Customer Reviews

Tides

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With their debut album Tides, Leverage has emerged as another top class European metal band. With European metal leading the way at the moment, this band from Finland have recorded an album of outstanding quality which you usually only expect to hear from a great band after it has been around for a while. However, occasionally a band comes out of nowhere and shocks you and this is the case with Leverage. I thought this album would sound okay, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it actually was when I first listened to it. Since then I've listened to it many times and its appeal to me has not diminished.

The sound reminds me of Masterplan (another great European band) but it is more melodic. It has the dual guitars delivering great riffs and solos, pounding drums and bass, but the synthesizers are more prevalent than with Masterplan, and give the music a mystical sound. My gripe with some metal bands is that the vocals are sometimes too far back in the mix a bit, so you can't appreciate the talent of the singer as much as you would like, but this is not the case with Leverage. Vocalist Pekka Heino has a voice that is very pleasant to the ear (no screaming or guttural sounds) and is heard with clarity thanks to the excellent production.

Heino also sings in the band Brother Firetribe, and I have their debut album False Metal too (also a 5 star album) but the styles of the two albums are quite different. The synthesizers are less dominant with Leverage and the guitars are more at the forefront of the sound. Both albums are quite melodic, but Tides has a harder edge to it yet still sounds quite dreamy in parts. Many bands try to get this blend of hard/heavy riffs and aggressive pounding sound with great melody, however few succeed, with the melody usually being the loser. Leverage have got it right with Tides.

Tides sounds a bit progressive but without being all over the place. Instead we get a great blend of light and shade in ten tracks that by modern metal standards are quite short. In fact the longest track is just over five and a half minutes.

If I had to criticise this album at all it would be that it doesn't go for long enough. As there are no long tracks or epics, another two tracks would have been good and I see that on the Japanese version of this album there are two extra tracks. Why to the Japanese always get the extra tracks? (I reckon it's greedy record companies.) I always feel a bit ripped off about this because you have to pay quite a bit more to get the Japanese version of the album. If these EXTRA songs have been recorded to a standard that are worthy to put them on a Japanese version, then put them on the regular version for goodness sake so we can all get to appreciate them!

After a mellow, dreamy keyboard into, Tides kicks into top gear with the song Fifteen Years and right away you know you're listening to a great band. This track is a good choice for album opener and is one of my favorites.

Superstition follows, and with its driving riffs and dreamy swirling synthesizers this track is another of my favorites.

Horizon is the next track, and here the pace slows but the intensity doesn't. Starting off quite mellow this song builds both vocally and musically, before finishing in the same mellow fashion as it started. At this point you hope that the rest of the album is going to be as good as what you've heard so far, and then the keyboards and guitars up the pace a notch again with Dreamworld, another favorite. Yeah, I know...lots of favorites. Well track 5 Follow Down That River is yet another (perhaps the best) and it's at this time that you realise that you've got a pretty damn good album on your hands.

Stranger is another slower paced song high on intensity, light and shade. It is followed by Sails, another great track (yes...another favorite!) Marching To War and Twilight Symphony are the next two tracks, and it's these two that I like least, but they are still good songs and by no means fillers. Twilight Symphony in particular has a great intro and grows more on me each time I hear it.

Gone is the last track and a perfect album closer. I like albums to finish on a high with either a great rocker or mellower track. Gone is the latter, and in my opinion is the best of the slower paced more mellow tracks on the album. This song sounds particularly dreamy and when it finishes I was left thinking "wow!" and wanting more (hence the earlier gripe about 2 extra tracks!)

I don't know much about the guys in the band or what they've done before, but they are great musicians and songwriters. I eagerly look forward to more releases from this band following a debut of such class.

If you are a fan of European melodic metal than this album is a must have for you. It has the hardness of hard rock/metal yet is refreshingly easy on the ear and great to sing along with.

