Khymera - Hold Your Ground

[Stefan]

 

Don't hold your breath when 'Hold Your Ground' hits the *cough* ground February 10 through Frontiers.

More groundbreaking details to come...

[lettard]

Yet more good news...pretty consistent band...love The Grand Design and The Greatest Wonder...the last wasn't to shabby either...still Denis Ward me hopes?

[Stefan]

 

New video for 'Firestarter'.

From Frontiers:

Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to announce the latest release from Dennis Ward and Khymera, "Hold Your Ground" will be available on February 10, 2023.

Dennis handles lead vocals, bass, and keyboards and is joined by guitarist Michael Klein, keyboardist Eric Ragno, and drummer MIchael Kolar, with Pete Newdeck contributing backing vocals. As has to be expected with Khymera and Dennis, "Hold Your Ground" is another fine slice of high pedigree melodic rock.

Khymera has in fact built its reputation as one of the best examples of what great European melodic rock is all about: crystal clear production, soaring vocals, killer musicianship, and songwriting that reminds fans of the heydays of the genre when bands like Giuffria, Icon, and Signal were releasing their classic albums. While it started out as an alliance between Italian producer/musician Daniele Liverani and then Kansas singer Steve Walsh, Khymera developed into a regular musical project when bassist and producer Dennis Ward (Magnum, Pink Cream 69) entered the fold. While known as a bassist, Dennis always sang background vocals with his bands, so he was more than ready and willing to take over the lead vocals for Khymera when the opportunity presented itself.

 

After releasing the albums "A New Promise" (2005) and "The Greatest Wonder" (2008), Dennis took a break from Khymera for some time before returning with "The Grand Design" (2015). He then returned with another new Khymera album five years later, “Master of Illusions” (2020). Musically, "Master Of Illusions" followed the logical progression of the musical path that was started when Dennis joined the project and was a strong, extremely melodic release, showcasing the fantastic vocal abilities of Dennis and skills as a songwriter and producer.

Mercifully, the wait between albums is a bit shorter this time as 2023 will see the release of Dennis and Khymera's next chapter, "Hold Your Ground", an absolute tour de force of glorious melodic rock.

Tracklisting:
1. Don't Wait For Love
2. Firestarter
3. Hear Me Calling
4. Sail On Forever
5. Our Love Is Killing Me
6. Hear What I'm Saying
7. Believe In What You Want   
8. On The Edge
9. Could Have Been Us
10. Runaway  
11. Am I Dreaming

Line-Up:
Dennis Ward - Lead Vocals, Bass, Keys
Michael Klein - Guitars
Eric Ragno - Keyboards
Michael Kolar - Drums
Pete Newdeck - Backing Vocals

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Stefan

[The Rocker]

Nice

 

[Eric3]

That's fucking class. Impeccable production from Ward as always.

[Dead Planet]

Excellent....

[auslander]

I quite like that. Very tasty. One to look for upon release. Just enough guitar crunch and I really like that outtro to the track.

[J.S.M]

Deezer says ADV has (co-)written the song. Hope he doesn't take over this project. Dennis is good enough on his own.

[Jez]

Very nice...Move out of the way ADV, Dennis is back .....very solid band with The Greatest Wonder especially being absolutely fabulous. Looking forward to this one a lot

[AlphaMale]

Awesome!

[Eric3]

Watching the video again and...anyone see the resemblance? 
 

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Dunno how I missed this thread. Looking forward to this. 

[Mr.AOR]

Same here, looking forward to this.

[Geoff]

Yeah, very nice. Can't wait. 

[Doggy]

On 12/23/2022 at 6:03 AM, Eric3 said:

Watching the video again and...anyone see the resemblance? 
 

OK,who  leaked out my driving permit photo

[gdazer]

Hopefully Dennis is still part of the Magnum lineup and that they land a new album in 2023.

[Stefan]

New lyric video for 'Hear Me Calling'.

 

 

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Another co-write with ADV. I really wanna know what the deal is with Frontiers and ADV. Like, if you sign with Frontiers are you contractually obligated to use him? Because folks like Dennis Ward def don't need him.  

[The Rocker]

3 hours ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

Another co-write with ADV. I really wanna know what the deal is with Frontiers and ADV. Like, if you sign with Frontiers are you contractually obligated to use him? Because folks like Dennis Ward def don't need him.  

Agree!  And you can tell ADV is involved, the lyrics just don't flow right.

[Eric3]

51 minutes ago, The Rocker said:

Agree!  And you can tell ADV is involved, the lyrics just don't flow right.

And there's no dynamics between the verse and chorus.

The production sounds great though.

[J.S.M]

That's so funny... I listened to the song. The chorus kicked in and had no connection at all with the verse, like two different songs. Strange lyrics soundwise. Two typical ADV things. I knew it was written by him, looked it up on Deezer and whoohoo, I'm a genius.

[Eric3]

1 hour ago, J.S.M said:

That's so funny... I listened to the song. The chorus kicked in and had no connection at all with the verse, like two different songs. Strange lyrics soundwise. Two typical ADV things. I knew it was written by him, looked it up on Deezer and whoohoo, I'm a genius.

I've said this once before but it sure seems like, given the volume of ADV-written songs being churned out and their oft-disjointed nature, these songs are really just bits and pieces of demos and sketches stuck together. It is very easy to do that sort of thing nowadays and I'm guessing the pandemic forced a lot of people's hands in record label land to go with that method of songwriting for convenience and cost-cutting. We all know most of these Frontiers projects are just excuses to put as many well-known AOR and melodic rock singers in their catalog as possible anyway -- they've admitted as such -- and clearly there are lots of people who are not as jaded with the whole thing as myself and will buy the music no matter what, so of course they're not going to put in any extra effort where they don't have to. 

Also, notice that Frontiers has mostly done away with the "EPK" or behind-the-scenes videos for these bands...

[KarpetRydOFunk]

3 hours ago, Eric3 said:

We all know most of these Frontiers projects are just excuses to put as many well-known AOR and melodic rock singers in their catalog as possible anyway -- they've admitted as such -- and clearly there are lots of people who are not as jaded with the whole thing as myself and will buy the music no matter what, so of course they're not going to put in any extra effort where they don't have to. 

Also, notice that Frontiers has mostly done away with the "EPK" or behind-the-scenes videos for these bands...

Did they admit that? I never heard. 

Also, "EPK" thing might be mostly due to the pandemic, but the other reason would be that a large portion of their output are just project bands. But I'm sure that's what you were implying. 

[Eric3]

First listen through on crappy work speakers and it appears this project has been Del Vecchio'd. Only a couple songs stood out to me but I'll listen with headphones later.

[Glen]

reeks of ADV. its a pass from me. Zzzz