FIRST SIGNAL – Closer To The Edge (2022)

FIRST SIGNAL, a musical union between Canadian vocalist Harry Hess (Harem Scarem) and Swedish drummer/producer Daniel Flores (The Murder Of My Sweet, Find Me), are releasing their new album, “Closer To The Edge” next weekend.
The new record, their fourth overall, offers up another outstanding collection of songs that continues the fine tradition they’ve now established of the course of their discography.
Hess is, as always, on fire here and this is another outstanding production job by Flores. As with previous releases, this will be another must hear for fans of the AOR/Melodic Rock genre as, in 2022, it does not get any better than this.

Pete Alpenborg (Arctic Rain), Guillermo Del Medio (Inner Stream), Alessandro Del Vecchio, Kristian Fyhr (Seventh Crystal), Herman Nori, and others have contributed their songwriting talents to this latest opus with spectacular results.
“Closer to the Edge” is once again a total delight for AOR and melodic rock fans and an easy contender for AOR album of the year.

Started in 2010, First Signal started as a musical partnership between vocalist Harry Hess (Harem Scarem) and German producer Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Khymera). The seeds of this union were planted that same year when Frontiers President and Head of A&R, Serafino Perugino presented Hess some melodic rock songs which had the same vibe and magic as Harem Scarem, whom, at the time, were on a hiatus. The self-titled debut album was greeted with excellent reviews from the Melodic Rock faithful, so even when Harem Scarem rebooted to record an excellent comeback album, “Thirteen”, Hess was still keen to record some more excellent melodic rock songs that he had gathered from various songwriters under the First Signal banner.

So, the idea of another First Signal album continued to float around and with the help of Swedish producer/drummer Daniel Flores now stepping in for Ward, the second record, “One Step Over The Line” (2016), started to take shape. Once again, the inspiration behind the songs were the first two Harem Scarem albums, two absolute Melodic Rock classics, but, as with the debut, some new twists were thrown in the mix with the songs covering everything from AOR to Arena Hard Rock. The album was also greeted with much excitement from the Melodic Rock / AOR fanbase, especially in Europe.

With that kind of reception, recording a third album, “Line Of Fire” (2019), was a no-brainer. With songs provided by Stan Meissner, Harry Hess, Henrik Hedström, Lars Edvall, Anderz Wrethov, Andreas Johansson, Carl Dixon, Bruce Turgon, Sören Kronqvist, Morgan Jensen, Hal Marabel, Daniel Palmqvist, Ulrick Lönnqvist, Nigel Bailey, and production duties handled again by Daniel Flores, “Line of Fire” was another awesome slab of great AOR/melodic rock for the 21st century.
And now, in 2022, the band continues the traditions they’ve established with their previous three releases on the fourth entry into their catalog, “Closer To The Edge”.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

01 – Don’t Let It End
02 – I Don’t Wanna Feel the Night is Over
03 – Show Me the Way
04 – Don’t Look Away
05 – Irreplaceable
06 – One More Time
07 – Closer to the Edge
08 – Angel with a Rose
09 – Mystery
10 – The Hurting One
11 – Got to Believe

Harry Hess (Harem Scarem) – Vocals
Daniel Flores (The Murder Of My Sweet, Find Me) – Drums
Andi Kravljaca – Guitars
Jonny Trobro – Bass

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www.amazon.com/Closer-Edge-First-Signal/dp/B09NRD756T