Gypsy Rose formed way back in 1981, but they didn’t release their debut album until 2005, luckily it hasn’t taken a further 24 years for a second effort to see the light of day. The biggest change to the line up from that first album sees vocalist Hakan Gustafsson replaced by former Bangalore Choir and Accept frontman David Reece. I thought of this as great news as Bangalore Choir’s one and only album still rates as one of my favourite albums from the past. Every now and again you get a taste of Reece’s vocals from the BC era, particularly on the ballad When I Call Your Name, but mostly he is singing with the harder edge more prevalent in Accept. 

As with the debut album the songs are strong Euro hard rock with plenty of melody and some excellent guitar work from Martin Kronlund. There’s also several gang-type choruses, such as that featured in Don’t Look Back, which are great sing-a-long opportunities and I would imagine would come across extremely well in the live arena. The songs are good without being completely standout – in fact personally I probably prefer the songs on the debut – but Reece’s vocals are excellent and raise this sophomore effort above the level of the debut overal.  Production is once again handled by Kronlund and a superb job he has done of it too as the album sounds fantastic. 

The album concludes with a cover of Accept’s Hellhammer, although a first glance at the track listing may have you thinking that there are at least half a dozen covers, based on the fact that several of the titles are identical to some instantly recognisable, but completely different, songs. 2008 continues in fine form with this excellent release which is yet another I can heartily recommend, especially to anyone with a taste for European-style hard rock.