From their website, “The year 2020 was very difficult for the music business, namely the live shows. WAKE THE NATIONS used the time to plan and pre-produce the next album. The upcoming third album “Heartageddon” was released on September 13th 2024 via Inverse Records.” This is AOR, or “album oriented rock,” or “adult oriented rock.” Some even call it “arena rock.” Many believe the roots of the genre can be traced back to BOSTON’s self-titled album in 1977. It’s a radio format created in the United States in the 1970s, and the music refers to a style of commercially oriented rock music. Arena rock bands really took off in the 1980’s, and for those of us who were teenagers during this time, we ate up this music as we did our breakfast every day.

Of course, the genre continued to dominate the airwaves long into the 80’s, until the market became over-saturated with them. In the USA, Grunge was born, and AOR died off quickly in the early 1990’s. However, the genre continued to thrive overseas. For me, it’s refreshing to hear so many new bands in this style, but I always take caution with some of them, because I know it’s hard to capture the spirit and sound of the 80’s today, due to the fact that many of the riffs and hooks have been used before. How can a new band find enough material to keep the spirit alive? Let’s get to the best cuts on WAKE THE NATION’s “Heartageddon” to see how they stack up.

“Alive” has a rocking sound that has meaty bass notes, an energetic riff, and harmonized vocals, “Never Say” has a thicker sound, augmented with keyboards and guitar harmonies, and a catchy chorus, “Wheel of Fortune” has a tender sound and a big, memorable chorus (we used to call these “power ballads” back in the day), “Lifesaver” has big bass notes that augment the hard rock sound, and another big chorus, “ Crossroads of Love” has that big longing quality that we can all relate to, the melodies connect very well here, “The Shadows” has a snarly and crunchy riff and some vibes of danger and warning, “Hey” has an energy to match the heavy riff and the big chorus, and “Street of Fire” has a wonderfully charming acoustic sound.

There were some really nice cuts here, but there were more inconsistent ones, and even too many filler songs. 13 is a lot, and it’s hard to create that many and keep them all memorable. Many of the songs were also just too thin, and although the production was clear, they could have been beefed up more.