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Artist: Pangea |
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Pangea the band became somewhat household names with the underground hard rock scene in the 90's and with two albums under their belt the future looked bright for the band, but the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was darkened by a black cloud. Having high hopes for their third album the band took a big risk and made an expensive album only to discover the economic market in Japan collapsed resulting in no label willing to pay anywhere near the asking price. This however turned into a crisis for the band on a larger scale when the studio where the album was being recorded suddenly closed down. Only drums, percussion and vocals were saved from revivable backups, the rest was gone. The band went through several phases of "what do we do now?" which ultimately resulted in Torben Lysholm leaving the band in 2004 and going on to produce and mix for acts such as Arcacia Avenue, section A etc. Jan and Tony auditioned several musicians to replace Torben but no replacement was found and the band finally called it quits in 2008. But never say die, the trio got back together and decided to give it one more go and complete the album they started back then, and almost ten years later the album is now finished and I tell you what, it would have been a crime if this album was lost to the world. "We decided to redo the whole thing and oddly it was not too difficult. we had worked so much on the previous production of it that it was all still in out backbones even all these years later. we've changed stuff here and there which appeared to need it after reviewing the album ourselves for several years" says Lysholm and the result is an outstanding slice of Melodic Hard Rock that will once again put the name of Pangea on the lips of fans around the world. So to the album itself, well it gets off to a tremendous start with 'Times Up', this chunky riff filled rocker is a great start to the album, and the same quality Hard Rock continues throughout the entire album. It's rock all the way with 'Hold Your Fire', again great guitar work and vocals from Lysholm, leading the powerhouse rhythm section of Jan Engstrom on bass and Tony Olsen on drums a heads down riff filled rocker that fans of the band and the genre will just love. There is no stopping the band as they rip through the classy tunes with the likes of 'Right Between Your Eyes', 'Blindfold', the excellent 'Little By Little' and the sublime mid tempoed 'Shot'. But my track of the album has to be the funk filled rocker 'Don't Let Go', this one has that same vibe as many of the tracks from Extreme's 'Pornographiti' album, then it's the gritty bluesy feel of 'House Of Love', again Lysholm shines not just vocally, but as a guitarist as well. The band pick the tempo up a bit with the true blue rocker 'TNT', again chunky licks dominate this one, the big tunes keep on coming with the excellent '2 AM', before the album closes with 'It's Too Late', a real switch to end things a little country lick flows throughout this one. It
may have taken some ten years to reach us, but it's here and it's going
to speak volumes about the band and their "never say die"
attitude, great stuff. |
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Tracklisting: 1. Hold Your Fire |
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