SHEELA – Burned Down ’95 [Lions Pride Music remixed / remastered] (2024) *HQ*

Last year, melodic hard rockers SHEELA signed a deal with Lions Pride Music, the genre’s specialized record label based in Denmark. This collaboration brought forth a reissue of their debut 1995’s album “Burned Down,” remixed, remastered, and adorned with a new artwork.
Many years out of print, this worldwide release on CD brings back the timeless sound of SHEELA’s debut record to a global audience while the band works for an upcoming new album. And we say ‘timeless’ because despite originally released in 1995, the band didn’t care about the rock trends at the time and recorded this classic bluesy hard rock album with a melodic edge and big choruses, musically in the vein of Hardline, Warrant, Damn Yankees, Talisman, etc.
Despite hailing from Germany, SHEELA style is pure American melodic hard rock with a 1990-1992 sound, a powerful singer pretty Coverdale-ish and a stupendous lead guitarist similar to the great Kee Marcello. Production is very good, clean, sharp, and this remix / remaster makes “Burned Down” sounding fresh – and pretty awesome if you ask me.

The album blasts through the speakers with ‘Long Time’. The change ups between the slower, quieter parts and the explosive riff in the chorus is everything we love about the late 80s hard rock scene. They have several songs that follow this motif, but varied adding acoustics into the mix, other cool keyboard arrangements. A true representation of their potential and representative of the album overall.

Some of our favorites include ‘Reno’, a midtempo melodic rocker with its fantastic backing vocals, chorus and bridge right before it’s smokin’ solo. ‘Kickin’ Up the Dust’ has a Trixter-flair to it, opening with just an acoustic guitar before the band kicks in, first with drum cymbals and guitar strikes, then the full entry for the bridge and chorus.

A special mention to a track that at first didn’t impress you much, but has an ending so spectacular that I immediately had to hit repeat. Ballad ‘Spread Your Wings’ is a very quiet track, with just an electric guitar being plucked softly and a mellow bass line. At around the three-and-a-half-minute mark, the whole band comes in and guitarist Christian Moser kicks off an awesome solo, that leads to some great backing vocals from the band and singer Wolfgang reaching for the stratosphere with his vocals, just completely cutting loose. Honestly, there would be no way he would be able to recreate his highs in a live setting without risking him losing his voice, but as a one shot recording, it’s quite powerful.

Then there is closing track ‘You Got Something’, where the band cuts loose with the fastest tempo found on the album. Very reminiscent of Heavens Edge. A great way to end the album.
Fans of late ’80s / early 1990’s American melodic hard rock sound are in for a treat with SHEELA’s “Burned Down”, a new name for some but we guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised.
HIGHLY Recommended

01 – Long Time
02 – Burned Down
03 – Claire
04 – Ready
05 – Holdin’ On
06 – Reno
07 – Fire Woman
08 – Spread Your Wings
09 – Kickin’ Up the Dust
10 – Hang Tough
11 – You Got Something

Wolfgang Weber – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Chris Moser – Guitar
Tony Spagone – Bass, Vocals
Markus Teske – Keyboards, Vocals
Jo Jo Nimitz – Drums
Martin Hofmann, Patricia Loesch – Backing Vocals

BUY
headrecords.co.uk/general/burned-down-sheela/p-lpm083