I have the deepest respect for the extraordinary works regularly provided by Lars Eric Mattsson aka Lasse and his very own label Lion Music. Since the very beginning, I tried to buy all his releases for my personal CD collection, as the music styles displayed by 99% of the bands signed to this label have been a part of my acquired (and excellent) taste. Indeed, as you probably know if you read my reviews each week, Prog or Neoclassical Metal mostly from Scandinavia, which represent the target of Lion Music, is like honey for my Metal ears. This year as usual, some great albums were released by Lion Music in various styles, but the difficult economic times pushed Mr. Mattsson and his staff to take a harsh decision as some albums won't be released in a physical format, only Digital shit instead (sorry, but I truly hate those files, I'm an old school Headbanger).

ANTON JOHANSSON'S GALAHAD SUITE, fell under that category, so I had to break one of my rule and I listened in my laptop. This turned out to be a very interesting opus in order to write that short review, and I'm glad to break that rule because it's a brilliant album, exactly the kind of disc that is uplifting and inspiring for the rest of your working day.

When it comes Prog Rock / Metal, Lion Music is an important provider of great records, as an example, last year they released: LORD OF MUSHROOMS' "Perspectives" , SPEAKING TO STONES' "Elements" and the amazing essential and indispensable "Ouroboros" by STATUS MINOR and also DOCKER'S GUILD "Mystic Technocracy-season 1: The Age of Ignorance" an impressive choral Ccncept album... At first I expected something in the same vein or even more symphonic, but "Galahad Suite" is very different, a lot more easy to catch and very direct, simple and unpretentious, as fun as Rock should always be! But it still a concept album, telling the story of a knight in a Holy Grail quest with an unexpected ending story, and musically; the Swedish melodic Metal flavor is everywhere, notably the excellent lead vocal performance by Carl Lindquist (COEXISTENCE) who stole the show, with a sensitive yet powerful vocal demonstration, this guy is going to make a great career believe me.

The album is also embellished by an all-star guest list with an amazing guitaring performances by Mattias "IA" Eklundh (FREAK KITCHEN / ex-FATE) showing his trademark dexterity chops on the instrumental cut "Morning Sun - The Battle", a fantastic lead work in "Hunted - The Decision" by Magnus Karlsson (PRIMAL FEAR / LAST TRIBE / STARBREAKER / THE CODEX / ex-MIDNIGHT SUN), Jonas Hansson (ex-SILVER MOUNTAIN) for a bursting Neo-Classical intervention in the epic "Loneliness - The Peace", the conventional but surprisingly good solo in "Somewhere - The Quest" by Dennis Post (STAR RATS), plus Linus Abrahamson and Magnus Kristensson (MISTER KITE).

Some amazing keyboards solos were recorded by Jens Johansson (STRATOVARIUS / ex-RISING FORCE / ex-DIO / ex-SILVER MOUNTAIN) and Lalle Larsson (KARMAKANIC / AGENTS OF MERCY / ex-ELECTROCUTION 250) and on the last track "Galahad - The Man" as a perfect conclusion, the huge additional vocals courtesy of MISTER KITE's Alf Wemmenlind.

Linus Abrahamson (ANDROMEDA / THE CODEX) is the co-writer & was the strong arm for this long-time coming project with his partner Anton Johansson, providing most of the rhythm guitars and all the bass parts as well and finally the whole is like a delicious candy, and it way different, in its global sounding, than most of the arrogant and ostentatious Prog concept albums that we are used to listen.

Anton Johansson (MISTER KITE) composed in the same time an elegant and efficient album, "Galahad Suite" is entirely focused on great song-writing, he manages to produce a CD that is just pleasant to listen and very addictive. The Prog genre isn't normally about easy listening music, it's more about cerebral and impressive playing and that what I like the most about it, it's straight into sheer simplicity while containing a lot of challenging parts.

So, I begging you please Mr. Mattsson at Lion Music, give us a silver platter for that "Galahad Suite", it deserves it and it's the only way to fill the gap between Prog and Traditional Metal in my records collection room.