CRY OF DAWN – Cry of Dawn (Album Review)

Goran Edman is a Swedish vocalist who in the past has worked with such luminaries as Yngwie Malmsteen and John Norum (Europe). Cry of Dawn is the latest vehicle for his doubtless talent, this time in the form of an album full of AOR melodic rock.

Some say that Scandinavian countries produce bands who do this type of music a lot better than American or British bands these days.

Unfortunately for Goran, this is not the case here.

Cry of Dawn, or to give it it’s full title Cry of Dawn featuring Goran Edman, is released on Frontiers Music Srl and is a collection of run of the mill songs which on any other album would be considered mere fillers.

Despite having numerous songwriters on board all the songs merge into one long poor attempt at popular AOR, in the style of Night Ranger or Survivor.

It is overtly reliant on keyboards and the guitaring, supplied by Michael Palace, does not lift the songs and any decent solos are notable by their absence.

I love melodic rock as much as the next man but these songs are so formulaic they bring nothing to the AOR party at all. Where the songs should be uplifting and singalong all I found myself doing was hoping for better with the next track which never came.

I could review each song in turn but there would be little point, they all sound the same.

Cry of Dawn desperately tries to rock but it fails miserably and ends up more Manilow than Magnum.

Goran Edman is clearly a talented vocalist but on this occasion, he is let down by a poor choice of songs which lack variety, depth, and imagination. Edman’s voice is well suited to melodic rock and he has appeared on around 50 albums so he clearly must be doing something right, but we all make wrong choices sometimes.

Cry of Dawn don’t do anything badly, they just don’t do it interestingly enough, but if you have a wedding coming up and can’t afford Survivor then give Goran (pictured) a call.

BUY: CRY OF DAWN