Skagarack (DEN)

[Horex]

Skagarack - Skagarack (1986) (Japan HR/HM 1000 Vol.5 Edition 2022)













Year : 1986 (Japan HR HM 1000 Vol.5 Edition 2022)
Style : Melodic Hard Rock , AOR
Country : Denmark
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans + Videos
Size : 188 mb

Bio:

Skagarack is a Danish rock band from Kolding.The band released their first album in 1986, where they hit with "I'm Alone".They have released four albums and play rock music with elements of melodic heavy rock. Characteristic of the band is that they have always had a high level of playing technique.In 1985, the band obtained a record deal with Polydor, who were responsible for the release of the band's debut album Skagarack, which was recorded in Copenhagen and London. The album was released in July 1986 and sold approximately 30,000 copies in Denmark.That same month, Skagarack performed on the Orange Scene at Roskilde Festival 1986, where the band closed the festival.That same summer, the band toured the UK, playing Reading Festival and The Marquee Club, among other venues. In 1991, the band received a Grammy for the album A Slice of Heaven in the category "Danish Heavy Rock Release of the Year".The band achieved some success in Denmark and abroad with songs such as "I'm Alone", "Anytime, Anywhere" and "Hungry for a Game". The group's recordings are included on the compilation albums in the series "50 Stærke Danske Hits".The band, which never got its big break, disbanded around 1991, but was restored almost in original line-up for the Esbjerg Rock Festival in 2009, where they performed with other 80s icons like Foreigner, Europe, Rick Astley, Bananarama and others.Keyboard player Tommy Thiel Rasmussen is today (as singer) part of the group Neighbours, based in Ansager. Studio musician Lars Daugaard (drummer) was also associated with the band, at one point.

Album:

And here’s another volume from the Universal Music Japan reissue campaign of their ‘HR/HM 1000‘ series – the Limited Release reissue of long time out of print albums from their Hard Rock / Heavy Metal catalog at the price of 1000 Yen = about 9 USD.As part of the 2022 batch, ”HR-HM 1000 Vol.5”, we find SKAGARACK‘s first, self-titled debut from the band including 5 bonus tracks. This is the remastered version of the album.Originally released in 1986, “Skagarack” is pure melodic Scandi AOR made in Heaven, with that infectious crisp hard rock guitar glorious keyboards.All started with the Danish trio Pulze: vocalist Torben Schmidt, guitarist Jan Petersen, and drummer Alvin Otto later joined forces with bassist Morten Munch and keyboardist Tommy Rasmussen to form Skagarack.The group shopped a demo which caught the attention of Polydor who released this Scandi AOR classic in 1986. Coming out of Denmark like a bull in a china shop, Skagarack were capable of the kind of sound and attention that was tailor-made for 1986.While their native tundra and the Far East embraced Skagarack with the likes of Madison and Treat, the US was far more smitten with the likes of Bon Jovi and another ‘certain’ band from Europe to take any interest.‘Skagarack’ should’ve been the kind of album that put Scandinavia on the mainstream map and catapulted these delightful Danes to the top! Unfortunately, it didn’t. But their lack of fortune was made up in superior melodic rock.Things open up with ‘Move It In The Night’, a tasty little ditty with plenty of keys and infectious chorus to boot. Torben Schmidt has a Lou Gramm circa ‘Foreigner 4’ like delivery which works awesomely here.Next up is ‘I’m Alone’ which was a major hit in their native Denmark (rightfully so). You could always count on the Danes for amazing hook-filled melodies ‘o plenty with lavish keys decorating the swelling choruses.‘Saying’ is driben by a smattering guitar riff, while a classic British-like guitar intro sets the tone for the next cut ‘Damned Women’, which is a finely composed thumper with just enough keys to lighten the mood.‘Don’t Turn Me Upside Down’ is by far the pearler here, how US airwaves didn’t take to this like flies on a rib roast is again beyond me? Infectious sing-a-long qualities make this a bona fide Scandi classic nevertheless.Melodies keep a coming for another standout ‘Lies’, with synth pulsing keys oozing out from all over.‘City Child’ just deliver more Scandi Heaven with sugar sweet synths offsetting a maniacal blend of chugging guitars and a little pan flute. ‘Double Crossed’ closes down this Danish delight with swirling synths, chugging guitar, stirring vocals and more hooks than a tackle box off the coast of Kolding.Skagarack’s follow up ‘Hungry For A Game’ is their masterpiece with ‘Slice Of Heaven’ not far behind in it’s own special way. But this debut ‘Skagarack’ has something special: that ’86 feeling, that keyboards / synths, that Scandinavian magic…This remastered reissue sounds great, and we have a very good B-side in “Stand By Me”, a pure 80 extended version on “I’m Alone” and 3 juicy live tracks.Top shelf Scandi AOR.

