Artist: Leverage  
   Title: Tides
   Label: Frontiers Records

It seems like once in a blue moon a debut album ticks all the right boxes within its genre, so it should come as no surprise that on ‘Tides’, Leverage have made waves in the Finnish rock scene and it seems throughout the rock community such is the strength of this album.

A lot of the songs here, if not all, rely on the use of powerful and dare I say, grandiose keyboards, almost in the same vain of that great British institute MAGNUM, but with slightly more pomp about them, so nothing to be ashamed of there then, yet admittedly there is a sameness to some of the songs due to this, as with opener ‘Fifteen Tears’ and ‘Dreamworld’ which is like a rock opera all on its own, with its searing guitars and jumpy almost atmospheric keyboards most prominent, while vocalist PEKKA HEINO relishes his part with aplomb. I wonder if he is the same when fronting his ‘other’ band Brother Firetribe?

‘Superstition’ is a song that could easily have been written by Tony Clarkin, if you close your eyes you can hear Bob Catley singing it because it has all the hallmarks of a classic Magnum track, as does track 7 ‘Sails’ with its soaring keyboards and gritty guitars. The term ‘proggy’ has been used in some quarters to describe the album, but I wouldn’t go that far down the line, its just the album as a whole has a huge sound and production about it that seems to be used in a lot of Finnish metal/rock releases of late and this album is no exception.

Talking of production, ‘Gone’ has it all with its stylish intro that on first hearing makes you think it was going to be a trance styled track before it breaks into a very melodic rock song, with its big guitar solos, big harmonies and exceptional vocals from Heino making it easily the best song on the album.

There are two studio bonus tracks here, ‘Waterfall’ and ‘Land Of Flames’, both blistering tracks again full of pomp and power alike bringing to an end what is a debut album that couldn’t have been done better, showing the obvious talent that has been emerging from Finland over the last few years. Hopefully their follow up album ‘Blindfire’ will keep Leverage’s ball rolling and proves that ‘Tides’ won’t be a one-off fluke for the band. GOOD LUCK!!!

*Review by Bob

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