Starbreaker – Dysphoria

7/10

It’s been over 10 years since this band/project released their latest album “Love’s Dying Wish” and now they are back together again. The men behind the Wheel again is the mastermind Magnus Karlsson on guitar (Primal Fear, Free Fall ex. Last Tribe) and the well known Tony Harnell (ex. TNT) on vocals.

The album starts with a song called “Pure Evil” and it’s more heavier than I expected, it’s decent but sounds like a “Primal Fear-leftover”. The next songs “Wild Butterflies” and “Last December” sounds more like “Starbreaker-songs”, they are ok but nothing special. “How Many More Goodbyes” on the other hand is a really great song, it’s a semi ballad with great melodies and I really enjoy the tempo shifting here, nice work! “Beautiful One” is a quite good ballad where Tony shows his brillance.

The titletrack “Dysphoria” is another heavy track with great guitar loops and I really like it but it deserves a better chorus maybe. “My Heart Belongs to You” is more like a “TNT-song” but I don’t mean leftover this time! I love the chorus on this one and it contains some awesome guitarplaying from Magnus. “Fire Away” is a tempo shifting song with a simple but yet great chorus. “Bright Star Blind Me” reminds me of the Primal Fear-song “One Night in December” but not as brilliant. It’s good but I don’t really like the chorus so much.

The album ends with the bands titeltrack “Starbreaker”. This one is also a Judas Priest cover. It’s not their most famous song but still great and I like Starbreakers version of this one!

This album is pretty much what I expected with a few exceptions and as always with Magnus as a songwriter we get a melodic metal album. Tony Harnell does a great job and sounds brilliant of course, he is one of the better singers out there even if he doesn’t reach the highest notes like he used to do in the glory days of TNT. Over all I enjoy this album!

Artist: Starbreaker
Title: Dysphoria
Label: Frontiers Records
Date of release: 25/1 -2019
Rating: 7/10
Stand out track: “How Many More Goodbyes”