The Hard Place #8
You have reached The Hard Place. A place where the hair is just a shade more voluminous. A place where the trousers are, on average, two belt holes tighter. A place wherein it is perfectly normal for guitars to begin spontaneously spewing fireworks. Or lightning. Or both. We bring you the choicest, freshest cuts of retro-metal on offer. And, in a scene where wrongness so often prevails, The Hard Place offers a distillation of all that is currently right with the world of melodic hard rock. Quite a lot of it is, as you might expect, from Sweden.
We hit you up first with Kent Hilli, who will be known to some of you as the vocalist with Swedish outfit Perfect Plan. He has teamed up with the preposterously over-talented Michael Palace for the release of his debut solo record, The Rumble, and the first single to be plucked thence is ‘Don’t Say It’s Forever’. Hilli’s voice sounds so incredible here that we can forgive the inevitably awful video (“tonight, Matthew, I will be John Bishop...”) as we find ourselves revelling in the song’s shimmering, pomp-tastic keys, chunksome geetars and platoon of backing vocals. It’s the sort of track that wouldn’t have been out of place on Survivor’s Too Hot To Sleep LP. The Rumble is released via Frontiers on 18th June.
We stay in melodic rock’s spiritual homeland for the latest single from Cruzh (pronounced ‘Crush’, obviously) which is taken from their upcoming second album due for an August release. The chaps sit at the bubblegummier end of the classic Scandi melodic rock spectrum: think Easy Action, think Evenrude. The new LP, Tropical Thunder, is the first to feature new frontman Alex Waghorn who joined the band in 2019 and ‘We Go Together’ is big on brotherly love and knee-deep in nostalgia. The Goonies/Stand By Me-inspired video (thankfully not awful) is satisfyingly cute and, yes, there’s a key change for the final chorus, natch.
CIRCUS OF ROCK - photo of Mirka Rantanen
Veteran Hardline vocalist Johnny Gioeli has lent his lusty lungs to various projects in recent times, but few have been as pleasing as ‘Desperate Cry’, the first single to be taken from Mirka Rantanen’s Circus Of Rock (or rather aptly, COR, for acronym fans). Rantanen, drummer with Finland’s King Company, has assembled an impressive cast for his “heavy metal project” - yes, this is actually the subtitle on the sleeve – including Tyketto’s Danny Vaughn and Masterplan’s Rick Altzi. Worryingly, there is a track therein called ‘Sheriff of Ghost Town’, which may warrant a swerve, but what’s striking about this particular tune is the old-school mix and production: the drums are exquisitely crisp; there are actual gaps, lending some actual texture and it’s been a long time since I heard a track rev up with the roar of a vintage keyboard put through a Leslie cab. Circus of Rock’s LP Come One, Come All, is released on 6th August.
It is surely you, more than most, dearest Hard Placers, who appreciate the importance of Rock mythology. And destiny hath decreed that it is us, here at RGM who will introduce you a most mysterious, modern-day legend. We’re not sure who these guys are, or even where they have come from (though we’re pretty sure it’s Sweden), but Nestor is a band that every self-respecting melodic hard rockhead ought to know about. With their origins and identities shrouded in secrecy (possibly in order to protect their otherwise respectable daytime reputations), the band have put their name to two singles: the BillandTeddian ‘On The Run’ and the gloriously tongue-in-cheek AOR homage that is ‘1989’. Musically delicious, sonically faultless and accompanied with big-budget, heavy-concept videos, there is clearly some investment being made in this unnamed band of musical geniuses and quite right, too. Nestor, whoever you are, we love you. More, please.
Right then, off you shuffle, and remember to be excellent to each other at all times. And rest assured, if anyone asks, you weren’t here. The Hard Place doesn’t exist, remember? So, we shan’t see each other again, shall we..?
The Hard Place is a Rich Barnard production for Red Guitar Music.
You have reached The Hard Place. A place where the hair is just a shade more voluminous. A place where the trousers are, on average, two belt holes tighter. A place wherein it is perfectly normal for guitars to begin spontaneously spewing fireworks. Or lightning. Or both. We bring you the choicest, freshest cuts of retro-metal on offer. And, in a scene where wrongness so often prevails, The Hard Place offers a distillation of all that is currently right with the world of melodic hard rock. Quite a lot of it is, as you might expect, from Sweden.