Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Jaded Heart
Label: Massacre Records
Release: 2016
Rating: 4/5
The title might fool you, but the hearts of these long-running hard rockers, formed in 1992 in Duisburg, Germany, are far from tired. After a two-year break, the band is putting out its 13th studio album overall, titled »Guilty By Design«. Running in a mixed German-Swedish lineup since the album »Trust« (2004), the band keeps forging outstanding studio records, and the creative spark is nowhere near dying out. For the new album they let go of keyboardist Henning Wanner and beefed up the ranks with an extra guitarist (Masahiro Eto). This is the second studio album with Bodo Stricker on drums, who took over on the previous album »Fight The System« from the legendary Axl Cruse (Mad Max), one of Jaded Heart’s founding members.
Even »Fight The System« hinted that Jaded Heart were heading toward a »scuffed-up«, »stripped-down«, live-and-kicking production, so they had no choice but to actually record an album almost entirely without keyboards (they’re kept around for flavor, and a few »samples« are added, but in a minor dose) and to beef up the guitars even more. So the sound that defined the band throughout the nineties, when plenty of people compared their albums of the time to Def Leppard, is long forgotten. The new Jaded Heart sound direct, aggressive, wound-up. Uncompromisingly bristling with rock attitude.
From the old days, of course, they’ve kept a strong sense of musicality and compact arrangements, with clearly shaped verses (optionally pre-choruses) and infectious chorus melodies that are the atmospheric high point of every song. The bombast is here. The pompous catchiness. The band didn’t forget to dress up Fahlberg’s lead vocal with backing harmonies (by the way, Johan is excellent again, even though his voice is noticeably dropping lower and getting »thicker« at the same time). Don’t get me wrong. Even though the band wanted a stripped-down, live-sounding album propped up by a wall of guitar riffs, they left nothing to chance. The final mastering and mix went to Swedish »wunderkind« Erik Martesson (Eclipse, W.E.T.). So there’s no messing around with the production of »Guilty By Design«.
The outstanding Swedish guitarist Peter Östros, who makes a living as a guitar teacher, a man from the typical Scandinavian hard rock and heavy metal school where solos are usually lavishly seasoned with neo-classical elements, got extra backup with the additional guitar, and the sound will get tighter at live shows too. That matters especially in the »mid-eight« sections, where Östros buries himself in his ultrasonic solos. Like I said. The inspiration is here. Highly musical, infectious melodiousness and the high-octane voltage of rock punch are united once again in beautiful symbiosis, and the material works at full tilt and wins you over.
So »Guilty By Design« is yet another excellent hard rock album from the seasoned veterans Jaded Heart, tailor-made above all for lovers of melodic catchiness, where a song has to catch fire on first listen. It will of course also hit the spot for fans of the band, especially from the »Trust« era onward, meaning the last six albums, when Jaded Heart went through a major sonic and stylistic transformation, turned into a small club band and »lived happily ever after«. »Guilty By Design« cements their position, and the material is not only worth spinning on your CD player, it’s written to hit hard in the live set of the band’s new shows, keeping the older classics company. Sadly, even with this album Jaded Heart will remain an unfairly overlooked band on the scene. Not because of the bad luck that has somehow dogged them in the new millennium, but because of the sheer fact that hard rock, or melodic rock, is figuratively archaic today, followed only by a select generation of music lovers.
Jaded Heart – Rescue Me (official video):
Lineup
Johan Fahlberg – vocals
Peter Östros – guitar
Masahiro Eto – guitar
Michael Müller – bass
Bodo Stricker – drums
Production
Jaded Heart & Erik Martesson
Track list
01. No Reason
02. Godforsaken
03. Seven Gates of Hell
04. Remembering
05. Rescue Me
06. Salvation
07. No Waiting for Tomorrow
08. Watching You Die
09. So Help Me God
10. Bullying Me
11. This Is the End
12. Torn and Scarred
