BLADE – Joker And Clowns (2023)
BLADE, an up-and-coming hard rock band from Finland unveils their debut album “Joker And Clowns”. Including nine hard-hitting original tracks and one cover of the iconic “Maniac” by Michael Sembello (Flashdance movie soundtrack) this provide to you a pretty good idea of BLADE’s musical style and influences.
Are you ready to rock? Yeah, Blade is ready to conquer the hearts of classic melodic hard rock enthusiasts worldwide. I don’t think the cover art and especially band name quite give you the full perspective about what musically the band is about.
Despite their noticeable Eighties influences, BLADE are an interesting band that seem to have several dimensions to their sound. At their core they’re playing Melodic Hard Rock, but they have the ability to switch gears from song to song to take the listener on an journey that keeps you guessing. All with a very good, polished, potent production.
Although sonically are not that close, perhaps the closest comparisons I can come up with is UK’s Thunder, who can rock it out but also get quite serious as well. BLADE does the same thing here, there’s strait up party tunes like “Never Stop Rocking” and “Hot And Wired”, but then the turn around with songs that have more busy arrangements like “Burning Eyes” and one of our favorites; “My Demons”.
They have a softer side too with a nice ballad in “Alone” (very well crafted) and room for an atmospheric midtempo on the excellent “Column Of Fire”. Title track offer another side of BLADE; an upbeat, funky dynamic rocker.
The rocked up version of Michael Sembello’s “Maniac” round out the album. It’s really well done but judging the quality of BLADE’s own material, I would loved another original.
Finland – Scandinavia in fact – never stops to generate good rocking bands. Add BLADE to the list. These guys have all the necessary elements to make it big.
While they are not reinventing the genre with “Joker And Clowns”, you will be surprised by the quality of this debut album. Apart from the varied songwriting and tight playing, one of the biggest highlights of the CD is actually the production. Very crisp and clean but modern as well, it sounds like a major label production.
Highly Recommended
01 – Never Stop Rocking
02 – Burning Eyes
03 – Column of Fire
04 – My Demons
05 – Alone
06 – Hey Dude
07 – Hot and Wired
08 – Joker and Clown
09 – Tell Me
10 – Maniac (Michael Sembello cover)
Pepe Tamminen (vocals)
Pekka Viljanen (guitar)
Jaakko Paljakka (guitar)
Janne Viljakainen (bass, keyboards)
Henrik Hyöppönen (drums)
BUY
recordshopx.com/artist/blade_fin/joker_and_clowns/
