Oct 62 min read

Eclipse - 'Megalomanium II'

In the distance, you can almost hear other bands begging them to go back to releasing every two years, so they can have a chance to shine!

Dispensing with their normal two-year release cycle, Eclipse have barely waited twelve months before unleashing ‘Megalomanium II’, but be glad they have, because it’s epic and furnishes everything you want from the Swedish music juggernaut, led by the hardest-working man in Rock, Erik Mårtensson!

‘Megalomanium II’ is the edgier version of its 2023 sibling, delivering eleven searing Rock tracks that will have you singing along, playing air instruments and, without doubt, marvelling as the layers of melodies, hooks, and riffs drill themselves into your cortex and refuse to depart!

The opening song is instrumental in setting an album’s tone, and ‘Apocalypse Blues’ is one of the best I’ve heard this year. It contains the band’s trademark sound layered throughout, and Magnus Henriksson’s guitar playing is glorious. We then get vintage Eclipse with ‘The Spark’ and ‘Falling On My Knees’, packed with crunching riffs and stacked harmonies, supplying a left hook and right uppercut that rocks your senses into a musical knockout!

Proceedings slow a little with ‘All I Want’ and ‘Still My Hero’, but don’t be fooled; even though the pace has reduced, the songs are catchy as hell, with Martensson’s voice providing a great pivot to the stripped-back sound of the tracks. Returning to the mid-tempo range with ‘Dive Into You’, the boys unleash another jewel in their ever-shiny crown with the luscious ‘Until The War Is Over’, which provides on every level.

I could throw countless superlatives at this album, and it would deserve each and every one. After the final harmony-laden song, ‘One In A Million’, containing some superb bass and drums from brothers Victor and Philip Crusner has faded to silence, the only thing you will want to do is play it again. ‘Megalomanium’ was good...this one is better, and will provide some belting anthems when played live. If I have one niggle, then the running time is too short at just below forty-minutes, but being a fan, I am greedy - I want more!

There has been criticism from some quarters that Eclipse is starting to sound the same. ‘Megalomanium II’ defies that, and shows that a band can have both a recognisable sound and deliver more than enough variance to please the masses. In the distance, you can almost hear other bands begging them to go back to releasing every two years, so they can have a chance to shine!

Reviewer: Pete Arnett

Label: Frontiers

Genre: Hard Rock

Issue Reviewed In: 108

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