Sometimes, in the midst of such a vast music landscape, all you're craving is something fun and familiar. Melodic Rock usually always fulfills that need for me. The band DEVICIOUS is considered an "international" band, with members hailing from Germany, Spain, and Serbia and has been creating strong Melodic Rock albums since their debut in 2018 and their second album in 2019 also had rave reviews. Their 3^rd album fittingly named "Phase Three" will arrive on May 8^th and this fun-filled wonder is worth the listen.

"Firefly" is an energetic opening track. The riffs are melodic and pleasant, the tempo is one worthy of bobbing your head along to. Not much surprise-wise, but it is certainly a solid intro track. "Mysterious" & "Burning Skies" are fun tracks with hum-along catchy choruses and great guitar solos. "Pouring Rain" has subtle dancey electronic sounding keys. The vocal melody reminds me a lot of FOREIGNER, but the guitar solo is more like HARDLINE with some additional spice stirred in. "Walk Through Fire" is such an AOR style power anthem name, and it is one. I'm a sucker for an 80s style cheesy love song and this one fit the bill perfectly; there's soaring vocals, a flame flickering style tempo, and a roaring flame guitar solo. I thoroughly enjoyed this track.

"Calling My Name" has this neat low toned bass line that I really liked first thing. I also really dug the keys in this one; there's this cool eerie feel to them, like the demons mentioned in the lyrics are looming about. "Higher" opens with some neat synthy keys. It gives this song a futuristic feeling, which is fitting in a song about following your dreams with confidence. Antonio really shows off his vocal range with some of the high and low notes he can reach in this song. "You Can't Stop Now" has a lot of cool little vocal melody changes throughout the song. The synthy keys and guitars played off the emotions of the song really well. There was a lot going on in general that made this a pretty great Melodic Rock track. "Rising From a Thunder" closes the album with a Rock anthem. Would a Rock album be complete without a fun, catchy devotional to their fans? I don't think so. It's a fitting final track for certain.

All together, "Phase Three" is a stellar "feel-good" Melodic Rock album. The songs are catchy and have a great vibrant sound quality about them. You can tell the members of DEVICIOUS are having a blast and love the music they're making. The vocals are stellar and vast, the keys have that electro-80s feel to them that makes it hard not to bob along, the guitar riffs are cool and bright like an early spring morning, and the drums are solid and add the energetic heartbeat to every song. I also found I loved how this album builds in intensity as the tracks go along, it starts off like a buzz then ends with a roar. You couldn't ask for more from a Melodic Rock album.