If you had any concerns about Treat following up the excellent ‘Coup de Grace’, those notions can be safely dispelled. This is another excellent album, full of great songs with huge choruses.
Written by: Jeffrey343
ARTIST: Treat
ALBUM: Ghost Of Graceland
LABEL: Frontiers
SERIAL: FRCD 727
YEAR: 2016
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Sweden
LINEUP: Robert Ernlund – lead vocals * Anders Wikstrom – guitars * Patrick Appelgren – keyboards * Pontus Egberg – bass * Jamie Borger – drums
TRACK LISTING:01 Ghost Of Graceland * 02 I Don’t Miss The Misery * 03 Better The Devil You Know * 04 Do Your Own Stunts * 05 Endangered * 06 Inferno * 07 Alien Earthlings * 08 Nonstop Madness * 09 Too Late To Die Young * 10 House On Fire * 11 Together Alone * 12 Everything To Everyone
RATING: 95/100
WEBLINKS: FB Page
Background
Treat reemerged in a huge way in 2010 with the excellent ‘Coup de Grace’. That album sits atop many ‘Best of 2010’ lists, including mine. The word after that album seemed to be that they were done. But fortunately, they decided to get together in the studio one more time (at least). The result is ‘Ghost Of Graceland’. They said this would be somewhat different from the last one. And it’s not a total repeat of ‘Coup de Grace’. They went with a more ‘modern’ sound, which to me really means ‘less 80’s, more 00’s’. Not to worry, though – it still sounds like Treat. And that’s what we want.
The Songs
The album opens with the epic-sounding title track. This has a great riff and a huge sound, and it sets the tone for what’s to come. ‘I Don’t Miss The Misery’ has a hard edge combined with a melodic chorus. Harder still is ‘Better The Devil You Know’, but the chorus is classic Treat.
The first big sentimental song is the excellent ‘Do Your Own Stunts’, a coming-of-age song that presses all the right buttons. The energetic ‘Endangered’ is just a great song. I really like Borger’s drumming on this one, as it provides a lot of the urgency of this one. The first song released was ‘Inferno’, which uses the technique of a nice guitar riff for part of the verse before the bass kicks in. Like AC/DC did to great effect. This is the poppiest song on here, with a slick chorus that’ll stick in your head.
Next is an anthem with an interesting name – ‘Alien Earthlings’. Don’t worry – it’s a killer, and probably the most interesting song musically on the album. A slower track that builds and simmers and explodes before simmering again. Nicely done. We get three uptempo tunes next with ‘Nonstop Madness’, ‘Too Late To Die Young’, and ‘House On Fire’. The middle of those three is pretty intense and would not be out of place on a House Of Lords album. Treat name-drops some of their own songs in that one, to nice effect.
We get a total change of pace with the heartfelt ‘Together Alone’. This one is sung by Wikstrom, accompanied by piano and strings. While he’s not quite the vocalist that Ernlund is, he does a nice job carrying this song. The album ends with the fine ‘Everything To Everyone’, a mid-tempo tune with yet another big chorus. It’s hard to quibble about an album this good. I did notice a few things, though.
The choruses for ‘I Don’t Miss The Misery’ and ‘Inferno’ are awfully similar. I don’t know which song should win that battle, as they’re both great songs. There was a similar issue with the intros of two songs on ‘Coup de Grace’, so maybe these guys kinda latch on to a good musical motif. I think ‘Coup de Grace’ was a little stronger lyrically overall (it was actually pretty darn good).
I think the closer ‘Everything To Everyone’ needed to be about a minute longer. The song itself is great, but it ends a bit abruptly to me. Kind of like ending a romantic evening with a quick peck on the lips rather than a lingering kiss. But these are minor, as the sheer class of this album is quite impressive.
In Summary
If you had any concerns about Treat following up the excellent ‘Coup de Grace’, those notions can be safely dispelled. This is another excellent album, full of great songs with huge choruses. It’s a harder beast than ‘Coup de Grace’, bordering even on metal in a few places, but the vocals of Robert Ernlund don’t ever let it get any further than melodic hard rock. It might not be quite the landmark album that ‘Coup de Grace’ was. The musical landscape is stronger than it was in 2016, and there have already been some excellent albums with more to come. But I expect that this will end up in most people’s top ten for the year.
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Entire Album (Select Tracks)
