Starmen light up the sky on Starmenized II with a turbo-charged blast of retro hard-rock swagger, neon hooks, and comic-book bravado that hits like a rocket aimed straight at 1987.
Swedish hard-rock superheroes Starmen are back, dripping in face paint and with cosmic swagger to spare. They’re doubling down on their trademark retro-fueled, arena rock with Starmenized II, their fifth studio album and the follow-up to 2023’s Starmenized and 2024’s career-spanning The Best Of Starmen Volume 1. Never a band to do things the normal way, Starmen continue their orbit with a mix of melodic firepower that’s part vault excavation and part new-era proclamation.
The band’s journey toward this record started with an issue of overflow issue… too many songs. Not a bad problem to have for any band. “We had so many great tracks left from the last album that it would’ve been a waste not to release them,” bassist Jonatan Samuelsson (aka Gold Starman) explains. Far from leftovers, these previously unreleased cuts crackle with the band’s boisterous blend of raunchy riffs, neon-bright melody, and the unabashed, comic-book hero attitude they’ve fully embraced.
Frontman and chief songwriter Kristian Hermanson (aka Red Starman) anchors the record with his soaring vocals and rhythm-guitar power. His writing is sharp, tuneful, and drenched in the kind of throwback hooks that feel like timeless rocket fuel. But the true curveball is the brand-new anthem “Born To Rock,” written and sung by Samuelsson, a fist-pumping mission statement that plants the Starmen flag even deeper into planet Hard Rock.
Musically, Starmenized II isn’t trying to rediscover the stars, it simply shoots straight for them. The hooks are huge and arrangements are unapologetically polished, layering guitar heroics with vocal harmonies that could’ve escaped from a time capsule marked “1987.” Yet the band never slips into parody, their retro leanings are delivered with sincerity, honor, and the kind of joyful bravado only true believers can pull off.
Visually, the band leans even harder into its identity. Packaged in Starmen's trademark retro comic-book aesthetic, the album looks like something rescued from the spinner rack at a small-town record shop, bursting with pulse-pounding color. It’s a fitting frame for a band that worships at the altar of classic hard rock while insisting its flame is far from fading.