BLESSED BY A BROKEN HEART – Feel The Power +2
BLESSED BY A BROKEN HEART formed in Montreal, Canada, in 2003, as a post-glam metalcore outfit and released their indie debut in 2004. Following the addition of Shred Sean (guitar) and Tony Gambino (vocals) they moved towards Eighties metal on ‘Pedal To The Metal’ (2008).
After some serious touring, they got picked up by a new label for their third album “Feel The Power“, where they changed the musical orientation in favor of commercial hooky melodic hard rock with a modern approach.
Whilst they band moved to a polished pop metal sound – think MOTLEY CRUE meets RECKLESS LOVE meets CRAZY LIXX melded with VAN HALEN-esque synth and guitar shreds – there are still bursts of their roots on a couple of songs, but only to create distinction.
As extra, we have the rare single previous to this release (not available anymore) ‘Motor Truck City’ where BLESSED BY A BROKEN HEART rocks like Motley circa 1983, and the B-side is their cover of JOURNEY’s classic ‘Separate Ways’.
Yes, these guys are obsessed with the ’80s on this album.
Vocalist Gambino stated “We’ve definitely matured as a band. We really wrote this album collectively, and it just naturally had this progression of where we all wanted to go.
The whole band is still obsessed with the ’80s, and that’s bled into our lifestyles. It’s not just when we’re on tour: We all kind of dress ’80s; we still have mullets. It’s become part of our lives.
On “Feel The Power”, we used more of the cheesy side of the ’80s. We’ve kind of gone a little more classic hair metal and heavy rock ‘n’ roll.”
Whilst they have moved to a polished pop metal sound (think Motley Crue meets Reckless Love meets Crazy Lixx melded with Van Halen-esque synth and guitar shreds), there are still bursts of their metalcore roots on occasional vocal screams, but they only happen on a few songs and never more than a few seconds.
“Feel The Power” is an ear-candy overload of kick ass hair-metal with all the screaming guitars, massive hooks, mega-choruses, and stacked harmonies you could ask for.
This album is a shred smorgasbord as well. Guitarist Shred Sean plays with the melodic ferocity of Chris Impellitteri and he absolutely smokes the six-string on this release.
Song-wise, “Feel The Power” vary between heavy hitters like “Deathwish” (the darkest track on the album), pop-metal anthems like “Shut Up and Rock” (Keel would have killed for this tune), and lighters-in-the-air power ballads like “I’ve Got You” (Firehouse would have made this a smash hit).
What they all have in common are fiery guitars, humongous hooks, and gigantic backing vocals. If you love ’80s gang-party vocals shouting ‘Whoa!’ and ‘Yeah!’ then you will be delighted here.
I must say that Blessed By A Broken Heart have delivered an interesting album blending ’80s commercial hair metal with some modern trends, trying to sound original amongst the actual crowd of bands.
“Feel The Power” is a cheesy hair-metal heaven, an air-guitar shred Olympus, a glam-metal glory, a techie pop-metal paradise. It has everything we adored about the hairspray-and-hell-raising ’80s given sonic reincarnation in the modern age.
It is early DYNAZTY meets RECKLESS LOVE when they used to rock hard, it’s STEEL PANTHER sans the sleaze, it’s WIG WAM with better guitars.
What else do you need to know? If you like this style, you must have “Feel The Power”.
01 – Deathwish
02 – Shut Up And Rock
03 – Love Nightmare
04 – Forever
05 – Thunder Dome
06 – Holdin’ Back For Nothin’
07 – I’ve Got You
08 – Rockin’ All Night
09 – Scream It Like You Mean It
10 – Skate Or Die
11 – Innocent Blood
12 – Sleepless Nights
Tony Gambino (lead vocals)
Shred Sean (lead guitar)
Sam Ryder (rhythm guitar, backing vocals)
Tyler Hoare (bass, backing vocals)
Slater (drums, backing vocals)
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www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8657673
