heavyharmonies

Umm... why the FUCK was I not aware of this band before? Completely up my alley. New album is SWEET! (no pun intended)... and sounds like the production is better than previous efforts. Not everyone's cup of tea, especially as it's a concept album, but in the Within Temptation/Delain/Nightwish vein. Two standout tracks IMO: http://www.heavyharmonies.com/audio/tmoms-1.mp3 http://www.heavyharmonies.com/audio/tmoms-2.mp3 Ahh, fuck it. I've swapped out tracks several times. The whole album is ear candy.

Am just listening to this now (over here at least, it's listed as a January 2015 release, not 2014). I'm surprised no one has made the comparison, at least vocally, to Harem Scarem. Very similar vocal characteristics. Solid album, very listenable. Tell me this isn't a monster track:

POWER PROG is very pleased to announce the signing of GRÖNHOLM, one of Finland's most respected Hard Rock/Melodic Rock/AOR acts of the last years. The first common goal is the release of their upcoming third album "Relativity Code For Love" worldwide from September 18th, 2015 on CD, download card, as digital download and as stream. Already in the early eighties, Mika Grönholm showed his first deeper interest for the world of music by listening to bands like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes and Van Halen (to name a few) ... so inspired, he began to play guitar himself. Over the next decades and with a lot of studio and live experiences, he formed his own band GRÖNHOLM to realize all his musical and lyrical ideas. With drummer Tom Rask and singer Markku Kuikka the right comrades were quickly found and the impressive results of this combination are recorded in the two albums "Eyewitness Of Life" 2010) and "Silent Out Loud" (2011), both decorated with highly acclaimed reviews and strong encouragement out of the whole melodic/progressive rock scene. The upcoming third album "Relativity Code For Love" is an appreciation, study and musical journey about love, all told in the language of melodic rock. With British exceptional singer Lee Small, rock fans worldwide best known as the voice of Shy, Tom Galley's Phenomena, Skyscaper and many other, one of the most appropriate artists was taken on board to give this mission the right refinement. The result is a concise and entertaining piece of Hard Rock/Melodic Rock/AOR with fine progressive influences and resounding catchy melodies which will grab the audience with a unique style and higher musical claims. The fresh dynamic mixing and mastering of Janne Tolsa (Nightwish, Tarot, Eternal Tears Of Sorrow ...) has completed the whole release to one of the forthcoming rock highlights this year. Tracklist ... 01. Reasons 02. Home In Our Hearts 03. Like An Angel 04. Mystery 05. Strangers 06. Once 07. Serenity 08. Gravity http://www.powerprog.net/releases_groenholm_relativity_code_for_love.html

Sounds amazingly promising. Very varied stylistically, with elements of their classic sound, but with some newer riffs and melodies as well. Hopefully that doesn't make it too disjointed from a listen-through perspective. Geoff, regarding the cover art, look at their album covers back to 1981 on the main site. They've been using this theme WAAAAAY longer than Jorn... http://www.heavyharmonies.com/cgi-bin/band.cgi?BandNum=967

Ok, but not real exciting.

Surprisingly, that sample unfortunately doesn't do much for me.

Listening to this for the first time. Love it! I don't get the "Modern" criticisms... it's "modern" in the same way 7th Heaven is "modern". Not a bad thing at all.

Nickelback v2.0?

Music = great. Vocals = weak point. Google Translate should get a lyrics credit. Egads.

I don't mind it, although likely wouldn't get a whole lot of repeated listens.

Second tune isn't awful, but the first is considerably better.

It showed great potential... right up until the lead singer opened his mouth. Yikes.

Meh. Didn't do anything for me.

Shows potential. Most of the passages on the sampler are verses rather than choruses, so I'm a bit uncertain about the consistency of the latter.

Yeah, this one really does nothing for me, sorry. Vocally it's a mess.

Upon further play, I am really digging this album. Also as far as prog goes, the new Magic Pie album is quite enjoyable as well. Both are on Spotify if you want to listen to the whole album.

Agreed. Without going back and re-listening to the whole kit and kaboodle, The Journey Will Never End is the album that is most memorable for me.

Jamming this one this morning. A bit Euro power metal, a bit thrash, a bit Judas Priest. Technically released in December 2014, but I didn't hear it until 2015.

Sounds like the hiatus has done them some good.

Damn it. I have no clue how this album slipped by me... and I loved White Darkness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd_ohSnxOps

I'm really surprised there is no more discussion about this album, as it has serious (HA!) staying power for me. Too heavy for most folks here?

Uhhh... hopefully you nean that the other way around. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

That's interesting as hell. I wonder if it is associated with this or some other scam he was involved in. I remember a lot of people pissed off and blustering, but I don't recall anyone saying they had actually successfully gotten charges filed. Since it looks like there was some sort of restitution involved, I'm curious as to what it was for, as I doubt anyone here got anything out of him after the fact (we'd have heard about it by now).

Read lots of complaints over at the MR forum regarding the sound quality of the Frontiers pressing, that they overly compressed the mix, and that the Japan SHM pressing has considerably better SQ. That may be a large part of my complaint about the album: it doesn't have the sonic headroom or lushness of mix/production that previous Toto efforts have had. It's a bad practice in general, but to do it with a Westcoast AOR album where the sonic characteristics are a MAJOR part of the aural experience, borders on criminal...

Hopefully the material doesn't sound stale. The last few efforts have just sounded like retreads of Moving Target and Paradox. Don't get me wrong, those two albums are my faves (never could get into the John West era), but we don't need more material that just sounds rehashed.