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Artist: Salute |
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Last
year the name of Salute was brought to the forefront of the Hard Rock
scene with their excellent 'Toy Soldier’ album, now hot on its heels
is the bands latest release ‘Heart Of The Machine’. Again
the band are on to a winner as like ‘Toy Soldier’, the world are
going to sit up and take notice of the music that the band are
producing. This time round Martin Kronlund, Imre Daun and Mikael
Erlandsson are joined by David Reece, who not only provides backing
vocals, but also along with Kronlund and Erlandsson co-wrote the songs
for the album. We also see Henrik Thomsen guesting on the bass. So on
to the album itself which opens up wonderfully with ‘Higher’ with
Erlandsson unleashing one of the best vocals of the year. A real
powerhouse singer that can deliver power without losing any of the
melodic grace, and with Kronlund firing on all six on the guitars, it's
a real barnstorming opener. This
tremendous album continues to impress with the excellent ‘A Falling
Star’, again a top notch rocker that once again Erlandsson ignites
with another superb vocal. Then it's time to bring it down a few
notches with the superb ‘Feed Your Hunger’, a one for the die hard
Melodic Rock fans here me thinks, not too rocky but with enough bite to
not be a ballad. But if
it's ballads you're after then ‘I Will Be There’ will pull at your
heart strings for sure. However, rockin' it up is more my thing
and one of the best rockers on the album has to be ‘Tear Me Down’, a
real meaty guitar fuelled track that really gets my blood pumping. The
great melodic Hard Rock just keeps on coming with the superb ‘Heart Of
The Machine’, again featuring some superb riffing from Kronlund and a
solid no nonsense back beat from Daun. Daun’s
drumming really comes to the forefront on the rockier moments and one of
those real tub thumping giants has to be ‘The Long Haul’, then it's
time for Kronlund to really show his six string prowess with one of my
favourites off the album the fantastic ‘Shadows’, which is quickly
followed by another favourite of mine ‘Train of Rock n' Roll’.
A real old school feel to this one. It's
back to the pure bred Melodic Rock with ‘My Part In This Pain’
before the album is rounded off in superb style with ‘Your Servant
Tonight’, again another highlight from Erlandsson. I
thought Toy Soldiers was a great album but 'Heart Of The Machine’
takes the band to a whole new level definitely one of the best Melodic
Rock albums I’ve heard this year. If the band progress this much
in just two albums then I for one can't wait for album number three! |
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Tracklisting: 1. Higher |
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