘Straight To The Heart’ another harder track with Fate’s Dagfinn Joensen nailing it. It’s the grittiest song here.
That leaves us with the drum and key-fueled ‘Reaching Out’ that sounds like it was partly recorded underwater! Its the only track I can’t recommend, and ably put in the shade by ‘Seeing is Believing’ a contender for the best track here. There’s a gentle stab of Blues for ‘Don’t Chain My Heart’ that follows before ‘Wait For Love’ takes us back to the upbeat fun and sun of the sounds of the mid-eighties. The album closes similarly to the way it started out with a little harder rock and the excellent ‘Chasing Starlight.’
Quality.
