Devil in the Details

Devil in the Details, released on 24 March 2015, is the sixth album, on which The Poodles sounded polished melodic rock through catchy choruses, glossy vocals and neat guitar arrangements. A new collaboration with the Swedish label Gain Music begins here, with Johan Flodqvist brought in on bass. The songs hold hard rock's outline while pushing pop melodic feeling boldly forward. The advance single was “The Greatest,” released on 19 January. The run from the opening “Before I Die” into “House of Cards” is clear, and twelve evenly matched songs follow through “Crack in the Wall,” “Everything” and “Life Without You,” with no drop in standard before the closing “Creator and Breaker” and “Borderline.” Even in the bright songs there is a little ache in the chords and the vocal phrasing, which gives the album a grown-up cast. Some called it too pop — but this band has always been pop metal and heavy metal and hard rock at once. Never too heavy, never too light: that fine balance is exactly the appeal of Nordic melodic rock.