Album Review: THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA - Aeromantic

01. Servants Of The Air
02. Divinyls
03. If Tonight Is Our Only Chance
04. This Boy's Last Summer
05. Curves
06. Transmissions
07. Aeromantic
08. Golden Swansdown
09. Taurus
10. Carmencita Seven
11. Sister Mercurial
12. Dead Of Winter

The Night Flight Orchestra were a pleasant surprise for me when I first heard them a couple of years ago. Their Sometimes The World Ain't Enough album was really cool, spawning two particularly amazing songs in Turn To Miami and Paralyzed. You certainly need to check those out if you haven't already. Anyway, they've recently released their fifth album, Aeromantic and it's rather good.

To bring you up to speed, The Night Flight Orchestra is a super-group featuring Soilwork's Björn Strid on lead vocals and Sharlee D'Angelo from Arch Enemy on bass. Musically, it's a long way away from those bands, which is why I think it works so well. This project is clearly a labour of love and you can hear how much fun the musicians are having playing this material.

They're a retro band, clearly borrowing the sounds of Prog, Rock, Disco and Electronica from the late 70's-mid-80's, but adding a contemporary spin in both terms of composition and production. That's basically why it sounds fresh and exciting, and not the dull dated Dad Rock you may expect from my initial description.

Aeromantic is easily as strong as its predecessors, and in time I may even consider it to be their best yet. Kicking off with the superb Servants Of The Air which has some of the album's most frantic Hard Rock riffing laced with keyboards, bringing to mind Deep Purple's Highway Star but only for very short periods of time, as the track is packed with twists and turns making it truly epic, and a wonderful start to the record.

Divinyls was the first single and is closer to the band's sound that I'm most familiar with. It owes as much to ABBA as any Rock band, producing an infectious chorus and danceable beats that can't be ignored.

Whoever chose the singles for this album got it bang-on. Transmissions is my favourite track on here with its irresistible electronic pulse, cool-as-ice guitar licks and glorious chorus. Taurus is also a highlight. It's one of the quicker tracks and is undeniably catchy.

When Golden Swansdown started, I had to check I wasn't listening to late-80's Magnum. I felt the same way about If Tonight Is Our Only Chance, which is equally fantastic.

Aeromantic is a great Rock record and a welcome break from all the angry Metal on the Nuclear Blast label.