Inevitably, bands who have forged a career for well over a decade can often be overlooked in the tsunami of music that we face daily. Days Of Jupiter is one such outfit, who you may or may not have heard of. Their credentials are impressive, with four albums under their belt and 20 million streams on Spotify. Their fifth, The World Was Never Enough, is about to follow.
Days Of Jupiter – The World Was Never Enough (RPM)
Release Date: 7 February 2025
Words: Paul Hutchings
For Days Of Jupiter, there is little detail about their live performances on Setlist.FM. A paltry eight shows are listed, seven in their home country of Sweden and one in Finland. I am aware of shows in other European countries, though, including Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Formed in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden in 2010, the band’s sound was based on big modern Metal sounds with rich melodies. They have carried it through to album number five, The World Was Never Enough.
It’s a huge album in many respects, with a massively polished finish and layered keyboards providing depth to the gargantuan riffs that crash through the opening salvo of Original Sin, the title track and Machine.
In Jan Hilli, the band have a vocalist who brings a powerful range to songs that have more hooks than a pirate convention. His soaring cleans tower above the glorious anthemic melodies that are poured out, and nowhere better than on Machine, which switches from a pounding metallic anthem to gentle calmness at the midpoint, before slowly building again to a crescendo.
The music is crystal clear, each instrument allowed time to breathe, and whilst this is not a reinvention of the wheel, the thick melodies that underpin each song give them enough identity to make them memorable. You will be singing the chorus of Machine for days afterwards.
Inevitably, we get a ballad, and it arrives in the shape of Desolation. Some neat guitar work forges the pathway, allowing Hilli free reign to give a stunning performance, with echoes of Empyre’s Henrik Steenholdt in his delivery. Whereas many ballads are treated with disappointment, Desolation provides a different take, with walls of synths providing the necessary enhancement.
The Fix throws up another comparison, for Hilli’s vocals are so reminiscent of Dick Valentine from Electric Six that I needed to check. Aside from this rather confusing scenario, The Fix provides a Europop approach, the pulsing bass line combining with another singalong chorus and richly crafted melodies. Add in a little steel from the dual guitars and this is a song you could quite easily see in that annual international song contest.
It has been six years since Panoptical was released, and it is evident that the band has been working hard to create a well-honed album that provides ample riches over the 45 minutes. It sits in the harder edge of the melodic rock field, with songs such as Parasite, My Heaven, My Hell and the closing drama of Invincible all flicking between Heavy Metal and slightly softer hard rock.
Regardless of the genre label, The World Was Never Enough is a gloriously impressive release. The musicianship is superb, the production crisp and clean, and the songs all instantly accessible yet still able to give more on repeated listens.
This is a classic example of how to take your time to create something epic. And whilst it is not my immediate go-to style, I had no hesitation in playing this repeatedly. The World Was Never Enough is a fine return from a band who would go down well at many of the UK hard rock festivals on offer today.
Days Of Jupiter – The World Was Never Enough – Is available from here.
