Magnus Karlsson brings the songs, Mark Boals the voice
Customer Rating: 
As per my heading tag this album is very much an affair of Magnus Karlsson writing the album and Mr Boals adding his quality vocals to the affair. Which surprised me a bit as when I first picked it up I figured that Boals must have done a chunk of the songwriting just due to his presence. But nope. Then again Karlsson is a fine songsmith all by himself and here he has crafted a very good album chock full of lovely melodic hard rock. The tone throughout the album stays pretty comfortably within this broad genre but having said that there is degree of variety herein. Some of the tunes have a strident nature - pretty much any of the first three numbers are examples of the rockin' side of proceedings here while there are also a number of ballad style numbers to lighten the load.
The musicianship is quality stuff and many melodic metal fans already know the fine work Mark Boals has in his past. The band here is fleshed out by Daniel Flores on drums and Linus Abrahamson on bass. Both acquit themselves well but really this is an album that lives and dies on its vocal hooks and guitar/keyboard textures. And they are pretty tasty.
A somewhat beguiling cover, lyrivs to the whole shebang and pleasant modern production by Karlsson with the mixing & mastering by Dennis Ward round out the package and it would be nice to think that this was a band rather than a project but given the two main players backgrounds the latter is perhaps the most likely scenario.
For fans of any of a myriad of other Frontiers artists.
Another great Magnus Karlsson project
Customer Rating: I had my doubts going in to this album, the self-titled debut from the Codex, a collaboration between guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Starbreaker, Primal Fear) and vocalist Mark Boals (Royal Hunt, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen). I'm a huge fan of Karlsson's work, especially collaborations like Starbreakerand Allen/Lande, where he works with established vocalists. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of Mark Boals' high-pitched vocals. I avoided the Codex for a while, but when I saw it on sale I gave in to my curiosity.
I shouldn't have waited. Karlsson is in fine form here, both in terms of his guitar work as well as his songwriting. If you're familiar with his previous work, you know he sticks pretty close to a melodic hard rock formula with sweeping melodies and huge choruses. It's a formula that works though, even if the songs he wrote for the Codex could have worked just as well on a Last Tribe or Allen/Lande album. The big surprise, for me, at least, was how much Mark Boals' vocals have changed. Gone was the high-pitched wail I remembered from Ignition. Instead, Boals brought a warm, powerful performance that was very reminiscent of Last Tribe's Rickard Bengtsson. His voice suits Karlsson's songs perfectly, and made the Codex just as memorable an album as any of Karlsson's previous works. It doesn't hurt that between his production and Dennis Ward's (Pink Cream 69) mixing and mastering, the album benefits from the best studio team in melodic rock.
I suppose the lack of originality should be counted against Karlsson at this point, but I still enjoy the albums and songs he comes up with. The man found a formula that works, and I'm enjoying the ride. I just hope he and DC Cooper - one of Boals' predecessors in Royal Hunt - can hook up at some point. Those two are meant to work together. If you enjoyed Last Tribe, Allen/Lande, Planet Alliance, Starbreaker, and/or Boals' work with Royal Hunt, you should absolutely check out the Codex.
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