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Audrey Horne: Pure Heavy

Melodic Hard Rock

5.0/5.0

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Napalm Records
Words: Craig Hartranft  Added: 18.09.2014

Listening to modern music may make you wonder if there ever was a time when hard rock wasn't down-tuned and harsh. Those times are called the Seventies and Eighties, maybe some of the Nineties, when melody, harmony, groove, clean vocals, and big guitars ruled the day. Enter Audrey Horne, with their fifth album Pure Heavy and party like you're back in the day.

Audrey Horne: go crazy.

Audrey Horne's take on classic melodic hard rock is basic, clean, and refreshing like opening the window on a cool crisp Spring morning to get the stale Winter air out of your house. Well, that stale air is gamut of modern hard rock. The band puts a premium on strong melodies, deliberate harmonies from guitars to vocals, and simply catchy arrangements, whether from catchy lyrics or sweeping twin guitar solos. And there's nothing harsh or hardcore in their sound.

Even the 'Heavy' in the album title could be a bit of a misnomer. Sure, songs like Wolf In My Heart, Volcano Girl, or the speedy Into The Wild have sharp riffs and deep drums, but they're tempered by the inherent, equally strong, melody in the arrangement and harmony in the vocals. Also representative of the classic rock genre is how the Audrey Horne twin guitars so often define the melody, nearly defining the structure, of a song. You get this from the opening chords to the spiraling leads at the end. High and Dry does it by starting with spry lead lines which continue until they enlarge in the end once more. But fundamentally, the guitar leads are abundant and pretty damn fantastic. So, is Pure Heavy a guitar-centered album? Maybe. At the core, everything about every song is centered upon the winning trifecta of classic rock: melody, harmony, and groove. And that makes this album impressive, enjoyable, and formidable. I can't think of another band doing classic hard rock this well. Strongly recommended.

Audrey Horne "Into The Wild" Teaser

At the core, everything about every song within Pure Heavy is centered upon the winning trifecta of classic rock: melody, harmony, and groove. And that makes this album impressive, enjoyable, and formidable. Strongly recommended.

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Formed in 1999 by singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Erik Martensson, Sweden's Eclipse is well into their third decade of making music. In the recent past, their recordings and reputation have ... [ Read More ]