“You’ll love this”, said Sentinel Daily‘s head honcho Scott Adams when he sent me the new album from Swedish rockers Symphony of Sweden. “You’ll know why after about thirty seconds of track one”.

Actually, the boss man was out by about twenty five seconds; After just one cymbal stab/voice-box wahwah interface I was in, and, I’m pleased to report, the majesty of Saints of Yesterday barely lets up for the rest of the album’s duration…

Ever wondered what Helloween might sound like with White Lion‘s Mike Tramp behind the mic? Of course you have. And there are moments here, particularly on the title track, where this duo – multi instrumentalist Pontus Hagberg and Linus Wester, Wester being he of the Trampesque tonsils – sound just like that power-metal-meets-AOR-mashup we’ve been waiting for all our lives…

Champions is a superb sports-anthem-in-waiting, a gloriously overblown paean to success that features rolling pianos, swelling choirs and some superb guitar work; Stan Bush would kill to be writing this sort of track in 2022… And that opening track, Will She Fight, is simply the best old school AOR you’ll hear this year; elsewhere the tear-jerking ballad, Bailey, a tale of a young man explaining to his mother why he has to go to war, is pure, lighters-in-the-air nirvana. I challenge you to listen to this, hauntingly emotive piece of music without experiencing a lip tremble or two…

The heaviest track on offer, Slave, doesn’t work quite so well within what seems to be the context of the album, however, even here the soaring chorus offers much to the discerning listener. Fans of Disturbed will love it, too…

It’s pretty rare in this day an age that a band covers all the bases without leaving the listener feeling that they are trying just a bit too hard to please everybody, but on Saints of Yesterday that never happens. Instead you are left to marvel at a pair of musicians who have been able to gain complete mastery over whichever style they decide to turn their hands to; these men are frighteningly talented, and this is an album you must listen at least once before your ears give out.

Saints of Yesterday releases on February 3rd.