Overland – Diamond Dealer (2009)

“Diamond dealer” is the second solo album by `FM’ singer Steve Overland originally released in 2009. For those familiar with the singer’s previous works, Overland is one of the pioneers of the UK AOR/melodic rock scene as the founder of “FM” in the mid 80’s. Beyond Overland, the line up features guitarist Tor Talle and Martin Kronlund, bassist Henrik Thomsen, drummer Imre Daun and keyboardist Egil Orvedal.

As any fan would expect, “Diamond Dealer” is as accomplished an AOR album as it gets, spanning from the more subtle side of AOR to harder rocking AOR. So you can expect songs on all tempos, forceful and smooth vocal performances at equal amounts while melody is the ever-present musical value of `Diamond Dealer’ and indeed the melodic lines, both vocal and instrumental are something else. Essentially the keyboards set the mood of the song, followed by the rhythm section with led guitar kicking in and the vocals following shortly after.

The end result is nothing less than a stellar AOR album being musically diverse and artistically consistent at the same time. Favorite tracks include the powerful opener “Train Train”, the harmonious “Where is the love” and the smoother `City of dreams’ and `Rise’. Overall `Diamond dealer’ is a great buy even for the most demanding of AOR fans, mature, melodic and authentic Adult Oriented Rock.

01 - Train, Train.
02 - You Lift Me Up.
03 - Where Is The Love.
04 - Brave New World.
05 - Roll Back The Years.
06 - City Of Dreams.
07 - I'm Still Breathing.
08 - Rise.
09 - Hearts Don't Lie.
10 - After The Storm.
11 - Bring Me Water.
12 - Coming Home.

Steve Overland - Lead Vocals and backing Vocals
Tor Talle: Lead Guitars, Rythm Guitars & Keyboards
Martin Kronlund: Rhythm Guitars
Henrik Thomsen: Bass
Imre Daun: Drums
Egil Orvedal: Keyboards and piano (Coming Home, hearts don`t lie, where is the love)