One of the brightest of a whole wave of melodic rock bands to come out of Scandinavia in the eighties, Treat had the talent, but not the breaks, and lets face it, the looks, that propelled fellow Swedes Europe to international stardom.

Now, just as a fresh wave of young Nordic talent such as H.E.A.T. and Eclipse comes to the fore, they are back with a first album of all new material in nearly 20 years.

While Europe since reforming have deliberately gone in a different and more modern direction, Treat are content to stick with the classic, overtly commercial melodic rock sound, propelled by Robert Ernlund-s vocals that have that archetypally Swedish feel to them.

Anders Wikstrom-s chunky riffs and clean solos help give the album a slightly tougher, if no less tuneful, sound than their 80-s albums- Bonfire, Fair Warning and Gotthard would all be good reference points.

Stand out tracks include All In, with big backing vocals, and Paper Tiger, with bigger hooks than a whaling fleet.

Skies of Mongolia has a slight progressive Euro metal tinge, especially in the keyboards, while No Way Without You - aired at their Firefest appearance last year - is up tempo and catchy, and We Own the Night and All for Love have melodic choruses to die for.

Breathless ends the album with an up tempo rocker that would sound great live.

My one complaint is that the 13 songs plus an instrumental get a touch samey after a while. But it is good to see one of the old masters of the Scandi sound back and sounding so fresh.

****½

Review by Andy Nathan