PLEASUREDOME – For Your Personal Amusement

Pleasuredome is a newly founded band with many great names from the Melodic Rock world. They have singer Ted Poley which is best known for fronting Danger Danger in their top period. Charlie Calv and Ed Avila have been contributing in many bands during the last decade like Intruder, Melodica and Skin Jag. John Hummel has been constantly touring and was most recently seen with Chris Cornell’s (Soundgarden) younger brother Peter Cornell in Black Market Radio and David Tsien has been working with the band Shoot The Doctor. The members of Pleasuredome have sold 1 million records, played in 500 cities in 15 countries and played over 5,000 concerts.

A human’s own melody is the opener of this album; a heartbeat which is the very foundation of the title track “For Your Personal Amusement”. Keyboards are laid upon it and an atmospheric sound builds up the tension before letting it loose in “Trapped” which is the first song featuring the entire band. It’s opens with aggressive riffs and thundering drums. Following in the footsteps of the opener are many great songs. “One And Only” sounds much like a song coming from Saxon’s early 90s period. Vocalist Ted Poley even sounds a little like Saxon’s Biff Byford on this one, especially in the beginning. “Praying For A Miracle” is a song that has a wonderful chorus, quite a cliché and it’s filled with great vocal harmonies. Although, the bass riff sounds awfully familiar, one can’t figure out what it’s similar to. “Seems Like A Dream” is the mysterious ballad on this album. Drifting on moody, flowing keyboards and great guitar playing it sets itself as one of the greatest tracks on this record. There’s a women singing as well on some songs. Her name is unfortunately not mentioned on this promo copy so who she is will remain a secret. However she sings great, not a stand-out voice although she puts in a commendable appearance.

What hits you listening to this record for the first time is the crystal clear production. It seems like everything Martin Kronlund touches gets the same drum production for some reason, it sounds like the latest efforts from Gypsy Rose, Silent Call and White Wolf which he also mixed and mastered. The impression of the song material is both good and bad. There are some cool songs and some uninteresting ones as well. There’s some variation but somehow things have a tendency to become a bit similar anyway. All over this is a good album but there is a lot of room for improvement for a future release.

1. For Your Personal Amusement
2. Trapped
3. One And Only
4. The Aura That Surrounds You
5. Praying For A Miracle
6. Always Tomorrow
7. Love Is A Game
8. Seems Like A Dream
9. I Won’t Cry
10. Returns To Zero
11. (Who Will) Save The World
12. For Your Personal Amusement (Reprise)

Ted Poley – Vocals
David Tsien – Guitars
Charlie Calv – Keyboards
Ed Avila – Bass
John Hummel – Drums

Produced by Charlie Calv
Mixed and mastered by Martin Kronlund