One day in the Spring of 2011, producer Alessandro Del Vecchio and Avenue Of Allies label owner Gregor Klee were sat together on the riverside of the Ticino in Northern Italy and started talking about some of their favourite singers who hadn’t released material recently. One of the names that came up during the conversation was Stefan Berggren, the former lead singer of Snakes In Paradise and Company Of Snakes. That made them wonder whether there were others who were also missing the singer and would wish to hear a new album. So, Alessandro contacted Stefan to see if he would be interested in working together, and from then on Stefan came up with some songs while Alessandro and his writing partners Paul Logue (Eden’s Curse), Carmine Martone and Francesco Marras also put some into the pot.
With Alessandro (Edge Of Forever, Hardline, Lionville, Fergie Frederiksen) provided the keyboards and produced the album, with Carmine Martone (guitars), Francesco Marras (guitars), Paul Logue (bass) and Francesco Jovino ( drums - U.D.O., Sapphire Eyes, Hardline, Skill In Veins) completed the line-up. Guests include Voodoo Circle main man Alex Beyrodt and Stefan’s former Snakes In Paradise colleagues, Stefan Jonsson and Thomas Jakobsson as well as Marcus Jidell (Royal Hunt, Dougie White, Alfonzetti).
So, there is no doubting the quality of the people involved, but having good musicians doesn’t always mean a good album. However, the result in this case is something that doesn’t sound like a project, but instead is a melodic hard rock album that is a delight from start to finish. Anyone who has been lucky enough to hear Stefan on record or in concert (I saw him with CoS) will know that he has a fine set of pipes with an emotional edge that lifts him above many others. Here is a guy who means what he sings, with incredible breadth and feel. There is no doubt who is the frontman but this never has a solo or project feel about it, but rather is a solid rock album performed by a band who are ready to hit the rock and kick some serious butt. Whether this will ever be more than a studio project remains to be seen, but at least Stefan is back in the spotlight where he belongs. Melodic rock rarely gets much better than this.
www.avenue-of-allies.com
