Palace is another new Swedish discovery for Frontiers Records and the world. Primarily the band is formed and performed by Michael Palace, credited as vocalist and guitarist as well as co-producer alongside one of Frontiers’ go to guys – Daniel Flores.
The 4 piece band is essentially for live performances, the studio credits behind this album assign Michael Palace to vocals, guitars, bass and keyboards and Daniel Flores drums and additional keyboards.
Much like other newcomers Cruzh, Palace is a pure 80s outfit, heavily reliant on keyboards, but delivering a heavier sound overall with guitars the more dominating feature.
Swirling keyboards, layers of guitars and fast moving 80s themed melodic hard rock is the order of the day, wrapped in a very tight Flores production.
Some of the songs really do trade off the glory days of 80s rock, but with enough power to sound fresh today. Fans of Brother Firetribe will delight in such songs as the massive anthem Part Of Me and Cool Runnin’; while the ballad Rules Of The Game is one of the year’s best.
However, I think the 3 best tracks of all are the final 3.
She Said It’s Over is a is a glorious little moody anthem with a killer hook; Stranger’s Eyes is a smooth slice of Street Talk styled AOR and Young Wild Free is a bubbly, feel good anthem to close out the album in mid-80s style.
Highlight of the month I think. A very strong debut featuring a few songs that have end of year Best Of qualities. Michael Palace has a very likable voice and Daniel Flores again delivers in the produces chair. Revised sequencing might even add another point or two.
