LOVE IN CHAINS – Everyday Heroes (2022)

LOVE IN CHAINS - Everyday Heroes (2022) - full
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To be released next August 30th, ”Everyday Heroes” is the debut album from melodic hard rockers LOVE IN CHAINS, a new band formed by experienced guitar player Mike Floros (SteelCity, Wildcat) and lead singer Rob Kane from Apocalyptic Lovers. If you’re into the ’80s Hard Rock scene, this 11-tracker will definitely be right up your alley.
Influenced by bands like KISS, Europe, Dokken, Y&T, and Stryper, their music is an unapologetic throwback to a time when heavy guitar riffs, bombastic drums, soaring vocals, and heavenly harmonies dominated the airwaves. This IS the music of your youth, updated with modern production.
Speaking of production, the album was co-Produced Mixed & Mastered by renowned Ty Sims (Talon, LaValle, Bombay Black, Tango Down) so expect a clean and punchy bright sound.

Initially a project of Floros & Kane, the two men quickly realized they were onto something very special. They enlisted the help of Ty Sims and Erik Johnson to help round out the sound that would become Love In Chains. Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist extraordinaire, Erik added visceral power on drums and absolute punch on bass. With Rob and Erik rounding out the massive backing vocals, the sound was not just complete, but absolutely rock solid.

With the release of the album, the guys knew opportunity for live play would come knocking and as such, Mike and Rob started their search for the premiere players that would round out their tour line-up.
They didn’t have to look too far for their bassist. Jason Cornwell, Mike’s right hand in SteelCity, was an easy choice to round out the bottom end. His live play is well known, as he’s toured the world over in past stints with Eric Martin.
On drums, the band enlisted the skills of one of melodic rock’s emerging stars, Brian Karl. His work with bands like Station and West Bound have left profound, lasting impressions on all who’ve witnessed him live.
The band realizes that the number one way to engage with its fans is live performance. Looking to the immediate future, the band plans to play select shows to support its debut album, ”Everyday Heroes”.

The album rocks from the beginning with “Locked & Loaded”, a non-stop blaze of fiery rocking. The music on its own is pretty damn amazing and I love the way Kane’s vocals are delivered in a kind of rapid-fire manner. When you add in that big backing vocal sound for the track’s chorus, if you can’t get fired up and ready to rock with this song, you just might not have a pulse. This is one heck of amped up and energetic track. And this is just the FIRST song!

“Less Than Zero” continues that same kind of fired up rock and roll. It’s got more of that enhanced backing gang vocal style on the chorus – seriously, that Less Than Zeroooo chorus line is terrific.
“Rain” kicks things into a high gear pretty fast and features a damn good guitar solo from Floros. Meanwhile, the song “Without You” kind of ranges from mid-to-uptempo in terms of pacing. A bit slower in the main lyrical passages with the chorus being a bit more of a melodic rock vibe.

I liked the way “Cherry Wine” opens. With the album lacking keyboards on any of the music, if you are going to have a “softer” sound to any of the music, it’s going to come down to just how well your guitar player can pull it off and Floros nails this song’s opening (which does recur throughout the song as well) perfectly.
Is it blasphemy to say that I didn’t really get into the cover of the KISS song “Love Gun”? It’s not that it’s a badly done cover or anything. Anything but that really. But it felt like it was kind of out of place on the album for some reason. It’s well done, however I would’ve preferred another original track instead.

The it comes “Darkness Falls”. A killer tune with an even heavier vibe to it than a lot of the other rocker-type tracks on ‘Everyday Heroes’. That up-in-your-face vibe kicks in right from the first notes and as the vocals from Kane and the guitar work soar! This song stands alone for me as my favorite track on the album.

“Overdose” is the “power ballad” on the CD, but after a couple of listens is much more than that. It’s got a great intro to the song and with a midtempo pace that grows more intense for the chorus. The lyrics are mostly great as is Kane’s performance. The song is passionate without being that kind of cloying that would set your teeth on edge.
Looking for another of my personal track highlights from Everyday Heroes? Well then you should check out the explosively charged “Down To The Wire”. The song bursts from your speakers with pure attitude. There’s some serious shredding to be had here and you can feel your heartbeat start to race as the band lays the hammer down on this song.

When you add in the album closing and aptly titled “Wildfire”, you’ve got a ragingly electric soundtrack and a big bold vocal performance from Kane and in the backing vocals for the chorus. There’s a lot of guitar pyrotechnics here (as with the rest of the album) and the song ends up leaving you breathlessly wanting more when it finally comes to an end.
In short, Everyday Heroes opens with the fiery “Locked & Loaded” and closes with “Wildfire.” There’s a lot of fire on this record!

Mike Floros has STEELCITY and Robert Kane has APOCALYPTIC LOVERS. I would not want to see either band go by the wayside. But the teaming of this dynamic duo has given quite the debut push for the LOVE IN CHAINS band.
Without overselling it too much, I was pretty blown away by how much I liked the ”Everyday Heroes” debut album. It is chock full of hard driving melodic hard rock that will have you recalling the glory of the past while being firmly fixed in the here and now. This is just prime quality rock and roll.
Highly Recommended

 

01 – Locked and Loaded
02 – Less Than Zero
03 – Cherry Wine
04 – Darkness Falls
05 – Everyday Heroes
06 – Rain
07 – Overdose
08 – Down to the Wire
09 – Without You
10 – Love Gun
11 – Wildfire

Rob Kane – lead and backing vocals
Mike Floros – guitars
Erik Johnson – drums, bass, backing vocals
Co-Produced Mixed and Mastered by Ty Sims

 

Pre order:
www.shopidora.com/shop/view_product/PRESALE-EVERYDAY-HEROES-PHYSICAL-CD?n=17277001

1 Response

  1. JAyman says:

    Killer album, & my buddy Rob Kane from The Apocalyptic Lovers on Vocals

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