Line-Up:

Torben Schmidt - vocals
Jan Petersen - guitars
Martin Munch - bass
Tommy Rasmussen - keyboards
Alvin Otto - drums

Tracklist:

01. Move It In The Night
02. I’m Alone
03. Saying
04. Damned Woman
05. Don’t Turn Me Upside Down
06. Lies
07. Victim Of The System
08. City Child
09. Double Crossed
10. Stand By Me (Bonus Track)
11. I’m Alone (Extended Version) (Bonus Track)
12. Victim Of The System (Live) (Bonus Track)
13. Move It In The Night (Live) (Bonus Track)
14. City Child (Live) (Bonus Track)

+ Video "Don’t Turn Me Upside Down" (Official Video)
+ Video "I’m Alone" (Official Video)




Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/

[Horex]

Skagarack - Heart And Soul (2023)















Year : 2023
Style : Melodic Hard Rock , AOR
Country : Denmark
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 126 mb

Bio:

Skagarack is a Danish rock band from Kolding.The band released their first album in 1986, where they hit with "I'm Alone".They have released four albums and play rock music with elements of melodic heavy rock. Characteristic of the band is that they have always had a high level of playing technique.In 1985, the band obtained a record deal with Polydor, who were responsible for the release of the band's debut album Skagarack, which was recorded in Copenhagen and London. The album was released in July 1986 and sold approximately 30,000 copies in Denmark.That same month, Skagarack performed on the Orange Scene at Roskilde Festival 1986, where the band closed the festival.That same summer, the band toured the UK, playing Reading Festival and The Marquee Club, among other venues. In 1991, the band received a Grammy for the album A Slice of Heaven in the category "Danish Heavy Rock Release of the Year".The band achieved some success in Denmark and abroad with songs such as "I'm Alone", "Anytime, Anywhere" and "Hungry for a Game". The group's recordings are included on the compilation albums in the series "50 Stærke Danske Hits".The band, which never got its big break, disbanded around 1991, but was restored almost in original line-up for the Esbjerg Rock Festival in 2009, where they performed with other 80s icons like Foreigner, Europe, Rick Astley, Bananarama and others.Keyboard player Tommy Thiel Rasmussen is today (as singer) part of the group Neighbours, based in Ansager. Studio musician Lars Daugaard (drummer) was also associated with the band, at one point.

Album:

Back in the second half of the 80s, Skagarack released 3 albums and did well worldwide, not only on the radio with hits like "I'm Alone", "Hungry For A Game" and "Anytime Anywhere", but also on tour with a big following. So, the name Skagarack does ring a bell with a lot of people.Fast forward to 2023 and to much surprise here is a new album, called "Heart And Soul", with help from Dennis Pedersen, Lars Daugaard and Mattias IA Eklundh.The author of these lines was musically socialized in the 70s/80s of the last millennium and is therefore also deeply rooted in the Melodic (Hard) Rock / AOR of that time.Despite a multitude of current and partly also interesting releases in the melodic rock sector (here an Italian label in particular has excelled in recent years) I always come back to the old classics, which for me have lost nothing of their class and even with the numerous cover attempts of current bands often have the nose clearly in front with their original version. (Note: A "good" example of this questionable cover mania is the 2023 Steelbars album with versions of the musical biography of Michael Bolton). So it's no surprise that I always pay special attention to recent releases by the bands of my "late" youth.I was a bit surprised when I read that a new album by the Danish band SKAGARACK was in the pipeline. SKAGARACK, founded in 1984 by singer Torben Schmidt, guitarist Jan Petersen and drummer Alvin Otto in Kolding, belonged to the spearhead of the Scandinavian melodic (hard) rock scene in the mid/late 1980s, which featured such illustrious bands as Europe, TREAT, FATE, Alien, TNT or Bad HABIT (just to name a few).From their debut Skagarack (1986) as well as the second album Hungry For A Game (1988) the band was able to sell more than 50.000 copies in Denmark alone and also international successes were celebrated, accompanied by numerous appearances on the big festivals. They offered typical keyboard-oriented Scandi rock of the late 80s with fine melodies, fat choirs and a braked hardness. The song 'Somewhere In France' from the second album would also fit perfectly on an album by JOURNEY at their peak.After the third album A Slice Of Heaven (1990) the band took a creative break due to various problems. Singer Torben Schmidt used this time-out for the release of his somewhat heavier solo output A Bit On The Side, which saw the light of day in 1991 with the participation of EUROPE guitarist Kee Marcello and was received quite favorably by fans of the band as well as critics. In 1993 the band reunited in a partly new line-up and released the 4th album Big Time, which, however, was not a great success, thanks to grunge. After that, the band split up for good and did not reunite until 2009/2010.If you take a closer look at our list of the 250 best AOR albums of all times, you will notice that the first three albums of the SKAGARACK discography are listed on places 125 (Hungry For A Game), 150 (S/T) and 239 (A Slice Of Heaven) and even the not very successful 4th album Big Time appears in the (not official) extended Bible list, although only on place 652, but for the sake of completeness it should be mentioned here.Singer Torben Schmidt has revealed a few years ago in an interview the roots of his musical imprint and those of his comrades-in-arms. According to him, they consist of rock legends like LED ZEPPELIN, DEEP PURPLE and DIO as well as the Westcoast giants THE EAGLES and the blues rockers BAD COMPANY.And it is exactly this latter band that can be heard more than clearly from the individual songs on SKAGARACK's latest release. Melodic rock music with noticeable blues influences, partly early BAD COMPANY, but also partly from their commercial time with singer Brian Howe. The song 'Talkin' Bout Jesus' is from my point of view representative for the "positive" closeness to the BAD COMPANY sound.It is actually forbidden to highlight individual songs due to the consistently high quality in the songwriting of the two remaining founding members Schmidt and Petersen. But the title 'Cool To Be Old School' expresses the motto of the band and the whole album quite well, you rock relaxed through its history and its influences (here and there the Hammond organ pig sound is unpacked like in the good old days). The inclined listener feels directly the good mood and the fun that the guys must have had during the studio recordings. By the way, the songs of the album were written in the last 2 to 3 years and recorded whenever there was time and partly also released as singles via Schmidt's own label TSP Thunderstruck in the streaming services.As a conclusion it is to be noted that the men around Torben Schmidt have not created an album in the old AOR style of the 1980s, but who is a little "open minded" and gives the individual songs some time to work, will enjoy and appreciate a great and round piece of rock music. I give this really successful work a solid 80 points and would like to recommend it to everyone warmly.

Line-Up:

Torben Schmidt - Vocals, Bass, Keyboards
Jan Petersen - Guitars
Dennis Pedersen, Lars Daugaard, and Mattias IA Eklundh - Drums

Tracklist:

01. Give It
02. Peace Of Mind (To Have A Good Time)
03. A Cool Damn Car
04. Heart And Soul
05. Talkin' Bout Jesus
06. Changing
07. Cool To Be Old School
08. Be With You Forever
09. Where Have You Been
10. Ain't Got Nothing To Lose
11. So Right
12. Anymore




Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/