One of Glory Daze’s go-to bands are The Night Flight Orchestra and 2020 welcomes their effort. You know what to do.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: The Night Flight Orchestra
ALBUM: Aeromantic
LABEL: Nuclear Blast
SERIAL: NB 4850-2
YEAR: 2020
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: 
LINEUP: BjГ¶rn Strid – vocals * Sharlee D’ Angelo – bass * David Andersson – guitar * Sebastian Forslund – guitar * Richard Larsson – keyboards * Jonas Kallsback – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Servants Of The Air * 02 Divinyls * 03 Tonight Is Our Only Chance * 04 The Boys Last Summer * 05 Curves * 06 Transmissions * 07 Aeromantic * 08 Golden Swansdown * 09 Taurus * 10 Carmencita Seven * 11 Sister Mercurial * 12 Dead Of Winter
RATING: 
WEBLINKS: FB Page
Background
These popular Swedes return with a new album that simply adds to this band’s widening popularity among the AOR and melodic rock community. No two ways about it, The Night Flight Orchestra strike a chord in just about everything they do, and since their inception back in the early/middle of last decade, it would be easy to say that these guys are in the elite category now.
The band even made it into my list of top albums of last decade as reviewed on Glory Daze, that honour going to 2017’s super ‘Amber Galactic’ effort. Not only the music, but their videos are quite striking too. Not since global band Eden’s Curse have I seen a band honour airline hostesses as part of their brand, videos and songs. Long may it continue.
The Songs
Things kick off with the bombastic ‘Servants Of The Air’, with Richard Lars son’s keyboard leading the introduction. Before long the guitar attack commences, with Strid’s vocal like Peppy Castro on steroids. No better recommendation I say!
‘Divinyls’ is next, not so coarse as the prior track, but smoothes out to a purer AOR sound. Is this a dedication to the Aussie band of the same name? Probably not. ‘If Tonight Is Our Only Chance’ moves in a partial ballad direction but not quite. Groovy chorus too.
‘The Boys Last Summer’ is a racier affair, very cool, this is more like it. Another track with a chorus as a stand out. The highlight so far. ‘Curves’ locks into a harder West Coast sound, the bouncy keys reminding of 1982, so too the zippy guitar work without any hint of distortion.
‘Transmissions’ is another track to appeal, with an insistent synth pattern as the backbone of the song but topped by fluent verses and a memory inducing chorus. Very good. The title track ‘Aeromantic’ (cool name huh?) is a punchy affair, with a hard driving rhythm section, a great live tune I reckon!
The unusually named ‘Golden Swansdown’ sounds like an advert for toilet paper, but no, this one sits in ballad territory and is cruise number at best, though the chorus picks up pace and energy sounding a lot tougher than the verses. ‘Taurus’ follows the now established of The Night Flight Orchestra’s template: racy, melodic, brash and up-tempo for the most part. By now I’m thinking – how can these blokes still be signed to Nuclear Blast? Lol.
I love the keyboard sequence leading into ‘Carmencita Seven’, it pumps along and provides the underbelly for the song, the lady in question being the prime motivator obviously. Not the first times this has happened in melodic rock history.
Getting near the end now, ‘Sister Mercurial’ contains more melodic elements than the prior tracks, this one closer to the AOR template most of the Glory Daze readers are familiar with from years gone by. The finale ‘Dead Of Winter’ is a bit of TNFO bombast to begin with, but those familiar keyboard bursts and vocal power from Mr Strid soon come to the fore. It just means that the quality is retained right through to the end.
In Summary
The Night Flight Orchestra kicked off their 2020 touring campaign with an appearance in London (Islington) to back the release date of the album which was Friday just gone 6th March. I’m gonna keep it brief as I don’t think much needs to be said about the band and this album. One of Glory Daze’s go-to bands and 2020 welcomes their effort. You know what to do.
Video
Divinyls
Transmissions
Taurus
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[Roadrunner158] Love it, love it, love it. An improvement over “Sometimes The World Ain’t Enough” and on par with “Amber Galactic”.. As far as streaming services are concerned: It’s on Spotify and Qobuz as well.
[Dangerzone] I felt this one was a bit of a step backwards. Not enough guitar in places and the hooks aren’t as immediate as the last two albums.
[DEMONAOR] In general, I’m flying high on the perfect execution and pure fun of Aeromantic, but the one minor criticism I could level at the record is that it feels a little overlong. While each song works well, the formulaic nature of the set gets a bit tedious at times. Consider it a very minor complaint.
[Gdazegod] It resonates with me, But then again there are artists that others go ga-ga over that I don’t get. H.E.A.T and Steven Wilson are two of those.
[DEMONAOR] I do agree with you on that George, i never went ga ga on H.E.A.T and some other bands.
[George The Jack] I undestand the issue with the vocals – it also took me a good while to get used to them as the singer is not the typical melodic rock singer. His lower registers are rough and not attention grabbers like the genre’s pinnacle performers but the music is up there with today’s best! Altough this album sounds a bit laid back compared to their previous work, it’s great music nonetheless, fantastically arranged, uniquely produced with trademark synth layers that overall oozes one-of-a-kind personality. If you hear a NFO song you can immediately distinguish them as opposed to 99% of the bands out there now. That’s a big plus in my book!
[DEMONAOR] Aeromantic features The Night Flight Orchestra entering somewhat new territory, as the band has managed to ramp their trademark feelgood classic / AOR / glam rock factor up a notch. Second single from the album, “Transmissions”, for example, shares blood type with ’70s disco KISS and classic Blondie.
[Smokey] I’m with Dangerzone about this release. It doesn’t hit as hard as previous albums, less magic AOR hooks and hard guitar. I think the band is running on fumes now, they’ve welled the mine of 70s and early 80s AOR to outstanding effect and are now reaching in the dark for other 80s musical styles to keep the party going – as well as their interest. Thing is they probably started this band as a bit of joke or relaxtion, something to keep them amused during downtime from their main gig as hardcore metal dudes. They probably didn’t expect the band to become so popular with the punters. Who would in this age? But most bands starting fraying at the edges 5 albums in so it’s not suprising they’re playing around with softer 80s synth stuff. But, like Bullet going from boogie to metal, I think they’re done now, burned out. It was a great run, though. For me they made the best AOR of last decade, maybe even the century so far.