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Tracklist
1. Fifteen Years
2. Superstition
3. Horizon
4. Dreamworld
5. Follow Down That River
6. Stranger
7. Sails
8. Marching To War
9. Twilight Symphony
10. Gone
Line-up
Pekka Heino (v)
Tuomas Heikkinen (g)
Torsti Spoof (g)
Pekka Lampinen (b)
Valtteri Revonkorpi (d)
Marko Niskala (k)
© 2006 Playground Music/Elements Music
Scandinavia rules lately. After damn fine albums from Brother Firetribe ("False Metal"), Lovex ("Divine Insanity"), The Poodles ("Metal Will Stand Tall"), Shineth ("11 Of 10") and Wig Wam ("Wig Wamania"), it’s now Leverage’s turn to jump the queue: a Finnish melodic hard rock band, hailing from Jyväskylä, Helsinki.
Mastermind of the band is guitarist Tuomas Heikkinen, who grew up with the music of Rainbow. He started to write some tunes of his own and then introduced them to his friend Torsti Spoof, a local guitarist and producer. Both were excited about it and decided to form a band. Although Kimmo Blom (Urban Tale) handled the vocals on some early demos of the band, it was Pekka Heino (indeed, the vocalist of Brother Firetribe) who was brought in as Leverage’s lead vocalist. Soon he was followed by Pekka Lampinen (b), Valtteri Revonkorpi (d) and – last but not least – Marko Niskala (k).
Once the band was complete, seven songs were recorded at Spoof’s studio and put on a promotional CD that was sent to several record companies. This had the desired effect and in the summer of 2005 Leverage signed a distribution deal with Playground Music Scandinavia and a management deal with Elements Music. Some additional songs were written and rehearsed before the band entered Studio Audio on November 4, 2005 to record their debut album, "Tides".
The music and the lyrics for all of the nine songs were written by Tuomas Heikkinen, but they are surely no blueprints of Rainbow’s works. Leverage’s music goes further and can best be described as heavy melodic rock, injected with a good dose of progressive rock. Not only the songs (about human feelings) are great, the same can be said of the execution, with honourable mentions for vocalist Pekka Heino, guitarist Torsti Spoof and keyboarder Marko Niskala. I couldn’t spot a weak track between the ten on offer, the highlights for me being opener "Fifteen Years" (with excellent keyboard parts), "Horizon" (starting slowly, then making its way to a splendid climax), "Stranger" (semi-ballad) and "Gone" (what a way to end this debut album!!!). Certainly worth mentioning is the strong production and the excellent packaging: an attractive digipack, featuring a 16-page booklet with artwork, layout and photos by Valtteri and Arto Revonkorpi.
Conclusion: Finland did it again. After Brother Firetribe, who came up with a pure AOR/melodic rock album, this "Tides" from Leverage is one for the lovers of melodic hard rock as well as the progrock aficionados. Highly recommended!
1. Fifteen Years
2. Superstition
3. Horizon
4. Dreamworld
5. Follow Down That River
6. Stranger
7. Sails
8. Marching To War
9. Twilight Symphony
10. Gone
Line-up
Pekka Heino (v)
Tuomas Heikkinen (g)
Torsti Spoof (g)
Pekka Lampinen (b)
Valtteri Revonkorpi (d)
Marko Niskala (k)
© 2006 Playground Music/Elements Music
Scandinavia rules lately. After damn fine albums from Brother Firetribe ("False Metal"), Lovex ("Divine Insanity"), The Poodles ("Metal Will Stand Tall"), Shineth ("11 Of 10") and Wig Wam ("Wig Wamania"), it’s now Leverage’s turn to jump the queue: a Finnish melodic hard rock band, hailing from Jyväskylä, Helsinki.
Mastermind of the band is guitarist Tuomas Heikkinen, who grew up with the music of Rainbow. He started to write some tunes of his own and then introduced them to his friend Torsti Spoof, a local guitarist and producer. Both were excited about it and decided to form a band. Although Kimmo Blom (Urban Tale) handled the vocals on some early demos of the band, it was Pekka Heino (indeed, the vocalist of Brother Firetribe) who was brought in as Leverage’s lead vocalist. Soon he was followed by Pekka Lampinen (b), Valtteri Revonkorpi (d) and – last but not least – Marko Niskala (k).
Once the band was complete, seven songs were recorded at Spoof’s studio and put on a promotional CD that was sent to several record companies. This had the desired effect and in the summer of 2005 Leverage signed a distribution deal with Playground Music Scandinavia and a management deal with Elements Music. Some additional songs were written and rehearsed before the band entered Studio Audio on November 4, 2005 to record their debut album, "Tides".
The music and the lyrics for all of the nine songs were written by Tuomas Heikkinen, but they are surely no blueprints of Rainbow’s works. Leverage’s music goes further and can best be described as heavy melodic rock, injected with a good dose of progressive rock. Not only the songs (about human feelings) are great, the same can be said of the execution, with honourable mentions for vocalist Pekka Heino, guitarist Torsti Spoof and keyboarder Marko Niskala. I couldn’t spot a weak track between the ten on offer, the highlights for me being opener "Fifteen Years" (with excellent keyboard parts), "Horizon" (starting slowly, then making its way to a splendid climax), "Stranger" (semi-ballad) and "Gone" (what a way to end this debut album!!!). Certainly worth mentioning is the strong production and the excellent packaging: an attractive digipack, featuring a 16-page booklet with artwork, layout and photos by Valtteri and Arto Revonkorpi.
Conclusion: Finland did it again. After Brother Firetribe, who came up with a pure AOR/melodic rock album, this "Tides" from Leverage is one for the lovers of melodic hard rock as well as the progrock aficionados. Highly recommended!