WIGELIUS is the new sensation from the hotbed of AOR Sweden, built around the talents of youthful vocalist Anders Wigelius who’s also quite adapt on the guitar and keyboards and possesses an admiration for Richard Marx, Journey, Foreigner and Toto.
His voice is made to sing in the AOR / Melodic Hard Rock top division. Anders’s older brother Erik is playing the drums and with Jake Svensson on guitars and Chris “Wielbass” Pettersson on the bass, they have created a disc full of catchy songs and tasteful melodies; their debut “Reinventions”.
“Angeline” is a great opening song with mega strong vocals and a screaming guitar sound that offers everything expected (and more) from this type of release with smooth instrumentation, neat backing vocalisation and a catchy chorus.
The singer’s performance takes centre-stage once again on “Talking About Love” with all those aforementioned multi platinum selling influences quite evident, great choral arrangements and song structures.
It’s on tunes like “Do You Really Know” and “Next To Me” where that the true potential of Anders shines through in all its glory, and just take a listen to “My Cassandra”, a modern day classic of the genre if ever there was one.It’s also great to hear the Wigelius band showing their harder rocking roots on “Piece Of The Action”, “Too Young To Fall In Love” is pure melodic rock with a crunchy guitar but loads of keyboards and harmony vocals, while “Right Here Right Now” is a classic semi-midtempo Scandi MR that reminds you eighties Treat in style but with a modern production.
“Love Can Be That Much’ is a simple beautiful acoustic piece with the softened tones of Wigelius and a spot on choral hook. There’s no reason with the right promotion this couldn’t dent worldwide markets, it’s simply too good a tune to slip under the musical radar.
“Hold On To Love” is another strong commercial showing and this theme slips continues into “There Is No Me Without You” and here I think the title gives the tune away. Yeah you guessed it, it’s a piano driven love song, again with this track the global possibilities for Wigelius are glaringly evident.
“Reinventions” closes on a high with “I Reach Out” drawing a line under a collection of songs that the guys should be extremely proud of.
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There is a new wave of high quality AOR / Melodic Rock artists coming from Sweden such as Eclipse, Houston, Work Of Art, H.E.A.T and now you can add Wigelius to that list.
“Reinventions” delivers 12 clean and polished gems, superbly cafted and masterly performed. This music is irresistible. Period.
One of the albums of the year.
01. Angeline
02. Talking About Love
03. Do You Really Know
04. Next To Me
05. My Cassandra
06. Piece Of The Action
07. Too Young To Fall In Love
08. Right Here, Right Now
09. Love Can Be That Much
10. Hold On To Love
11. There Is No Me Without You
12. I Reach Out
Anders Wigelius: Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards
Jake Svensson: Guitars, Backing vocals
Chris “Wielbass” Pettersson: Bass, Backing vocals
Erik Wigelius: Drums, Backing vocals