A strong album that will delight fans of the genre.

Hardreams are back with their fourth album after 'The Road Goes On' in 2008, which despite being a good album, was not endowed with the variety that 'Unbroken Promises' holds.

The album begins with the lively 'Count On Me', and its spectacular choir seamlessly combining keyboards and guitars, a choir you'll remember from the first listen. 'A High Mountain To Climb' is hard rock at its purest, a direct and powerful cut that leads to 'It's Only Love', a very elegant song with quite a likable chorus to savour.

One of the most hard and heavy riffs is found in both 'The War Is Over' and 'Cross The Line', where Manu and his delivery truly surprised me. He experiments with medium and low tessiturae only to give these tracks a harder sound, but still keeping the melodic touch. 'Woman In Black' reminded me of a well pitched Journey sound, a truly charming song that leads to one of the album's ballads, 'Now You Are Mine'. This ballad is the perfect tasteful link to 'The Land Inside Our Souls', where spectacular guitar work by David is embraced. 'Goin Fast', is very much in the vein of Sammy Hagar era Van Halen. It's catchy and its vitality serves as the bridge to the album's title track 'Unbroken Promises'. Even though it's got a slow start, it gradually develops the song towards another really addictive track. 'All And Now' is the most soulful song on the album. It is the second ballad and final track on the CD, where Manu again demonstrates the personality of his voice and how he's able to cover a wide range of tessiturae (textures...in case you were wondering! Ed.).

In conclusion, 'Unbroken Promises' is definitely a strong album that will delight fans of the genre, and should provide these Spanish hardrockers with the key to the so badly desired big gate of Melodic Rock.

Pilar Sánchez