The Swedish/German Hard/AOR rockers Last Autumn’s Dream were founded in 2002 by the well known in Scandinavia singer Mikael Erlandsson and the Fair Warning guitarist Andy Malecek along with three Europe members filling the line up in the rhythm section and keyboards. The reunion of Europe though lead to a forced change in members with the addition of the Talisman rhythm section Marcel Jacob and Jamie Borger. Not bad at all we would add! Therefore, top class musicians could offer nothing else than quality AOR/hard rock, which is apprehensive in this double cd.

This release acts perfectly as a Best of album as it manages to introduce the band to unfamiliar audiences but at the same time it offers great moments to its fans tempting them by this relatively hard to find Live, summarizing their discographic career so far through significant songs indicative of their style.

The first cd is a studio Best comprised of 16 tracks taken from the “Last Autumn’s Dream”, “II”, “Winter in Paradise” and “Saturn Skyline” cd’s. The one not presented in this release is their most recent “Hunting Shadows”. We therefore have to do with melodic, well played hard rock with refrains easily remembered after the first hearing and with the characteristic hoarse voice of Erlandsson raising the level of the compositions even more. I consider as an advantage of this Best, the representation balance of the band’s songs from all of their albums, a fact that shows the identity of the band in a better manner and reveals its progress, as LAD have added more guitar parts over the years thus approaching a more hard rock audience. The tracks that will definitely indulge fans of this kind of music are: “Again And Again”, “Break The Chains (of destiny)”, “Pages”, “Love To Go”, “Winter in Paradise”, “After Tomorrow’s Gone”, “Domino” all containing nice melodic guitar parts combined with keyboards’ touches and dynamite refrains.

The second cd “Live in Germany” recorded in September of 2007 at the Rock Fabrik of Ludwigsburg depicts the live feeling of the band through the 8 tracks included. In the positive elements of this Live is the track selection, as four of these, the great “For The Young And The Wild”, “Heat of Emotion”, “It’s Alright” and “Rock ‘n Roll is Saving My Soul” are not included in the first cd, thus offering an even better representation of the band’s abilities. Also worth to be noted are the two bonus studio tracks: the ballad “When You Love Someone” and “You Won’t See Me Cry”.

Filling, fresh, pleasant and melodic rock is what you will meet in this double cd from a band “master in its kind”. It is definitely suggested to friends of melodic hard rock as the ultimate musical investment for the summer vacation!