This is the third album for Spiritual Beggars with Apollo handling lead vocals, who sounds like he found his “home” and the band the absolute performer for its retro classic sound.
After the test flight of “Return To Zero” and the magnificent “Earth Blues” comes the more mature and richer “Sunrise To Sundown”. More daring than the previous two, maybe less heavy overall, but more melodic and true to the spirit of Uriah Heep and Deep Purple. Except from Amott’s riffs that come straight from the heart of the undoubted best decade of rock, Per Wilberg’s keyboards add their unique magic creating a wonderful atmosphere. I think that on the specific album Wilberg gets more in the compositions, which is something that fits the band very well.
Surely, among the albums that were in Ammot’s mind were “Demons & Wizards” (just listen to the solo on “Southern Star” that refers to my favorite “Circle Of Hands”) and “Burn” (the intro to “Diamond Under Pressure” brought in mind “Might Just Take Your Life”), but the trick is that he doesn’t copy those monsters of rock, but uses them as reference around which Beggars work miracles. “What Doesn’t Kill You” may the most essential example for the band’s evolution with a catchy chorus, devastating riffs and two amazing solos and keyboards and guitar that make the song take off. “Hard Road” has everything it needs to become a Spiritual Beggars classic with Apollo’s dramatic performance, while the entire album rolls majestically making you press “repeat” with no second thought.
There is also the Limited Mediabook Edition that includes a second CD with two covers on “Thumbsucker” (Mountain) and “Stoned Woman” (Ten Years After), as well as five songs recorded live at Roadburn Festival 2013.
