Having one of the top places in Sweden Melodifestivalen 2006, thanks to "One Night Of Passion", THE POODLES went on forward quite foxily into releasing their debut album "Metal Will Stand Tall". Not a bad start at all, if we take into consideration that the two singles "One Night Of Passion" and "Metal Will Stand Tall" became platinum and gold respectively.

Now, four years and two albums later, THE POODLES return with the third album "Clash Of Elements". Sadly nowadays, people do not have much of patience to discover the good parts in an album and pay attention to it and unfortunately "Too Much Of Everything" is a bit pompous in its art and not of much interest. "Caroline" though, launches with a more powerful and catchy way and attracts the listener's interest as it has lot of PINK CREAM 69 with vocals that could afford a bit of improvement. For "No Tomorrow" there is not much to say as it is bulged out of GOTTHARD influences. "One Out Of Ten", which together with "I Rule The Night" are the two singles of this album, is just a nice ballad while the second single gives a power happy essence surrounded by Heavy Metal riffing. "Give Me A Sign" and "Sweet Enemy" fuse the Hard Rock melody with a slight industrial and heavier sound.

If you mix "7 O' Clock" by QUIREBOYS, "Black And Blue" by WHITESNAKE and a generous dose of LYNYRD SKYNYRD then what you get is "7 Days And 7 Nights". "Pilot Of The Storm" takes us back to dirty distorted guitars, pounding fat bass lines and I think that this album expresses the dilemma of the band trying to figure out which way to follow, the chorus once again shows the melodic path, yeap...it calls to mind a bit of GOTTHARD. "Can't Let You Go" is a touching power ballad without much over exaggeration and this it a plus point of this album in general. This track reveals, with a bit more attention, what a great job has been done in the mastering part of the album. "Don't Resque Me" has a cracking fusing of Hard Rock riffs with a modern sound. "Heart Of Gold" - behind the heavy distortion - is a piece of the German school of melodic Rock and "Dream To Follow" and "Wings Of Destiny" conclude the album without leaving great impressions.

This new release is a neat one with exceptional mastering arrangements; only one gets the impression that the vocals sometimes don't quite match with the music, like Jakob Samuel is not quite sure how to approach each melody.