| CD REVIEW Harem Scarem |
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Band : Harem Scarem It's been just over three years since I first heard material by this rather nice Canadian Melodic Hard Rock outfit through their Overload album (review posted 23/05/2005) and, not surprisingly, a number of things have happened since. Following the release of said album UK fans presured the organizers at the Nottingham (UK) festival Firefest 2 held in November '05, into inviting Harem Scarem to perform alongside Balance Of Power, Blue Tears, Danger Danger, House Of Lords, Power Quest, and Saracen. Later the same year guitarist Pete Lesperance would session on Ted Poley's Collateral Damage solo album. In August 2006, recordings were done for the upcoming album Human Nature, first released in Japan by Avalon Marquee (with a bonus track in the form of an acoustic version of the song "Higher", off the 2003 album by the same title) in late November 2006. In "the West" (Canada and Europe), it was distributed by independent label Vespa Music Group in January 2007, and regrettably it did not get around to our offices for promotion. In July of last year Harry Hess announced that the tour for Human Nature would be the band's last, and that they would be releasing just one more studio album. After 20 years, the band members decided to move on to pother things. The band's final show was on October 27 at Firefest IV. On April first of this year, Harem Scarem added the DVD Raw & Rare (the collectors edition boosting an additional audio disc featuring the band's last show ever at Firefest IV)to its videography. So, here it is: the band's final epitaph album in the form of 10 new songs (the European version of the album enhanced by that acoustic version of the song "Higher") which follow quite neatly in the footsteps of their former albums. In other words: if you've liked any of the material the band put out in the new millenium, you've got a good reason to go get this album too! Popular in Japan to the point of being deified, Harem Scarem was never as widely accepted as warranted by its material, and perhaps it's not surprising the guys wanna move onto other things. Of course, the initial aversity towards the band had to do with bad timing, the band making their first albums during the early '90 at a time when the music industry was putting out rather mediocre melodic Rock albums (which nevertheless found possibly corrupt music journalists rating them rather highly) and then throwing itself onto the thing called Grunge. The situation in the new millenium wasn't any the better, as the early '90s situation repeated itself in a way by an unprecedented amount of Melodic Hard Rock releases to the point of flooding the market. There's this saying in Flanders which looses something in translation, but which I'm determined to give you, which goes something like this: "Not being able to see the trees through the forest" (applied to this very situation it means that the wide choice within the Melodic Rock genre made the band a dot in a grey mass). Overkill, that's what some people would call it! Well, enough ranting...if you're looking to hear some audio off the album, you'll have to surf to haremscarem.net, where a link to the Frontiers website sub-sestion will provide you with 4 song samples. You'll find additional material (off the Human Nature album and more, and this time full-length) at myspace.com/haremscarem. Meanwhile, I've recently been able to buy an old album by this band on vinyl, and having given THIS album the amount of listening sessions it deserves, I've come to the conclusion to give the material a slightly higher rating than in 2005 (hum, I dó believe there was some overkill back then too)! 87/100 Tony. |