Leverage - Above The Beyond

[Stefan]

 

'Above The Beyond' out October 15 through Frontiers. More details to follow...

Edited August 4, 2021 by Stefan

[Stefan]

New video for 'Emperor'.

From Frontiers:

Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Leverage's new album, "Above The Beyond" on October 15, 2021.

Leverage continue to showcase their contemporary heavy rock sound on their new album, “Above The Beyond”, which takes influence from the golden past while still offering their own unique personality. Plenty of ear-catching melodies delivered skillfully with pristine production on the band’s latest album.

"We’re a heavy rock band. Our music has echoes dating back all the way to the '70s, like it always has. On the new album, that heritage is heard louder and clearer than ever before. It has tons of guitars, riffs, choruses, choirs, and solos. All the goods," says guitaris Tuomas Heikkinen of the band's upcoming release. "What makes our trademark sound is the mix of shadow and light, simple and complex, old and modern. And I trust we have now polished that approach with the Leverage MK 2 line-up."

"I am happy and proud of everything we’ve ever done. Yet somehow this new album is very special. Musically, I feel we have gone full circle. I sense a lot of the ”Tides” vibes on it, only almost 20 years later. It's all about the music, not trying to fit in a box, not purposely cover some ground, or take steps away from something," he continues.

Leverage first landed on the scene in 2006 with the independent release of their debut album, “Tides”. With their blend of symphonic metal and melodic hard rock, with some progressive metal twists, they created a buzz on the scene and were signed by Frontiers for the release of their second album, “Blind Fire” in 2008, before moving to Universal/Spinefarm for their next album, “Circus Colossus” (2009). The band became inactive not too long after the release of that third album though, sadly leaving fans craving more music from the band.

In 2018, Leverage returned with a new lineup featuring an amazing new singer Kimmo Blom (ex-Urban Tale, Raskasta Joulua) and a new guitar player Mikko Salovaara. They first released an EP, “The Devil’s Turn” and then a full-length, “Determinus”. The band showcased that they are still able to cover a pretty wide ground musically. Again, not power metal, not AOR, not thrash. Just great heavy rock with stunning melodies. That same result is also evident on their new record, "Above The Beyond".

 

Tracklist:

1. Starlight

2. Emperor

3. Into The New World

4. Do You Love Me Now

5. Angelica

6. Under His Eye

7. Falling Out Of Grace

8. Galleria

9. Silence

 

LINE-UP:

Kimmo Blom – vocals

Mikko Salovaara – guitars

Tuomas Heikkinen – guitars

Sami Norrbacka – bass

Valtteri Revonkorpi – drums

Marko Niskala - keyboards

 

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Edited August 5, 2021 by Stefan

[Stefan]

New song 'Starlight'.

 

 

[Jez]

Looking forward to this...Very very solid band

[Stefan]

New song 'Falling Out Of Grace'.

 

 

[Stefan]

Kimmo passed away in August last year and here's a tribute to him.

A word from Tuomas Heikkinen (Leverage):

"It has now been half a year since Kimmo passed away. Losing a close friend you have known for a quarter of a century is hard. The last time I met him, a few days before he left us, he expressed a wish regarding ’Silence'. He said this song, besides its obvious theme, had a personal meaning to him in fighting what eventually took him away from us. He asked me to see that we’d release the song as a separate ’single’ if possible, as his will or testament regarding Leverage. Rest in peace, Kimmo.

Silence is a song about war experiences haunting one for the rest of his days. It has to do with what I saw, heard and felt as a boy growing up in a time when a lot of veterans of WW2 were still alive. Hearing how many of them were drawn back to the battlefield in their sleep, never able to escape the horrors they had faced. Wondering how some of the next generation could ever blame them for what they had done to the soldiers of ’our friendly neighbour country’ while defending our own. It really wasn’t until the 90’s and on that the veterans started to get the attention and respect they had always deserved.

I wrote ’Silence' in December 2020, that time of the year always reminding us here in Finland of the Winter War 1939-1940. It was the last piece of music I wrote for what became ’Above the Beyond’. May the heroes rest in peace." - Tuomas Heikkinen, Leverage

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by Stefan