LEAVING EDEN – As Above So Below (2022)
Hailing from New England, USA, LEAVING EDEN has been around for well over a decade. Co-founded guitarist / vocalist Eric Gynan and female singer ‘Eve’, the band has released various albums so far, always self-produced and recorded in Leaving Eden’s own studio.
However, the group has signed a worldwide deal with Dark Star Records in association with Sony Music, and are releasing their new LP ”As Above So Below“.
LEAVING EDEN’s music is classic hard rock, rock & pop, and spiced with other elements inspired by the classic acts from these genres yet delivering a fresh modern sound production. While Gynan does some lead vocals, the star in this department is Eve and her powerful delivery. On a couple of tracks they sing together creating an interesting contrast.
LEAVING EDEN’s music has been featured on seven Hollywood movie soundtracks, the band shared stages with big names such as LA Guns, Alice Cooper, Ratt, toured USA, Canada, UK, and got their albums mixed & mastered by Grammy Award Winning engineer Johnny K.
Most the songs are driven by heavy electric guitar riffs, and Eve’s incredible strong vocal range go from soft and gentle to raucous, always with melody in mind. Good examples are the anthemic ‘Jack Hammer’, ‘Dying in a Living Hell’, or ‘Forbidden Fruit’.
More melodic hard rock oriented and with poppy touches there’s title track ‘As Above so Below’, ‘You Won’t Break Me’ and the catchy ‘The Brighter Side of Life’. The band does some progressive, acoustically mixed song on ‘Working Class Hero’, and a nice ballad with ‘The Dark Dead of Night’ including male & female voices. Perhaps the only weak track should be ‘Stoned’ sung by Gynan alone, not bad, but I largely prefer Eve’s solid phrasing.
LEAVING EDEN’s ”As Above So Below” is a solid, well written, performed and produced record, with varied songs and interesting arrangements. Despite the distribution deal with Sony, seems the band has complete control of their music (there’s a few ‘parental advisory’ lyrics) and that’s a good thing.
Highly Recommended
01 – Jack Hammer
02 – Working Class Hero
03 – As Above so Below
04 – Green
05 – Forbidden Fruit
06 – Dying in a Living Hell
07 – Stoned
08 – The Brighter Side of Life
09 – The Dark Dead of Night
10 – You Won’t Break Me
11 – Working Class Hero (Unplugged)
Eve (Lead Vocals)
Eric Gynan (Guitars, Vocals)
Alysa Bailey White (Keys, Vocals)
Jake Gynan (Drums)
Richard Chouinard (Bass)
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www.ccmusic.com/leaving-eden-as-above-so-below/658826033124