There is definitely something going on in Sweden and the rest of the planet still can’t figure out what it is yet. There is no other explanation. You see, it’s not easy to explain the quantity and the quality of al those Swedish bands/projects from various genres and musical styles. Such an indicative case is Forever, the project of Enforcer’s drummer, Jonas Wikstrand. When I was first introduced to them by a good friend of mine, it didn’t take long (actually only a few seconds from 2-3 songs) to realize that I had to order the album immediately!

Wikstrand characterizes Forever as an AOR affair but I truly believe that this description does not depict precisely what this band is all about. For starters Forever is closer to The Night Flight Orchestra than let’s say Journey or Foreigner (just to name a couple of AOR giants). They are closer to the whole aesthetic of the late 70s disoc rock sound and they openly flirt with the soundtrack of classic TV series and movies of the early 80s (Fame and Footloose are just two examples). The opening track “Anywhere You’ve Gone” is absolutely stellar and could have easily been on the sophomore effort by Desmond Child & Rouge while the majestic “Call Out My Name” reminds a lot of the aforementioned style of The Night Flight Orchestra. The rest of the songs are links to a cohesive love story and from a pure musical standpoint is really the epitome of the disco rock sound or if you prefer the epitome of the quality melodic rock sound as it should be portrayed by all the bands of the genre.

Forever’s first album was released almost simultaneously with Enforcer’s magnificent “Zenith” record. Both of them are for sure among the Top Ten albums of 2019. Sincerely, I hope that Forever will be around for a long, long time. Let me rephrase that: Forever MUST be around for a long, long time. We need their music. Simple as that!

Highlight: It’s worth listening the album by reading at the same time the lyrics of it. It’s a cool story.