Review – Imperium – Never Surrender

Pride & Joy Music (May 19th 2023)

Reviewer: Stephen Brophy

Imperium is the solo project of Strike drummer Mika Brushane, and ‘Never Surrender‘ is the bands 4th studio release. Alongside Mika, who takes care of drums, keyboards, vst-bass and backing vocals we have the excellent Stefano Lionetti and Mikey K Nilsson on Guitars, with a special guest Joel Hoekstra.  Any album that has vocals from either Robbie LaBlanc or Michael Bormann on it is going to be something I take notice of, two wonderful singers with a voices that have the ability to move you. Whether it’s been Robbie with Blanc Faces, Find Me or any of the other projects Robbie has worked on or Michael with Jaded Heart, Redrum or anything he’s been involved with. For Imperium once again Mika has chosen well for additional musicians, with people he knows and that seem to compliment each other.

Having really enjoyed the last Imperium album ‘Heaven Or Hell‘ this one was likely to be one I’d enjoy too. Again it took me a little time to get used to the alternating vocalists on each song, but that’s just something your ears adjust to too pretty quickly.

The song-writing is excellent once again as is Mika’s keyboard playing that adds a lot to a number of the ten tracks on offer here. The balance between the different components works well, and there are some really nice moments of subtlety with guitar solos only coming where it makes sense allowing songs to breathe. Stefano is a master of melodic guitar and always a pleasure to listen to.

Standouts here would have to be the singles, title track ‘Never Surrender’ with Robbie on Vocals and the very next track ‘Together Forever’ with Michael, both are really good songs, lifted by the keyboards and backing vocals and give all of the players their chance to shine. Not everything hits on the album ‘Our Of This World’ for example just doesn’t grab me at all, but that doesn’t take away from this being a really good album, won’t be the best album released in this genre in 2023, but it’s another interesting one and well worth a listen. Hopefully Mika decides to continue with the Imperium project as it has produced some quality Melodic Rock/AOR and I’m sure will continue to do so.

Track list:

01 The One

02 Never Surrender

03 Together Forever

04 I Still Believe

05 Never Say Never

06 Break The Spell

07 The Dream

08 Out Of This World

09 You Never Will Take Me Down

10 Greatest Desire