Simon RushworthEclipse — Megalomanium II (Frontiers)
When it comes to Eclipse can there ever be too much of a good thing?
Obviously not.
Purveyors of the finest melodic rock for 25 years, the supreme Swedes have been part of the Rushonrock fabric since we kicked things off in the noughties.
Click through the archives and you’ll find the name Erik Mårtensson cropping up time and time again.
And the creative force behind his nation’s finest purveyors of pop metal since Europe is invariably associated with excellence.
The evidence?
Way back in 2008 we hailed Are You Ready To Rock as one of the albums of the year and likened that record’s best cuts to the brilliant Gotthard.
Fast forward seven years and Armageddonize made the overall list for Rushonrock Record Of The Year — beating Def Leppard, FM and Ghost to bag a top 10 berth.
And then there was last year’s spirited Magalomanium — an album we described as ‘huge in its sound and scope’.
How to top that ego-fuelled power trip?
Unleash its edgier kid brother… Megalomanium II.
Leaning on its predecessor’s penchant for the overblown this is, nevertheless, no lame copy of what came before.
It’s Eclipse pushing things further and rocking the very limits of their finely crafted melodic rock foundation.
Mårtensson’s been in this game far too long to play it safe.
Megalomanium II is the glorious sound of bold ambition realised.
II good to be true?
Pop punk fury. NWOBHM-styled power. Hard rock heaven.
Megalomanium II has it all… and more.
All I Want has more in common with Sum 41 than Sunstorm and its cheeky chappy self-confidence sticks two fingers in the face of the doubters.
The expansive power pop of Still My Hero fuses Bon Jovi with The Killers on the most commercial tune here.
But then there’s Divide_Conquer — a killer track leaning on a classic riff hewn from the UK’s early 80s NWOBHM heartland.
Stick with it… the scorching solo’s one of Megalomanium II’s soaring highs.
There’s more than a hint of Def Leppard to the dreamy Dive Into You — a lighters-out moment dripping with hair metal cheese (in a good way).
And when it comes to power ballads give Say Goodbye a chance. Mårtensson’s rarely sounded better.
Overall there’s a heft and a heaviness to Megalomanium II that might — just might — unsettle the odd Eclipse die hard.
Sure, melodic rock has rarely sounded so muscular.
But with Mårtensson at the helm it’s never sounded so good.
