Review: Captain Black Beard – Chasing Danger

Review: Captain Black Beard – Chasing Danger

Mighty Music (April 4^th, 2025)

Reviewer: Jason Hopper

Captain Black Beard has returned, having found themselves at a crossroads recently when the thought of disbanding was on the table after vocalist Martin Holsner left in 2023 following two of their most successful albums. As luck would have it, bassist and founder Robert Majd crossed paths with eventual lead singer Fredrik Vahlgren and the band refocused their efforts by not performing at all in 2024, choosing to concentrate on making the best album they could….and they succeeded. While I do not have their earlier releases, this album is certainly a career highlight, chock full of high intensity, quality melodic rock bangers.

It all begins with my favorite track, the scorcher ‘Dreams’. I love a good opener that gets you fired up for the album listening experience, and ‘Dreams’ is a fantastic opener! It’s always small but powerful touches that can elevate a song for me, and the way Fredrik screams “Dreams” in the chorus just fired me up and put a big ol’ dumb smile on my face. There’s something in his cadence that hits all the right sensations in my brain and activates the adrenal glands. This is going on my gym workout playlist for sure.

I got that same type of feeling with ‘Chasing Rainbows’. Fredrik sings the word “Child” at the beginning of the chorus and his vibrato is simply perfect. The track is a little looser, fun, and not as hard hitting as the opener, and that makes it a perfect AOR-tinged song for its placement on the album. Lead single ‘When It’s Over’ is sandwiched between these two. With no disrespect to that catchy ditty, I don’t think the song should have been released as the first single. It’s certainly good, but most of the other tracks on the album I would consider to be stronger.

Regarding other standouts, ‘AI Lover’ is an upbeat, irrelevantly jokey track about falling in love with a voice-activated smart device. It does not take itself too seriously of course but it has a great fast-paced tempo that gets the blood pumping. ‘Where Do We Go’ offers a dual vibe, where the keyboards will drop away for parts of the track, making the song sound heavier and mean. Then in places like the chorus, the keyboards will return, giving it a more AOR vibe. This combo makes for a great melody. Closing track ‘In Your Arms’ has the heaviest groove, with a standard muted E string guitar chug in the verses, which is always a great sounding safe bet. Fredrik tackles this song a bit differently, with a bit of growl to his voice, and it’s a fantastic bookend to the opener.

Not much to critique here. Piano-based ballad ‘Piece of Paradise’ is a little schmaltzy for my tastes, but is well constructed. Rocker ‘Shine’ has a lot of intensity but ends with a 35 second outro that has individual key notes and programming that adds nothing to the song. It would have been better utilized as the intro for the next sequential song, ‘AI Lover’

For comparison, I listened to this release and their previous release, ‘Neon Sunrise‘ back-to-back. I had given their last album a positive review (review here). This new album takes the band to another level. Martin Holsner did an admirable job, but Fredrik Vahlgren delivers a powerhouse performance and helps make the new album their best to date. According to their press release, guitarist Daniel Krakowski states: “This is without doubt our best album”. I concur. This was a blast to listen to and review. Pick this album up on Day 1 and don’t hesitate.

Tracklist: