ERIKA ‘Cold Winter Night ’
(MTM Records 2003)
The name Erika should be familiar to every Pop/Hard Rock fan. The former
wife of Yngwie J Malmsteen has recorded many top selling albums during her
nine-year career and has also performed in front of more than 10.000
people. How did she achieve that? I guess that a bit of luck and plenty of
connections within the rising Swedish Hard Rock scene was the key to
success.
Her first major hit "Together We're Lost" came as a result of her
collaboration with Bobby Ljunggren (Lionheart Records) and producer Hakan
Almqvist. The song went straight to number one overnight, quite an amazing
task for a new artist. The trio knew that they were heading towards the
right direction, and composed ten more songs which were destined to
consist Erika's debut album "Cold Winter Night".
MTM Records decided to re-release Erika's debut album thirteen years after it's original release,
with the addition of "Super Sonic City"(a song never recorded or performed
before) and two different versions of "Together We're Lost" which were
never before released in Europe.
Music-wise, "Cold Winter Night" is an album full of "smart" melodies and
catchy tunes. You can feel it from the very first minute that this album
was destined to become a hit. Forget about great technical skills on
behalf of the musicians, forget about music innovations. You don't have to
be in a specific mood in order to enjoy songs like "Together We're Lost",
"Heavenly" and "Love In Vain"(my personal favourite), and I'm pretty sure
that this was the trio's intention from the very beginning.
"Cold Winter Night" will be released, completely remastered, in a jewel
case on 12 January 2004.
An album worth listening to while driving or with the company of good
friends and plenty of wine!
***
Review by John Stefanis
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