Hardreams - Unbroken Promises

[Stefan]

Perris Records releases the new one from Hardreams, 'Unbroken Promises', on Jan 15th.

 

 

 

 

Tracklisting:

 

1 Count On Me

2 A High Mountain To Climb

3 It's Only Love

4 The War Is Over

5 Woman In Black

6 Now You Are Mine

7 The Land Inside Our Souls

8 Goin' Fast

9 Unbroken Promises

10 Cross The Line

11 All And Now

 

 

[Geoff]

What an impactful preview. They sound just like they did before. The accent will always keep them from being great, and songs like those previewed will only make it even harder. I'll give it a go, but sadly don't expect too much.

[Stefan]

Some songs from the new album.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6jSmX57bGA

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbncRoHWZ8w

[Stefan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFFyxRAkc3w

[Geoff]

Well, I gotta say, this is by far their best album yet. A few fillers bring down the overall score for me, but inbetween them there's some good material on this disc. Much better quality than before, and a good heavier sound with a good production job:

 

1. Count On Me (4:01) - great melodic rock opener, killer chorus - 8.50

2. A High Mountain To Climb (3:21) - really average rocker - 6.00

3. It's Only Love (4:18) - beautiful melodic rocker - 9.00

4. The War Is Over (5:27) - nice melodic rocker once more - 8.00

5. Woman In Black (4:06) - another good solid melodic rocker - 7.75

6. Now You're Mine (5:06) - good meloidc rock ballad - 7.75

7. The Land Inside Our Souls (5:17) - good, solid melodic rocker - 7.50

8. Goin' Fast (3:56) - blatant, bad filler - 4.00

9. Unbroken Promises (4:07) - really nice melodic rock, probably the best here - 9.00

10. Cross The Line (4:58) - nice pretty solid melodic rocker - 7.75

11. All And Now (5:28) - pretty average bluesy ballad - 5.00

 

Total - 73%

[Nightrain]

I recall their first disc being great, probably as strong as this, but I kinda forgot and need to take a listen again. Weakness clearly shown on the singer. He has average vocal timbre, but not bad at all, some harmonic vocals here did work pretty well. And while he's a bit accented, I've heard worse. Musically, I guess the rhythm section is solid and the guitar is probably the best element here, I love his riffs and solos.

 

I agree with you that 'Count On Me', 'It's Only Love', and 'Unbroken Promises' are the strongest tracks here. Although the latter has patchy verse, but the chorus is magnificent. I also dig 'Woman In Black', a 8/10 for me. I guess 'Now You're Mine' is okay, and together with 'The Land Inside Our Souls' are 7/10 tracks, bordering filler I guess. I can see that 'Goin Fast' isn't really a great track but are you sure it's a 4/10 ? coz it's like a 7/10 for me, good hard rock fast paced stuff. 'Cross The Line' again struggling with the verse but the chorus is quite nice. Surprisingly, I don't mind 'All and Now', the slow bluesy hooks strangely reminds me of old Ray Charles song.

 

All in all, a good album and worth to buy for those strong tracks alone. I have nothing below 7/10 here and if you really don't mind the vocal, I think it's a nice buy. BTW, I'm curious Geoff, how do you arrive in a score like 7.75, why not 7.5 or just go with 8 ? do you also have a personal math system for a single song ?

 

76%

[Geoff]

Honestly mate, I could rate shit like 'Gion' fast' a 0 and be content with that. I despise songs like that. I think 4 is more than generous.

 

I agree on the accent. It's definitely there, but not as bad as others I've heard and not a deal breaker. This album seems better produced than previous efforts, and just stronger in terms of song writing for the most part.

 

As for the 0.25 differences in my ratings, I just got to a point where I'd been rating so many albums that there became a distinct difference between, for example, a 7.5 and an 8, and I needed something inbetween. Just a way I evolved with so many albums being rated...

[Stefan]

 

Full album: