BAND OF THE DAY: WORK UNIT

‘Exhibits’ has been in the works for over a year and a half, but is finally being unleashed to the legions of hungry melodic rock fans that the band has enraptured with its first three albums. “It’s been a long time indeed. Five years, although funnily enough it didn’t seem that way,” says Work Of Art guitarist and producer Robert Säll. “Everyone in the band was busy doing their own thing and it wasn’t until mid-2017 when Serafino [Perugino, President Frontiers Records] asked us about our plans for a new album and it hit us that it really was about time. So we spent the best part of 2018 writing and recording it and here we are!”

Work Of Art debuted in 2008 with their debut album, ‘Artwork’. Arriving out of the blue, it immediately struck a chord with melodic rock afficionados all over the world. With a sound inspired by greats such as Toto, Giant and Journey, WOA soon established themselves as one of the most promising newcomers in the genre. Around this time, guitarist and main composer Säll also joined W.E.T, the project featuring solo star Jeff Scott Soto and Erik Martensson of Eclipse, thereby cementing his status in the scene.

Expectations for the follow-up album, ‘In Progress’, were sky high, but Work Of Art lived up to the hype and the record was a hit in their home territory of Sweden. The next step was to begin performing live, which they did for the first time in Madrid in January 2012, following it with other shows around Europe.

Their third album, ‘Framework’, followed in 2014 and kept the momentum going for the trio who, simply put, became the top new AOR band in mainland Europe.

‘Exhibits’ is the logical next step for WOA and encompasses all the qualities they have shown to date.

Offering another bunch of unforgettable songs with soaring melodies from singer Lars Säfsund and the amazing instrumental prowess of Säll and drummer Herman Furin, ‘Exhibits’ will thrill fans of the band and of the genre as a whole. “Like always, when Herman, Lars and I get together, it sounds like us, it

sounds like Work of Art,” states Säll. “However, with this record I tried to bring out more ‘old school AOR’ influences and get rid of some of the West Coast influences that were on our previous albums. I wanted it to be an AOR album, not a melodic rock album, not a West Coast album, just a classic AOR sounding album, from start to finish!”

Overall, this is certainly Work Of Art’s most up-tempo and straight ahead album thus far, but it also features some unbelievable softer moments, with notable highlights including legendary keyboard player Vince DiCola (author of the ‘Training Montage’ piece on the Rocky IV soundtrack) as a special guest on ‘This Isn’t Love’.

“If I had to pick one favourite track it would be ‘This Isn’t Love’,” concludes Säll. “It’s definitely old school sounding, it’s catchy, yet there’s a lot of things going on composition and arrangement-wise. It reminds me of a time when this kind of music was allowed to be musically interesting. Jim Peterik wrote some beautiful lyrics for it like only he can, Shem von Schroeck plays bass and, to top it off, it’s got an amazing solo by Vince DiCola. We asked Vince for a keyboard lead, he came back with a whole keyboard symphony! It is easily one of the personal highlights for me on this album.”

‘Exhibits’ is an album that no AOR fan can afford to miss.

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