C.O.P – State Of Rock

AOR Heaven (2015)

Reviewer: Aaron Chatfield

I don’t know much about C.O.P and I actually thought this was an album from UK band Crimes of Passion (who appear to be going by the moniker COP UK). C.O.P actually features three members of Grand Illusion and hails from Sweden.

‘Loner’ starts our melodic rock journey off in fine form. Crunchy guitars, smooth vocals, orchestral keyboards, thudding bass… Yep, it’s all there. It’s a good track, instant chorus, but not quite enough on the hook for me, but it’s a fair starter. ‘I Want The World To Know is hot on the openers heals and I have pictures of a rocky training montage in my head, pounding beat, driving Rocky on to face his biggest challenge ever! Survivor, Journey, Alien, Stan Bush, they all come to mind.

‘Nightmare’ continues the theme, before the obligatory ballad softens the sound. ‘Without You’ is a good enough power ballad, riding on the vocal performance. ‘On The Run’, ‘In My Dreams’, ‘She’s Gone’ and the rest of the album, are all decent tracks and the CD closes well with ‘Darkness’, great stabbing keys and melodic guitar lines.

What you’ve got with C.O.P is a well conceived album, that wears it’s influences on it’s sleeve. Combining the current crop of awesome European and Nordic bands, such as Eclipse and H.E.A.T, with the 80’s icons like Journey and Survivor, works well, but it isn’t really carving anything new and that might bring the longevity of the album into question. My advice, if you like the bands I have mentioned, then slam this on…..and like the aforementioned Rocky movie, don’t question it, just enjoy!