Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Harem Scarem
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2017
Runtime: 45:09
Rating: 4.5/5
The fourteenth studio album from one of the toughest survivors of the Canadian AOR/melodic rock scene, hailing from Ontario, is here. The band is Harem Scarem, and the new record is called »United«. It’s incredible how mercilessly fast time flies. Three years have gone by in the blink of an eye since the band released an excellent, if not downright outstanding, studio predecessor with the fittingly titled »Thirteen«. Now, three years later, »United« has followed it up.
When a new album lands from the Harem Scarem quartet, expectations are always sky-high. This is a band that has always been known for strict songwriting and sonic perfection. Over the years it’s become more than obvious that the songwriting duo of Harry Hess and Pete Lesperance is a dream team, much like McCartney / Lennon were for the eternal Beatles (immodestly put). A duo without whom the name Harem Scarem would never have gotten as far on the international music scene as it has. And on »United« that duo once again hits with full force, so the band delivers another top-notch studio release this time around too.
Everything on »United« stands exactly as it should. The mood build-up of the songs, from verse through pre-chorus into an atmospheric crescendo of ultra-catchy chorus melodies, works with full force once again, and it’s pretty incredible to realize that Harem Scarem’s songwriting perfection keeps going strong through new releases, even in the band’s mature years. If anything, it keeps growing and getting better with maturity. Sure, in songwriting terms Harem Scarem aren’t reinventing the wheel anymore. In AOR/melodic rock everything was figured out and laid bare long ago, but the guys exploit their (well-worn and proven) recipe of musical artistry with incredible skill, a recipe that has fired on all cylinders countless times in the past. And it fires again this time with undiminished artistic payoff. Once more, hugely effective. The production is brilliant, lively, dynamic, and as far as the building blocks of the sound go, effortlessly well-contrasted too. Harry Hess’s vocals are once again “chock-full” of hooks and address you with incredible intensity and passion. Backed up, of course, by very cunning vocal harmonies, which give the chorus melodies that fine AOR sheen Harem Scarem have always shone with. Pete Lesperance fires off the guitar once more with incredible tightness, delivering polished solo spots in the middle instrumental sections that, thanks to the guitarist’s virtuosity, once again take your breath away. Lesperance has again served up some seriously well-crafted and hard-grabbing guitar phrases, which give »United« a really nice measure of variety, something that’s very welcome, if not downright required, within the band’s fixed (and predictable) musical recipe. So the guitarist is once again anything but short on ideas and sparkling playfulness.
It’s hard to single out the highlights of this record, since the chorus melodies practically compete over which one will steal the spotlight, so in this case the verdict is entirely up to you. Harem Scarem aren’t stopping, and thank God their decision to retire the band for good in 2008 lasted just five years. The world of melodic rock and AOR music, even in 2017 and after the excellent new studio release »United«, is damn hard to imagine without Harem Scarem!
Harem Scarem – Sinking Ship (official video):
Lineup
Harry Hess – vocals, guitar
Pete Lesperance – guitar
Stan Miczek – bass guitar
Creighton Doane – drums
Darren Smith – backing vocals
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Jeff Scott Soto – backing vocals on tracks no. 2 and 7.
Production
Harry Hess
Track list
01. United
02. Here Today Gone Tomorrow
03. Gravity
04. Sinking Ship
05. One Of Life’s Mysteries
06. No Regrets
07. Bite The Bullet
08. Things I Know
09. The Sky Is Falling
10. Heaven And Earth
11. Indestructible
