Hum...weird one, this! When you look up the Amazon page on the album, you'll find out it was originally released by Red General Catalog in Europe (in actuality, I am quite uncertain which distribution area the album had over here), and by Nightmare Records in the USA, but when you search the labels' website for more info, you will nót find the album. Fact is, it was released in November 2011...so why do we still get the download sent for review?
Who cares...we didn't get the album the first time 'round, so we're actually lucky enough to get it through our hands, because Patrick Hemer is not exactly an unknown entity to us. Indeed, already a respected studio musician, hired touring gun and guitar instructor, the French singer/ guitarist rose to fame when at the dawn of the millennium he joined French Progressive Metal act Horizon, with whom he recorded the full-length albums The Sky's The Limit (2002) and Worlds Apart (2004, both released through Massacre Records – actually review the latter, back in the days) as well as the self-produced/ self-released 1999 Breaking Away, and the 2004 EP When The Night Falls. In between, they contributed a song to Massacre Records compilation album Melody And Power (2003). In Japan, the band was warmly received, earning the status of “legendary band” from Japan's leading Hard Rock & Metal magazine Burrn!. Funny detail : as the band progressed, it lost both its bassist and keyboardist, and Patrick actually took both roles on the 2nd full-length (with a second keyboard player also contributing). But the Horizon adventure didn't last, and therefore Patrick returned to the world of recording studios. It saw him collaborate with numerous bands in different genres, and eventually also getting involved in production. At the same time, he also devoted himself more and more to teaching, becoming an in-demand clinician maintaining strong contacts with the guitar community.
Eventually, his love for Progressive Metal made him team up with drummer Tom Wagner and keyboardist David Casanova to front a new solo project, meant to display his best (obviously, with the years past, there should have be sóme material to chose from!) but also his heaviest playing and songwriting to date. As memory (aided by some listening to what's available on the Internet) serves, this “new” (after all, it's already 1 ½ years old at the time of writing) music is actually very much like what Horizon did. For sound clips of all songs on this album, as well as the acoustic version of the song “For All Eternity” (culled from the album, the song along with its acoustic version and alternate versions of album tracks “Thorn in My Flesh” and “Panem Et Circenses” make up the May 2012 EP For All Eternity, issued through MBR Music), and one song off each Horizon album...can be found in the “Media” section of Patrick's own (www.) patrickhemer.com. Full versions of a couple of Horizon songs can be found at (www.) myspace.com/patrickhemer. The info lacking, I've no idea what's actually left of this project, or whether indeed it became a band playing gigs, but meanwhile the music is quite delectable!