Stefan Lindholm's Rapture (demo)

This demo surprised me very much. Stefan Lindholm's Rapture knows how to write good songs that much is evident. The only thing they don't know about is production. It is decent passable for a demo but the quality of the production doesn't do justice to the songs, instead of being lively and powerful they sound muddled and flat. But what matters is the music isn't it? I would say Rapture is a nice mix of Melodic Hard Rock with some progressive elements somewhat like Balance of Power. I would like to see these guys get signed and make a real album. This four song demo starts with the track Pride. It is a nice midtempo tune with some lovely female vocals. No not the generic high wannabe Tarja type vocals that alot of bands implement but rather some gentle but powerful singing that makes this song a hit in my opinion. In some passages the vocals sound exactly like Andre Fishcer from Ivory Tower. I really like this song it is worthy of re-recording on Raptures hopefully soon to be debut. This track is a little more restrained than the rest of the album but it fits well. Track two Picking Up the Pieces is a speedy guitar solo driven intrumental. Its good and fast and all that but it would be better suited for a full length cd than waste space on a demo. I would rather have had another song like Pride instead of a guitar solo. So Long is next its a faster tempo song than Pride and a bit more progessive. Not as accessible or amazing as Pride though it took me a few listens to appreciate it. The last song on here is the titel track Rapture it is another decent song with an amazing guitar solo but ti doesn't quite feel like it should be the song to close the demo out. It seems like when its over you're sitting there going "Thats it?" I was expecting a bit more out of it, but by no means is it a bad song. This demo is of a little above average quality. Pride is definitely the best song on here and its the type of song that the band needs to adopt as its style. It is A. more memorable and B. more unique and different than the rest of the demo. Id say to Stefan, polish your production and make more songs like Pride you have potential no doubt you just need to refine your band a little bit more. Good luck and I hope to see your debut album in the future.