What do you get when you take members from various big name bands and plonk them all together into one new project? The answer is of course a super-group. These are popping up more and more these days with top class musicians in the business collaborating with one another to create some fantastic tunes. Bands like W.E.T. and LIONVILLE are a couple that spring to mind for me but there of course many more out there and it's always refreshing to see new ones spring up here and there so let us be off and meet a new one shall we? Oh before I forget, their name is 21 OCTAYNE.

Formed in 2010 in Germany, this group are a trio of Hard Rock musicians who are made up of members from THE JOE PERRY PROJECT, AXXIS and RHAPSODY. In 2014, they released their debut album "Into the Open" which showcased what they could do to the world. This year they parted ways with their bass player knocking their member count down from four to three but this didn't stop them as they continued to write and record music and the result of their continued dedication as a band is their mesomorph album "2.0" which is the subject of this review so let us see what it's like.

Clocking in at around 46 minutes across 10 songs, the sophomore release from 21 OCTAYNE starts off with the song "Devil in Disguise" which is chock full of heavy Hard Rock melodies including punchy vocals, shredding guitars and pounding drumbeats that give you a clear indication that this trio are all about rocking out and kicking ass and they do just that with this impressive opening number. "Take Me Back" is the second track and this one seems to fuse a combination of Hard Rock with some AOR melodies or that's what it sounds like to me as there is some cheerfulness in the music and the lyrics too.

Next up we have the lead single "When You Go" and this one is a cheerful and upbeat little number with a mixture of acoustic and electric guitars and passionate vocals and these elements remind me a little bit of Melodic Rock and the result is a very enjoyable little number. This formula also repeats itself in the next song "Love's Just A Heartbreak Away" as this one too uses melodies and elements that sound like Melodic Rock to me but that is never a bad thing in my eyes/ears. "Take Me Away" is a heavy ass kicking Hard Rock number with punchy vocals, shredding guitars and pounding drumbeats that is guaranteed to get those heads banging.

"Lost" is the albums power ballad and this one is a nice and relaxing tune with some beautiful melodies that sound amazing. Next up is "The Circle" and this sweet funky sounding number is packed with some heavy guitars, some funky slap bass here and there and punchy vocals that come together to make a pretty cool enjoyable song. "Date With Myself" has a Blues Rock vibe to it and it's quite nice to hear different sounds and melodies in music from time to time and this is one of those as the different musical style for this song is both refreshing and relaxing resulting in another enjoyable song.

The albums second to last number "Fly With Me" is what you call a Melodic Hardrock song as there are elements of both Melodic Rock and Hard Rock in this song with some cheerful and heavy melodies in the guitar riffs, the beats from the rhythm section and of course the vocals which all come together to make an enjoyable and unique song.

The albums last song "Tale Of A Broken Child" is the longest on the album and being the tenth track it's length is also the same clocking in at 10 minutes long. Coincidence much? Anyway, back to the song and this one seems to have taken it's cues from the Progressive Rock/Metal genre. Usually long length songs in this style or genre can otherwise be boring or lack any real sense of musical creativity but this one is not like that mercifully as there is plenty of enjoyment with the sounds, melodies, lyrics and elements used to make this song which is a neat little way of ending off a unique record.

As a whole, this album is pretty unique as it blends together a few different styles as I have mentioned in the above track by track section and it's this unique mix of different styles that makes it an enjoyable record. The production and the mixing are also done quite nicely too and there is also plenty of punch, oomph and musical passion in the performances including the vocals, the guitars, the drumbeats and everything else in between resulting in some sweet sounding songs.

Bottom line, the new release from 21 OCTAYNE is 10 enjoyable slice of Hard Rock with some elements of AOR, Blues, Progressive and Melodic Rock styles thrown in as well making this a record worth checking out so make sure you do just that if you like European music.