Yet another awesome melodic metal release from Europe! Great guitar riffs and solos, absolutely awesome vocals, and superb keyboards all over the place. The production on this is massive too - it sounds huge! Can't wait to listen to their new album that just came out. If this is the quality coming out of Europe then we don't need to worry about waiting for the American bands to make their "comeback/reunited" albums. Highly recommended to fans of quality melodic metal. I just wish I had heard of these guys earlier!

I agree with the previous reviewer-this is a great debut filled with melodic prog metal hooks and awesome guitar solos. I estimate it would take the average punk boy band on MTV about 8 years of continuous exercise and study on their instruments before being able to cover any of these songs.

Having said that, the reason why japanese CDs get extra (usually stinky) tracks is because they get ripped off at $30 or so per new CD. No free lunch as they used to say in school.

Tides is a very solid debut for Finland's melodic metallers Leverage. Though melodic metal has been oversaturated recently, this band knows how to do it right retaining energy and power throughout the whole disc with great results.

This six-piece group churns out highly melodic metal numbers, mixing them up with both 80's Journey-like arena rock and symphonic elements depending on the song. Where tracks like the album opener "Fifteen Years" and "Dramworld" exhibit primal energy and relentless melodic fury, at times evoking bands like Dream Evil and Firewind; the more mid-tempo driven "Sails" and "Follow Down That River" boast multiple hooks thanks to the solid guitar tandem of Tuomas Heikkinen and Torsti Spoof. The former particularly delves into 80's-styled shred guitars at one point whilst the latter stands out for the fantastic vocal performance of Pekka Heino, without whom this album would be nowhere near as good as it is. Heino possesses crystal clear midrange tone, which he employs through most of the tunes, but when the situation calls for it, he opts for powerful high screams best heard at the end of "Horizon".

"Superstition" is like 80's Journey with its delicate keys interwoven with hook-filled guitar crunch and hugely gripping choruses. Though the band is unafraid to borrow mightily from all of rock's greats, their tunes are also graced with European power metal choruses. It's only on the comparatively more symphonic-based "Marching to War" (with a killer synth solo by Marko Niskala) and the darker-toned "Twilight Symphony" where they seem to slightly stray from the norm, but with the arrival of stadium-sized choruses they quickly return to their original sound. Also, right in the middle of the album is the acoustic guitar-based "Stranger", which morphs into a melodic rocker at the end.

The production is crisp and very natural sounding. It fits the album and the style of the band perfectly. Recommended to anyone remotely interested in melodic metal which has its own character.

(This is a review of the original pressing of the CD on Golden Core Records. A re-release indicates two bonus tracks were added. I have not heard that one.)

I stumbled upon this band after reading all the great reviews and I can honestly say that Tides is the best debut album I have ever heard. The songs rock and the sound is phenomenal. You won't be disappointed.

I just discovered this band from a friend, I must say I was quickly impressed. First off the production is excellent, the guitar work is very good, the atmospheric keyboards are very nice, and the vocalist is pretty darn good. The best thing about this cd is that each song is very good, some songs are even better ( Fifteen being one of them ). The Masterplan influence as mentioned is definite, but still they have their own style. For a debut cd I think it's very good, not a "classic", but very good ( The japan import has 2 more tracks plus a "Live" version of Stranger )
There are hints of Dream Theater, Journey, Last Tribe etc. So if you enjoy the Melodic Power metal genre then this is for you.

Sorry,but I found this CD a little over rated. With comparisons to Stride!??PLEASE Stride runs circles around this band in every way possible!But this is not a burn review,It's just build up was to much for me.The band is talented and has promise, as the second CD shows.The vocals are a bit bogged down,but the melody sinks in after time.The music is tight and well done.This is AOR/prog-metal. p.s.I think Seven Tears debut CD 'In every frozen tear' is worth the hype even though the production is weaker,or try Seventh Wonder-Waiting in the Wings for some jaw droping AOR/metal.

Leverage is a great band, you must buy this cd because it rocks. For metal fans or symphonic fans, it is all great. They sound like they have a lot of potetntial. Leverage rocks!!