Opus Atlantica
s/t

January 2003
Released: 2003, Regain Records
Rating: 5.0/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

Mr. Pete Sandberg is back! During 2002 Pete joined forces with Richard Andersson, the world famous keyboardist (Majestic and Time Requiem) to create the project Silver Seraph which they introduced early 2002. Pete now works on this new project called Opus Atlantica. Once again Pete and Jonas have made a masterpiece.



The recording of this album took place in Jonas’ studio called “Reingold Recording Studio” in Malmö, Sweden. Sandberg and Reingold are producers. Sandberg is known for creating melodic hard rock, beautiful hard rock ballads, and 70’s hard rock. This new production is a step towards harder, faster, and more complicated music without losing the melodic hard rock edge that is his trademark. On this record we have nine tracks with one cover originally composed by J.S. Bach. The original title of the cover is “Anthem Cello Suite in G major” and is rewritten by Reingold and given the title “Anthem”. Jonas and Pete like to compose together and Pete is keen on writing in themes on his records. One of his favorite subjects is lost love but this time the content is mostly about war, evil, and terror, and how he questions the development of the world. “Line of Fire” starts the album off. It has a fast rhythm and I’ve never before heard anything like this from Pete in his career. “Judas Call” is played in more of a style we are used to hearing with Pete - melodic, heavy hard rock. ”Holy Graal” reflect Pete’s new faster style and even Reingold-Salazar keep a high voltage tempo throughout the composition. Reinholdz and Pete keep a big part of the sound picture with an impressive keyboard solo in the middle. “Prince of Darkness” shows Pete’s skill in a very moving ballad where Reinholdz follows him in a divine way. In this song Pete shows his strong voice. “Anthem” is an intro with church-like choir before the rest of the music starts and the song picks up speed. Reingold shows his skills as a bassist and the same goes for Reinholdz. “Falling Angel”, “Endless Slaughter”, “Sleep With the Devil” and “Edge of the World” are all melodic hard rock with Pete’s known characteristics and lots of chorus that makes the music perfect for singing along with.



With perfect intuition Pete has collected great musicians: young Reinholdz impresses as he did on the debut-record with Nonexist. I predict that he has a splendid carrier in front of him. Salazar is one of the greatest drummers in Sweden. I consider Reingold to be a demon on the bass and there are only a few who can outplay him. Mr. Sandberg has a strong voice with a wide vocal…he sings like a God! With Pete Sandberg as the chief, this is a impressive creation. If you like music some degree harder than ordinary melodic hard rock you must take a good look at Opus Atlantica.