Nils-Åke Runeson from Falkenberg, Sweden moved to Hässleholm in 1965 and started the band The Hittills that are still active. In 1973 Benny Andersson from ABBA called and wanted to give Runeson a record deal and the album was released the year after, featuring some of the top rock artists in Sweden at the time. It is produced by the, in Sweden, very well known artist and DJ Claes af Geijerstam. The album is a good example of high quality rock from Sweden and defenitely ranks among the best from the middle of the 70's, but today it sounds a bit dated even though it has it's good moments. Runeson did only record this album, he's goal to record an album was fulfulled and he nowadays plays with he's band The Hittills and works with commercials.

1)Fredag kväll (7,0)

2)Tob, my friend (7,0)

3)Just dig (8,0)

4)In a fantasy (5,5)

5)I'm not a poet (6,0)

6)Her seventh floor (7,0)

7)Longleg (5,5)

8)Realize (6,0)

9)Jenny child (5,0)

10)Längtans väntan (6,5)

11)Eftermiddagsvind (6,5)

Score: 6,36

Nils-Åke Runeson-vocals, guitars, organ, moog and mellotron (b.1952)

Björn Linder-guitars

Janne Schaffer-guitars (b.1945)

Ib Christiansen-guitars

Mike Watson-bass (b.1946)

Roger Palm-drums

Lasse Bagge-piano (1935-2000)

Benny Andersson-piano (b.1946)

Vlodek Gulgowski-piano (b.1944)

Lars-Inge Bjärlestam-cello (b.1957)

Christer Eklund-saxophone (b.1944)

Ahmadu Jarr-congas

Claes af Geijerstam-harp and background vocals

On this album Ten continued their well known concept of writing majestic and melodic hard rock with their own twist. It's an okey album but they had made better albums in the 90's that I rather listen to. The former keyboardplayer Jed Rylands was here replaced by the, in hard rock business, very famous artist Don Airey who had played with artists such as Gary Moore, Ozzy Osburne, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Whitesnake, Sinner, Michael Schenker, Uli John Roth and Rainbow.

1)The stranger (7,5) A good majestic song in the typical Ten-vein with catchy vocals, strong refrains and blistering guitarsoloing.

2)Barricade (8,0) A strong song with good singing!

3)Give in this time (6,5) Melodic AOR-style.

4)Love became the law (7,5) Beautiful powerballad.

5)The heat (6,0) Nothing special and too repetetive like many Ten-songs.

6)Silent rain (6,0) Another powerballad. Nothing special.

7)Timeless (7,0) Slow and heavy "big" song with a good refrain.

8)Black hearted woman (6,5) Now all songs sounds the same.

9)Thunder in heaven (7,5) A good hardrocking song.

10)Valentine (8,0) A beautuiful ballad!

Score: 7,05

Gary Hughes-vocals (b.1967)

Vinny Burns-guitars (b.1965)

John Halliwell-guitars

Steve McKenna-bass

Greg Morgan-drums

+

Don Airey-keyboards (b.1948)

On this album Hammers Of Misfortune had parted company with Mike Scalzi, who focused on his main band The Lord Weird Slough Feg, and Jamie Myers in order to raise a family. I don't know if that is the reason why the band left their metal-roots and concentrated on a more 70's progressive rock-feel with theatrical impacts and mixed male and female vocals. I like some of the music here, I havent really heard anything like it, at least not in more modern prog. I would like the drumming to be more variated, the drumming is quite ordinary and it doesn't fit progressive music.

Fields:

1)Part 1: Agriculture (7,5) Interesting variated start. Traces of Porcupine Tree and Pink Floyd can clearly be heard here.

2)Part 2: Fields (7,0) Female vocals in this almost-a-ballad. Somewhat medieval melodic song.

3)Part 3: Motorcade (7,0)

4)Rats assembly (7,0)  Melodic start that goes into an cool organ-chaos.

5)Always looking down (6,0) Strange drumsound. Spacy vocals. Monotone song.

6)Too soon (7,0) Nice mix of melody and rock in this 8-minute progger but the last minute is... weird.

Church Of Broken Glass:

1)Almost (left without you) (5,0)

2)Butchertown (3,0) Incredibly boring slow 10-minute song.

3)The gulls (6,5)

4)Church of broken glass (5,0) Boring ballad.

5)Train (6,5) High energy but somethings's missing.

Score: 6,14

Jesse Quattro-vocals

Patrick Goodwin-vocals

John Cobbett-guitars

Ron Nichols-bass

Chewy Marzolo-drums

Sigrid Sheie-piano, organ and flute