Grand Design: Thrill Of Night

On to their third album now, Sweden's Grand Design finally begin to break out of the shackles of simply being good Def Leppard copyists, with Thrill Of The Night revealing a slightly broader set of influences and being all the better for it. A touch of TNT here, a sprinkling of Danger Danger there, takes the still ever-present Lep sized choruses and adds a slightly different (if hardly new) slant to what this band produces.

Vocalist Palle Saether still seems to be the leader of the pack but with guitarist Janne Stark (Mountain Of Power, Locomotive Breath and a Swedish Rock historian of some note) an integral part of the grand master design, the slight change in focus is possibly understandable. However whatever the reason it serves this album well, the outcome being the strongest set of songs Grand Design have so far committed to shiny silver plastic.

"U Got Me Good" and "Rawk n Roll Heart Attack" set the tone both in terms of sound and the dated general silliness of the lyrics, which do admittedly fit the uptempo, good time fare very well indeed. While "The Rush Is Gone" reverts to type, multi-layered voices reminding of that certain Sheffield band that we all know and love so well.

In truth it's easy to take shots at bands like Grand Design who wear their heart so obviously on their sleeve and yet at the same time when they produce a set of songs as catchy as the brooding "When The Greatest Love Of All Kicks In", the utterly Pyromania Leppard-like (and daftly named) "Rip Iddup" and fist pumping "Who's Gonna Rawk You Tonite", then why bother? Better to simply take it for what it is and lap it up as you do.

Grand Design may not have their eyes set on building something new and daring but they do insist that anyone willing to give their tried and trusted ideas a proper listen will have a rip roaringly good time - and what exactly, is wrong with that?

Track Listing
1. U Got Me Good
2. Rawk n Roll Heart Attack
3. The Rush Is Gone
4. 10 Outta 10
5. When The Greatest Love Of All Kicks In
6. Rip Iddup
7. Get Up N Love Someone
8. You're The Only One
9. Who's Gonna Rawk You Tonite
10. Thrill Of The Nite

Added: September 27th 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Grand Design on BandCamp
Hits: 1917
Language: english

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