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Osukaru is a quite new Swedish band, which plays melodic hard rock in West-coast style. 'Triumphant' is the follow-up album to 'Salvation' from 2011. Osukaro has a new line-up since the debut album and the only remaining member is creator Oz Osukaru (EYE, ex KATANA) on guitars, keyboards, backing vocals. This time there are two vocalists and Fredrik Werner (ex MR. ARTIST) is one of them and he handles guitars as well. The other singer is the charming Cecilia Camuii (PANORAMA). Adrian Lopez (PANORAMA) – piano, keyboards, Jens Björk (ex MR.ARTIST) – saxophone, Ryan Coyle – drums, percussion on tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7. 8, 11 and Axel Ryberg (PANORAMA) – drums drums on tracks 4, 9, 10, 12 are the other musicians in the band.

I had a hard time after my first spin of 'Triumphant' because the vocals weren’t satisfying for me at all. Fredrik and Cecilia don't keep the same high level as the music does. Because this is a musically a very strong album with a lot of variables and loops. The music has a very strong AOR reference, with spices of a jazzy saxophone, which makes this album a little more exciting after several spins.

Very independent and with a sound of their own and it's not similar with other bands in the genre, which all in all makes it a pretty pleasant spending time with 'Triumphant'. Unfortunately the uneven and mediocre vocals pull down my general impression, but I am a vocal geek, who has very high standards for the vocals in the AOR genre. Maybe too high this time...

There are some gems for posterity that I want to recommended; tracks: "Walk in Balance", "Holding On To Memories", "Mafia Rules" and title track "Triumphant". Extra credits to the splendid guitar work throughout the album. This is an album that grows in each new listening.

If you like diverse genres of melodic rock music and want to discover some new and fresh influences; this is an album worth checking out. Nice work.

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