Palace, the brainchild of Swedish musician Michael Palace, will release their second album, "Binary Music" on December 7, 2018. Today, the band has released the first taste of music from the album in the form of single "To Have And To Hold".
Palace is a Swedish melodic rock band founded by lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Michael Palace. Heavily influenced by 80’s imagery and sounds, Palace delivers a massive melodic rock/AOR sound unlike you’ve ever heard before. With layers of keyboards, Palace deliver a heavier sound than most in the genre, with guitars a dominating feature. Swirling keyboards, layers of guitars, and fast moving 80’s themed melodic hard rock is what is on offer on “Binary Music”. After the very warm reception of the debut album, ”Master Of The Universe”, Michael was very excited to get to work on the follow up and face the challenges that came with it. ”I wanted to make an album that will give the fans even more of what they enjoyed the last time around, all the while staying creative and not shying away from new musical ideas,” he says.
Michael Palace began working with Frontiers as a songwriter and guitar player for First Signal (featuring Harry Hess of Harem Scarem fame), Cry of Dawn (with Goran Edman), Kryptonite (featuring Jakob Samuel of The Poodles), and Toby Hitchcock.
The successful collaborations led to a worldwide record deal with Frontiers for his own musical output. Then the subsequent success of ”Master Of The Universe” opened up even more opportunities for Michael to grow as a musician outside of Palace, appearing on many releases as a guitar player, songwriter, and at times, producer. Despite his young age, Michael Palace has accumulated a wealth of experience playing live and recording in the studio with several different acts in addition to the aforementioned acts and including Code Red, Jim Jidhed, Erika, Hank Erix, Find Me (Featuring Robbie LeBlanc) and Big Time to name a few.
”Since the release of the first album, I’ve had the chance to be involved in a lot of cool musical projects and made more music in two years than I’ve made in my whole life. It has been a fantastic learning experience and I’ve brought a lot of that new gained knowledge into the making of ”Binary Music”. I produced the new album with the guidance from my good friend and mentor Daniel Flores (Find Me, First Signal, The Murder Of My Sweet), and I can’t wait to produce more albums in the future," Michael explains.
Cry Of Dawn is the feature vehicle for Swedish vocalist great Goran Edman, this time partnering with one of Frontiers Records’ in-house producers, Daniel Flores (Find Me, Murder Of My Sweet). Daniel has had a busy year, with First Signal and Palace already under his belt and Toby Hitchcock still to come.
I’ve never found a Goran Edman album I don’t like and this is no different. He is one of those vocalists that just delivers time after time and it hardly needs stating that he sounds a million dollars here again. Flores again enlists Michael Palace to supply guitars, so it’s not surprising to find the musical bed of this project very similar to those others just mentioned.
Cry Of Dawn’s musical mission is not too far removed from that of Street Talk which he also fronts.
It’s not very often I’ll say this – but this time around there are too many keyboards. The absolute saturation of swirling keys on every track is just too much. There’s not enough room for the songs to breathe in my opinion.
Of course Edman does a killer job and most of the songs are pretty catchy. There’s plenty to like about the opener Chance and the slightly heavier Tell It To My Heart has a great bridge then chorus hook.
Light A Light and Can’t Go On are both very Street Talk in their sound and again feature killer choruses.
Hands Around My Heart is a beautiful ballad, but slightly overdone with the keyboards again.
I can’t stand the chorus in the second track Listen To Me, which is a shame, that ultra high vocal just grates on me. It’s probably the only weaker track here, there are others that don’t stand out as much as others, but nothing forgettable.
I love the vocals, I really love a few of the songs and the consistency of the album is a credit to the songwriters. I’m not so much a fan of the production style. As stated, I think the keyboards are way overdone and there’s not enough individual character in the album to make it stand out as a new band to rival those that came before them.
If you have the last First Signal and Find Me releases, you know exactly how this is going to sound. It’s good, but not quite as good as expected.
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.
Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to present CRY OF DAWN, a new melodic rock/AOR project featuring Goran Edman on all lead vocals. The self-titled debut album will be released on September 23rd.
Over the years, Goran Edman's unique vocal style has been showcased in numerous genres including neoclassic metal, progressive rock, and AOR, just to name a few. His vocal stylings can be found on records by John Norum, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brazen Abbot, and Glory, among others.
CRY OF DAWN is Goran Edman's latest musical adventure: a straight ahead AOR / melodic rock album which highlights his amazing vocal abilities on superb songs written especially for him by the likes of Michael Palace (Palace, First Signal, Kryptonite), Steve Newman, Alessandro Del Vecchio, Soren Kronkvist, Daniel Palmqvist and Robert Sall among others.
'It's been a privilege to work with all these good songwriters within the genre of classic AOR,' tells Goran. 'The conformity of the production has a good red line with a straight forward melodic flow as you would expect. Its been a true pleasure performing it. The recording of the album took place in Daniel Flores' studio for the instrumental part while I did the vocals in my own studio. Personally I am grateful to be a part of this project and look forward to the fans listening to the album'.
The result is a true feast for the ears of all lovers of this music. Picture hints of the likes of Night Ranger, Journey, Bad English and Starship and you'll get a sense of what is in store for you! Hear for yourself with an album sampler:
Tracklisting:
Chance
Listen To Me
When Right Is Wrong
Tell It To My Heart
Light A Light
Can't Go On
Building Towers
Hands Around My Heart
Life After Love
Yearn
Tell Me
CRY OF DAWN Goran Edman - Lead and backing vocals
Michael Palace - Guitars and bass
Soren Kronqvist - Keyboards
Daniel Flores - Drums and keyboards
